Luke 2:1-7 [emphasis on verse :7], gives a perfect illustration as to why women were exempted from the requirement for all Hebrew males to attend the three mandatory Feasts of the LORD in Jerusalem each year--regardless of how far away they lived.
In Luke chapter two, we read that Caesar Augustus commanded every person [regardless of sex or age] in all the world [meaning those under his jurisdiction, i.e., the Roman Empire] to be taxed. Because of this command, at nine-months pregnant, the mother of Jesus was required to make an arduous journey to the town of her birth and deliver her baby, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, in an unsanitary stable, surrounded by livestock.
In the TORAH, we read that only Hebrew males are commanded to attend three of the seven annual Feasts of the Lord. The male-only requisite had nothing to do with male superiority but rather with protection of mothers, newborns, infants, toddlers, and children.
At feast-time in Israel, at any given time, how many expectant or newly-delivered mothers would have been in the midst of or on the verge of delivery or going through required purification periods after giving birth? How many mothers would have been caring for newborns, sick infants or children?
Can anyone imagine the mother and infant mortality rate if these women had been required to make a seven-day [not counting travel-time] thrice-yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem?
Yahweh is more merciful to his people than any earthly government. And fallen human nature tends to turn the kindness and mercies of God into excuses to build sinful and harmful hierarchies.
In the beginning Elohim created male and female and commanded his entire human creation to dominate the earth (manage the earth's resources) together. There was never a command to dominate one another. The unscriptural paradigm of male domination of God's female creation is entirely a result of sin. If the topic of God and Women interests you, join the conversation HERE.
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