Today we continue on with our passage from Numbers 5 in which a suspicious husband is instructed what to do if he thinks his wife has been unfaithful but has no proof of her infidelity. Yesterday we talked about how that, though the ritual the wife undergoes seems unnecessary and unfair to us, the Lord instituted it for her protection in an ancient society in which men held most of the power. The Lord wants to prevent the woman from being repeatedly accused of doing something she didn't do (if indeed she didn't commit adultery) because to be bombarded with unfounded suspicion and accusations is a form of abuse. The Lord also wants to prevent her from being cast out of the home by a husband overcome by insecurity and obsessive thoughts. If the woman is innocent, the Lord is going to prove it, and she is to stop being harassed by her husband's jealous behavior. Some scholars believe if a woman suspects her husband of adultery she can bring him before the priest in the same way a jealous husband could bring a wife before the priest; I am not certain that is the case but as we said yesterday, God will judge an adulterous husband of sin even if that sin is well hidden. Even if there is no religious or legal procedure the wife can make her husband undergo, God knows whether her husband has been unfaithful and He will judge the husband's adultery. We used the example of King David's adultery, and the discipline he endured for it from the hand of God, to back up this belief.
In addition, the Lord wants to protect the husband. If the husband is incorrect about his wife's unfaithfulness, he must accept the verdict the Lord renders through the ritual outlined in Chapter 5. The man must trust that the Lord knows the truth and that the Lord is telling him that his wife is faithful. This means the man must seek help from the Lord from these intrusive jealous thoughts and stop accusing his wife of things she didn't do. On the other hand, if his wife has actually been unfaithful, he has a right to know. Many a person has just known in their heart that their spouse is being unfaithful long before they found any proof to back up their suspicions. The ritual of Chapter 5 will give the husband the proof he could not find on his own. At that point I assume he can divorce her for infidelity if he chooses to do so. Leviticus 20:10 states that adultery is a capital crime and that both parties are to be put to death, but Deuteronomy 19:15 states that no person can be convicted unless two or more people witnessed the crime. I don't think the husband can have his adulterous wife (and whoever her partner was) put to death if her guilt is proven in the ritual of Chapter 5. The ritual isn't going to reveal the identity of the man with whom the wife has committed adultery and the two of them weren't caught in the actual act of adultery by two or more witnesses, which is a requirement for carrying out the death penalty. I don't think the husband is allowed to do anything to do his wife other than perhaps divorce her, for the Lord is going to provide the discipline for her unfaithfulness, as we'll see in our text.
In yesterday's passage the husband brought his wife to the priest and explained that he feels his wife is being unfaithful. The woman stood before the priest and the priest put her under oath, much like we put witnesses under oath who give testimony in a courtroom. The priest is holding a clay cup of water that contains dust from the tabernacle floor; the woman is holding a grain offering that her husband was required to bring to the tabernacle. At this point the priest says to her, "'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 becomes a curse not harm you. But 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 carry and your abdomen swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.' Then the woman is to say, 'Amen. So be it.'" (Numbers 5:19-22)
In the book of Numbers we've seen how important genealogy is to the nation of Israel. We've seen a count taken of the men of each tribe (other than the tribe of Levi) who are of age and fit for military service. We've seen a count taken of the men of the tribe of Levi who are of age and fit for tabernacle service. A record of their names and family lines was written down. These censuses and family records are going to be of the utmost importance for the Israelites to prove their lineage and to stake and maintain their claims on the territories the Lord will give them in the promised land. A man with an unfaithful wife could not be sure whether the child she is carrying is his, so if the woman is already pregnant when she undergoes the ritual we're studying, and if the child is the result of adultery, she will lose it. The child of another man will not inherit what belongs to a rightful heir of her husband. It's extremely important, due to the rights of inheritance and the preservation of family lines, for a man of Israel to know for certain that his sons are really his own biological children.
If the woman is guilty of adultery but is not currently pregnant, it appears as if she will be stricken with some type of ailment of the female organs that renders her infertile. Infertile women in ancient Israel were looked down upon and pitied, as we learned when Abraham's wife Sarah was infertile for so many years of their marriage. To a woman of the era of the book of Numbers, being rendered unable to bear children was a harsh penalty, but in the case of adultery it was considered an appropriate penalty.
The priest writes down on a scroll the words he has just spoken, then he scrapes the words off the scroll into the cup of water in his hand. "The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water." (Numbers 5:23) This is the cup of water the woman will drink---the cup of water that will prove either her innocence or her guilt. The water itself is not harmful. Though bitter in taste, the dust from the tabernacle floor sprinkled into the water and the ink scraped off the scroll aren't poisonous materials. The power of this ritual is in the oath the woman took before God to tell the truth and whether she told the truth about her innocence. "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. The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord 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." (Numbers 5:24-26) What happens to the remainder of the grain offering? We were told the grain offering brought for jealousy is a tenth of an ephah of barley flour---about 3.5 pounds. The priest offers only a handful of this flour on the altar and I believe the remainder of the flour belongs to the priest as his payment for officiating over this dispute between husband and wife.
If the woman is guilty, her guilt will soon become apparent. If she is innocent, nothing will happen to her. "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. 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." (Numbers 5:27-28)
This is the ritual that was to take place in ancient Israel when a husband felt he had reason to believe he's been betrayed. "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." (Numbers 5:29-31) Some scholars think verse 31 means the husband is to be considered blameless for having brought his wife up on charges due to his jealousy, but I'm not sure that's what it means because verse 31 also says "the woman will bear the consequences of her sin". I think verse 31 is referring to cases in which the woman was actually guilty; her husband will be held blameless for the breakup of the marriage. If he chooses to divorce her, which he almost certainly will do due to her faithlessness and her inability to bear children now, his decision to divorce her is justified. No one is to find fault with him for divorcing her or for remarrying.
We find the same principle upheld in the New Testament in cases where marital infidelity has taken place. The Lord Jesus stood up for the innocent party in a marriage where adultery has been committed, saying that it is lawful for the betrayed spouse to divorce their unfaithful spouse. (Matthew 5:32, Matthew 19:9) Those verses seem to indicate that the innocent party is free to remarry, for Jesus says that if a marriage breaks up for reasons other than infidelity, the man and woman are committing adultery if they go out and get remarried to other people. He does not say anything is wrong with an innocent spouse divorcing their adulterous partner and remarrying. Jesus was standing up for the sanctity of marriage by saying in Matthew 5 and Matthew 19 that infidelity is the only lawful reason for divorcing one's spouse. It's important to note that Jesus does not say a husband or wife must divorce their unfaithful spouse; He's just saying that they can because adultery is acceptable grounds for divorce in the eyes of God. If the guilty spouse repents and wants to fix their marriage, and if the innocent party is willing to accept their partner's repentance and work together with them to rebuild their marriage, there is no prohibition against them staying together in faithfulness from here on out. The innocent party has a right to divorce their adulterous partner if they so choose, but husbands and wives are to try to work through any other type of problem, in a sincere and prayerful attitude, with the help of the God who created the institution of marriage.
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