I LOVED THAT!

As a mother of both a son and a daughter, this is a conversation we’ve had often. We faithfully attend our Veteran’s Day parade each year, and each year I have to sit down with my kids and talk with them about how women in combat is totally contrary to Scripture…how we don’t see it in the Word, therefore we shouldn’t see it in the world.

I am going to pring Piper’s message off and keep it forever.

And, on top of it all, he answered a question I’ve never been able to understand…why God went to Adam about Eve’s sin. Makes total sense, though.

Thanks for a great post, Denny!

Have a great day,
Jes

I did not say that Serah went to war. I said a woman was listed among the men who were able to go out to war. That is a statement of fact. What it means, I have no idea. But there is a lot of theology built on the accumulation of little facts in the Bible, so let’s add this one to the pile. Other than that I don’t think there is much to say about Serah.

Can you please show me where. I have explained why I believe that Serah was dead hundreds of years before this census was taken. Can you explain why you think Serah was alive and that Serah (probably uniquely of the people mentioned in this chapter) went to war.

Maybe you think this is an error in the text.

How have I denied the Bible in any way?

All I have said is that Numbers 26 is clearly talking about the same person as Genesis 46.

To present Serah as evidence that women fought in the army, you must either believe that the Bible is saying a 400 year old woman was in the army, or that there were two people called Asher who had children called Imnah, Ishvi, Beriah, and Serah. The rest of Numbers 26 lists the clans coming from the sons of the brothers of Asher (i.e. he sons of Jacob) – Reuben, Simeon, etc.
What evidence is there that there are two Ashers mentioned in Numbers 26?

I don’t think either option is at all plausible. Hence, Serah (the daughter of Asher) was not in the army at the time of Moses.

“The descendants of Asher by their clans were: through Imnah, the Imnite clan; through Ishvi, the Ishvite clan; through Beriah, the Beriite clan; and through the descendants of Beriah: through Heber, the Heberite clan; through Malkiel, the Malkielite clan. (Asher had a daughter named Serah.)” — Numbers 26:44-46 (NIV)

Serah in Numbers is clearly dead by the time of Moses, as are her brothers Imnah, Ishvi, and Beriah. Her inclusion in the list in Numbers 26 is not evidence that women went to fight.

This is the quote.

“Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers’ houses, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel.” Numbers 26:2

“And the name of the daughter of Asher was Serah.” Numbers 26:46

Are you suggesting that Serah the daughter of Asher was a man? I really don’t get it. I don’t want to make a big deal out of this but she existed and she was able to go out to war.

Piper is such a stickler on other verses in the Bible. After all, if women can be told they are sinning in the pulpit based on one verse which no one understands anyway, as in 1 Tim. 2:12, then why can’t women go to war based on one verse?

It savors strongly of defense of a system to push the Bible to say that women were in mind in these verses. Isn’t it far more natural to think of these verses as speaking only of men?

Anyway, maybe God didn’t feel that His Word needed to be so explicit in word usage because the meaning is so obvious.

Although it’s not a direct comparison at all, this reminds me of a conversation I had with one (Roman Catholic) brother of mine who argued that the Scriptures can hardly be called inerrant when terms like “sunrise” are used, when in this modern day we understand that it is actually the earth that is spinning. Let’s not make the error of approaching the Bible so flippantly that we end up either reducing it to a fallible document or forcing it to unnaturally support a system we hold to due to our own predispositions.