2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES
Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
September 4, 2019
Numbers 5
Verses 1-4. As Israel prepared to march to the Promised Land, the leper (Leviticus 13), those with a skin disease/discharge (Leviticus 15), and any priest who would touch a dead body, except that of a close relative (Leviticus 21:1) were commanded to be put out of the camp of Israel until ceremonially clean. This is not a punishment, but a way to control the spread of disease and limit exposure of people with weakened immune systems. It was important that everybody understand how the safety of the nation could be threatened by the spread of disease. Even today, the use of quarantine areas is the best way to stop the spread of highly contagious and deadly diseases. Since this is before the advent of modern medicine, the outside of a person’s skin was often a way to spot the onset of an infectious disease from that region. The people were to take no chances so rigid measures were put in place by God for their protection.
Verses 5-10. A wrong doer must confess his sin, and make restitution. The confession was to God and the community, but the restitution was to the one harmed. We have already reviewed this law in Leviticus with the Guilt offering. This addition seems to make provision when the person that was harmed is not available. An essential role of the people of God is bringing reconciliation and justice to scenes of conflict and abuse. Remember when restitution was made the restitution had to be greater than the offense. An essential element is that the guilty party not only repays the loss he or she caused, but also adds 20 percent (Num. 5:7), presumably as a way of suffering loss in sympathy with the victim. If no person was not available to receive the restitution, which would be rare, the restitution took on the form of an offering. The person had to pay somehow. Although the people of Israel bound themselves to obey God's commandments, they routinely fell short, as we do today. Often this took the form of mistreating other people. The lesson we take from this is that when we wrong someone we admit it and repair it better than we broke it.
Verses 11-31. Remember that civilization isn’t very civilized at this point in humanity. In the context of the ancient world, including outside the bounds of Israel, a husband was understood to have full authority over his wife and, if accused of adultery, would have been well within his cultural rights to divorce her without cause and in some cases even put her to death. For instance, in the Code of Hammurabi, an accused wife was expected to “jump into the river for her husband” if he similarly accused her of unfaithfulness, even in the absence of evidence. Jealousy was and still is one of the leading causes for domestic violence. Here in this passage, violence and judgment is left up to God and not the husband. In God’s household, if a husband accused a wife without evidence, God commanded that the priest be called in to mediate. The accuser with all the cultural power could not decide the consequences for himself. He had to submit to another who stood in protection of his wife and determined her guilt or innocence by process before God, not by simple suspicion or accusation. The accused wife was to drink holy water sprinkled with tabernacle dust (harmless). And here is the great difference in medieval trials by ordeal and the Law of Moses. In medieval times, the test promised certain death (i.e. Salem witch trials) to the accused unless there was miraculous intervention. Instead, the miracle in THIS trial would be if the woman would get sick by-this harmless muddy water. This water was most likely from the same source used for ritual cleansing throughout the book of Leviticus. The drink might taste gritty, but it would not be poisonous. It would take a miracle to prove her guilt, not to prove her innocence. She was naturally protected by the process rather than threatened by it. By itself, drinking the bitter water, while unpleasant, could not produce the terrible effects associated with the guilty verdict. The rite involved no human judgment whatsoever, put everything into God’s hands, and would only operate through divine action. The husband brings his wife to the priest along with an offering, which seems to be related to the meal offering substituted for the sin offering in the case of the poor in Leviticus 5:12. Rather than directly identity this offering with the poor person’s sin offering, I would suggest that the logic is found in the fact that bread offerings are typically remembrance or memorial offerings, designed to bring something to God’s mind in a petition for divine action on that basis. However, since in this case of the ritual of jealousy (as in the substitute sin offering) it is possible sin that is being memorialized, the elements of frankincense and oil cannot be included. The priest takes holy water in an earthen vessel, presumably drawn from the laver of cleansing, and holy dust, from the ground of the tabernacle, which is then placed in the water (v.17). The woman’s head is uncovered in God’s presence, letting her hair loose (v.18). Perhaps, in such a manner, she is symbolically removed from the representation and protection of her husband (cf. 1 Corinthians 11). The memorial offering is placed in her hands (v.18). When it is later offered, it will bring her to God’s mind and judgment will be cast in her case. The woman is placed under an oath, calling down judgment upon herself if she has been unfaithful (vv.19-22). Her cooperation is expected, as her preparedness to undergo the rite is an act of pleading innocence before the divine court and petitioning God for public vindication. The priest writes up the curses in a book and then wipes or ‘blots them out’ into the bitter water (v.23). In drinking the bitter water, the woman will take these two witnesses into her insides and their effect will determine her case one way or another. The woman must drink the water and the priest offers the wave offering and burns its memorial portion (vv. 24-27). If she is guilty, the bitter water shall become bitter inside her and its curses shall make her a curse. If she is not, it will have no effect. If the woman is guilty, there will be a marked and visible effect, presumably accompanied by considerable pain or severe discomfort ~ her belly will swell and her thigh will rot (v.27). This is probably a prolapsed uterus. The guilty woman will ‘bear her iniquity’ through this rite, but her husband shall be ‘free from iniquity’ (v.31). If a man is proven wrong, it will make him think twice before making an accusation again and dragging his wife before the priest only to look like a fool.
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