Sin and adultery and knowing the truth

Text Numbers 5:11-31 Time 01/03/12 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church

I would like us to look this evening at Numbers 5:11-31. Before we begin to think about why these verses are in Scripture and what they have to teach us, we need to get clear in our minds what sort of verses they are and what they actually say.

So let's consider first what sort of Scripture this is, what it says and then what it has to teach us.

1. What sort of Scripture is this and what is it about?

This is Old Testament Scripture, of course. We can divide the Old Testament into three parts – Law, Prophets and Writings. This passage is, of course, in the part we call the Law, the first five books. It is not only in that part of the Old Testament but it is law.

In these verses we have instructions given by the LORD to Moses on what to do in a certain situation. This is what is known then as case law. Some laws are what are called apodictic laws, laws such as Do not commit adultery, do not murder. That law simply says do not murder, never murder in any circumstance. Case laws deal with what should be done in a certain situation. The situation here is slightly complicated. It applies when

Either (12-14) a man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure

Or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure - .

If a woman committed adultery, if she went astray, if she was unfaithful, there were clear punishments under the law but here we are dealing with a case where there are no witnesses and a woman is only suspected of adultery by her husband. She may be guilty, she may be innocent. This passage is about what to do where a man is not sure about his wife. Whether it applied the other way round – a woman who suspected her husband is not clear.

2. What does this Scripture actually say?

These verses say three things.

1. What to do.

In verses 15-26 we are told what is to be done in such a situation. The jealous husband (15) is to take his wife to the priest. There are a number of things to be done at the Temple.

1 First the husband must (also) take an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing. The addition of olive oil and incense probably stood for the joy of a grain offering but in this case it is not appropriate.

2 Then (16-18) The priest has to do a series of things.

• He must bring the woman and have her stand before the LORD. Being before the LORD solemnises the ceremony.
• Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. Holy water would be water consecrated to this ritual or just to God in some way, such as being from the Temple wash basin. Perhaps it is the fact the dust is from the tabernacle floor that is the important thing about that ingredient.
• Next After having had the woman stand before the LORD, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse. Loosening the hair may be a sign of mourning. The bitter water that brings a curse is often debated. Is this water, water that tests or proves, that brings a curse, that instructs? One writer suggests water that blesses or brings a curse.
• Then there are the words of the priest (19-22) He is to put the woman under oath and say to her, (1) If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. But (2) if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband, here the priest is to put the woman under this curse - may the LORD cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries. The woman calls down a curse on herself if she is guilty. The two parts of the curse are first - may the LORD cause you to become a curse among your people. The second is more difficult. The NIV speaks of when God makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell but literally it is when “your thigh sags” and when your abdomen swells. It is suggested that what would happen was that she would suffer first in her thigh or the part with which she committed adultery and then in her womb where a baby would normally begin to grow. It could simply refer to how the potion once drunk would prevent further intercourse and child bearing.
• Then the woman is to say, Amen. So be it. Literally Amen, Amen.
• Further (23, 24) The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. This is a very obvious piece of symbolism. Ink would wash from parchment quite easily. Perhaps a specific piece was kept for this purpose.
• Finally He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. This also is full of obvious symbolism.
• After that (25, 26) The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the LORD (that is carry it back and for in God's presence) and bring it to the altar. The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. This is a further act of good faith suggesting innocence.

Such trials or ordeals were common in ancient times and in some cultures still survive. In Medieval England, for example, an accused man was required to take a stone from boiling water. If after three days his hand was healing he was innocent. In 19^th century Madagascar there was trial by eating poisonous nuts from the tangena tree.

2. The possible outcomes

There are two possible outcomes.

1 (27) If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse.

She will not be able to have children and will be under the curse.

2 (28) If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.

3. How it worked

In and of itself water with dust and ink in it could not produce the result described. It could only happen if God somehow intervened. Perhaps it was never used. If a woman had committed adultery and her husband proposed this she would surely be wiser to admit it and suffer the consequences of having committed adultery rather than go through with this. If she was innocent, then her very willingness to go through with it would surely be such a strong testimony to her husband that he would not need to hold her to it.

3. What does it have to teach us?

The summing up comes in verses 29-31 This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and makes herself impure while married to her husband, or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the LORD and is to apply this entire law to her. The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin. In other ancient cultures the man would be out to death if his accusation proved false but not here.

Clearly the ritual here is no longer to be followed nor can it be. Nevertheless we are to know and consider this law and learn from it. There are a number of points to be made.

1. All sins are known to God. Sometimes they are strangely brought to light in this life, sometimes not. However, one day they will all be judged when Jesus Christ returns to judge the secrets of men according to the gospel (Romans 2:16).

2. In particular adulterers and the sexually immoral will be judged. The violate the holy vows of marriage is a great sin and highly provoking to God. It deserves to be judged and soon will be. Paul says 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.

3. God will find one way or another to prove the innocence of the innocent, and to bring out the fact they really are innocent. Think of the way the discovery of DNA is now not only bringing about convictions of the guilty but also the freeing of the innocent.

4. Titus 1:15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. The same word can be, as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 2:16 To the one … an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. The same providence can be for good to some and for harm to others.