by Tad Lindley
At some point in his life, Moses had to have realized that his biological dad, Amram, was actually also his iluq (cousin)! Not only that, it turns out that his biological mother, Jochebed, was not just his mom, she was also his maurluuq (grandmother)! How is that possible? Moses’ dad, Amram, married his own dad’s sister, Amram’s Aunt Jochebed. I know that some of you wiped your mouth on your sleeve just now when you read that, but it is a documented fact. And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses… (Exodus 6:20)
What makes it gross to us?
We live in a time where many of our state laws are heavily influenced by the Bible. In much of the United States, Moses’ parents would have been charged with incest, and the children taken from them. But you have to remember that there was no Bible in those days. Moses is the one that God used to deliver the first five books of the Old Testament to humanity, and so in the ancient world, apparently incest was completely legal. And while it is gross to us, it was completely normal to them.
Moses’s dilemma
Now imagine Moses’ surprise when as an 80 year old man, he finds out from God that his parents’ lifestyle was actually going to be forbidden. No one had ever questioned it, but now the very word of God is declaring it wrong. In Leviticus 18:12 the Lord spelled it out very clearly: Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative. Moses had two choices at this point, since he was the one that God chose to record these commands: 1) become obedient to what the Lord told him, and teach the same to the people, or 2) leave out the part about not having sex with your aunt, because after all that is how his parents lived, isn’t it?
Normal to us may not be normal to God
You might be wondering how this even applies to us, since almost every person reading this has absolutely no struggle obeying Leviticus 18:12 as long as they are not intoxicated. This is what you have to understand: what is normal to us, may in fact be contrary to what Jesus wants. Just because it is normal, does not make it right.
But they were descended from Abraham, right?
The thing about Amram and Jochebed, is that they were descended from Abraham. More than any other person on the planet in his day, Abraham communed with the Lord. He was called by God in Genesis to go to what is now the land of Israel and to establish a mighty nation there. It may surprise you to learn that Abraham was married to his half sister, also something that would become sin in Leviticus 18.
If it was good enough for them…
This is where we can get into trouble ourselves. It can be very easy to tell ourselves that we are committed to the way our forefathers did things. “If it was good enough for them, then it’s good enough for me,” we tell ourselves. Sometimes we have to come to a decision point. Perhaps our parents were idol worshippers, and when we pick up our Bible, we see the second commandment, You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God… (Exodus 20:4-5) Perhaps we come from a long line of heavy drinkers, it is possible even our preacher is a drunkard. And yet in our hunger for God, we are reading in I Corinthians 6:9-11 and find out that actually Jesus will not be accepting practicing alcoholics and drug addicts into the kingdom. What do we do?
As Moses grew near to God, he found out that some things that he had always thought were normal had to change. What will you do when you experience the same?
Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
