“This is the law in cases of jealousy, when a wife, though under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself, or when the spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife. Then he shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall carry out for her all this law. The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”
Perhaps one of the most strange and difficult passages of the Bible to defend for modern day readers is the above law in cases of jealousy. If we read the entire section if flows like this:
1. If a woman was suspected by her husband of having an affair he could bring her before the priest to go through a rather unusual ritual which to our modern eyes looks quite mystical and magical. Note what would precipitate this ritual:
Numbers 5:14 (ESV)
and if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself,
A mere feeling of jealousy of the husband could trigger this ritual. This ritual was to be administered if there were NO witnesses or circumstantial evidence to point to.
2. The priest was to perform the ritual which included taking dust off the floor of the Tabernacle and mixing it with the holy water that was before the Alter. After the mixture was created it was administrated by the priest and given to the woman. This concoction was to reveal to the priest and, subsequently, her husband if she was unfaithful.
3. As she drank the mixture a blessing and a curse was said over her to which her response was to be amen and amen:
Numbers 5:22 (ESV)
May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen.’
4. If she did have an affair that was unknown to the husband and the priest, as stated, her womb would swell and her thigh would fall away (it would decay and rot). If, on the other hand, she did not have an affair and the husband was wrong, she would be guilt free and bear children.
5. No matter what happens in this scenario the husband who accused her was free and she would bear her iniquity, assuming she was guilty. That guilt would result in her being stoned (Deuteronomy 22).
This all seems so strange. It certainly shows an inequity between genders most theologians would rather not admit. It was obvious in this passage that the woman was seen as the man’s property. Although the coming of Christ and the establishment of the Church redeemed women and put them on the same level as men, this Old Testament passage is tough to swallow and hard to explain. A second aspect of this is that it called upon extreme faith in God using these magical potions to discover sinful behavior. It seems that God could have created a more evidence based approach. Never-the-less this is what we have. It does show three things about God and His character:
1. God does not allow sin to run rampant in any Testament. Whatever method to discover it, God will discover it.
2. God sees a spirit of jealousy as dangerous to any relationship and although the method to confirm it might be odd to us, it is for the purpose of making sure this jealousy does not destroy the relationship. God is concerned about these type of psychological aspects of our marriages.
3. The established worship system was used to resolve the matter. God uses the priest and not the civil government to work through this challenge in the husband-wife relationship. This might be a wise approach to consider with our marriages and churches today. Too few churches are adequately supplied with skilled marriage counseling training.
Although the passage has its challenges. It is not without good teaching for the modern reader.
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