[Numbers 5] The Law of Jealousies. In this chapter, God instructs Moses regarding something called the “Law of Jealousies.” In this law, the Father is revealing something of Himself as a husband over a wanton bride, yet ever seeking to bring her (us) back into a fruitful and loving relationship. God is love, and our fidelity toward Him at any point in our life is measured by our love one for another. In this obscure and little-known passage of scripture, we see where the command to love God and love one another come together in a promise of blessing for those willing to drink of the cup set before us in God’s presence.
[Num 5:1-31 KJV] 1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead: 3 Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell. 4 And the children of Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: as the LORD spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel. 5 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 6 Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the LORD, and that person be guilty; 7 Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth [part] thereof, and give [it] unto [him] against whom he hath trespassed. 8 But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the LORD, [even] to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him. 9 And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his. 10 And every man’s hallowed things shall be his: whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his. 11 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 12 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, 13 And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and [there be] no witness against her, neither she be taken [with the manner]; 14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled: 15 Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth [part] of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it [is] an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. 16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD: 17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put [it] into the water: 18 And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which [is] the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: 19 And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness [with another] instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse: 20 But if thou hast gone aside [to another] instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband: 21 Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; 22 And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make [thy] belly to swell, and [thy] thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen. 23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot [them] out with the bitter water: 24 And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, [and become] bitter. 25 Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the LORD, and offer it upon the altar: 26 And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, [even] the memorial thereof, and burn [it] upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water. 27 And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, [that], if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, [and become] bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. 28 And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. 29 This [is] the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside [to another] instead of her husband, and is defiled; 30 Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. 31 Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.
This chapter presents the law of trespass and the law of jealousy. On the surface, it seems to deal with merely mundane issues of theft and infidelity among God’s people. However, in preparing to speak to Moses, God first does something that, up to this point, He has never done in requiring every person with ceremonial uncleanness to be placed outside the camp before continuing. The people comply, and God begins to speak. Now picture this – there is a host of ceremonially unclean people as well as lepers placed further away from the encampment than ever before, and THEY KNOW it is because God is about to speak. If you are in a room and someone asks you to leave so they can have a discussion, what is the assumption you make? You think it is about you. And we are going to find as we probe this passage that, in fact, it is, but not the way they might have thought. These verses are not about the unclean and the outcast but about those that are clean and “acceptable” or seemingly so.
When someone trespasses against you, what is our response? When someone has contaminated our peace, what do we do? Is it not the human reaction to distance ourselves from that person? In the course of dealing with transgression and conflict, there is a point in the process that a little distance is helpful. Even the New Testament backs this up:
[Eph 5:11 KJV] 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove [them].
[1Co 5:9-11 KJV] 9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
Notice that the children of Israel are putting out of their midst – their KINFOLK and their COMRADES who are in an unclean state. The above passage in 1 Cor. 1 specifically excluded unbelievers from being ostracized else “then must need you to go out of the world.” In other words, if we construe the scripture to require us to segregate ourselves from the unregenerate, then we would have to leave the planet! Rather if there are those called a brother doing such things, we are to segregate them.
These laws of trespass are not to the unclean but to the clean. The children of Israel could not listen in the camp and point at the company of the unclean in the distance and say, “He’s talking about you ….” No, these instructions are to those who are (seemingly, or consider themselves) CLEAN.
If you had a church meeting and decided to separate the unclean from the clean, how do you see that working out? The new attendees who didn’t look or smell or dress just right would be asked to leave. What about the insiders? What about family members of leadership? Years ago, my son was arrested on drug charges. I get a phone call from my pastor informing me that no one in the church would lift a hand to help and that I was not to ask even for a bag of groceries because I needed to allow the full weight of the law to come down on my boy’s head. Three days later, I find out that the same weekend the pastor’s daughter was arrested on drug charges in Denver, Colorado, and he flew up to Denver, bailed her out, and skipped town, never to go back and face the charges. He looked upon my family as contaminating the purity of the church’s testimony, but he exempted himself and his own family.
Realize that whatever God is saying to the people about trespass in Numbers 5, he is saying to the ceremonially clean, not the unclean. What is the law of trespass emphasizing here in the first passage? Notice it is about what to do when they trespass and confess. It isn’t just saying that an offender had to confess because it is speaking to those who didn’t see themselves as trespassers. He is speaking to those who WITNESS trespass as to HOW THEY WERE TO RESPOND to offenders. They were to allow a path of restoration just as Jesus later discusses in the story of the prodigal son where the Father waits, anticipating a restoration that eventually took place.
Starting in v. 11, it gets even more personal dealing with an issue of infidelity in marriage.
This is an odd passage of scripture to the modern mind. It seems arcane and primitive. To air your dirty laundry in front of the priest and drink filthy water with terrible oaths resulting in disease and death – this is repugnant to our refined sensibilities. If any religious group conducted this rite today, any self-respecting pastor would brand them as an abusive cult and call the authorities. I want you to look, however, at this passage from a deeper light.
There are ten verses in the gospels where Jesus refers to Himself as a bridegroom (Matt. 9:15, for instance). In Ephesians 5:23-33, Jesus is seen as bridegroom and husband to the church. We see Jesus is the husband, but the CHURCH as a whole (the corporate church) is the BRIDE.
[Eph 5:32 KJV] 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Now this passage in Numbers 5 gives the law of jealousy between a husband and his wife. Do the scriptures not tell us that God is a jealous God? Does He not hold Himself accountable to His own law? Is He going to impose this law upon the Hebrews and not at some level use this to speak something of Himself to us? Whatever we see in this passage, to understand it properly, we must see it as saying something to us of our relationship to Christ.
[Col 2:17 KJV] 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [is] of Christ.
[Heb 8:5 KJV] 5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, [that] thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
[Heb 10:1 KJV] 1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, [and] not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
So, a husband is jealous of his wife and questions her fidelity. Does God ever have reason to question the fidelity of His church? What constitutes infidelity? Remember that 1 John. 4:8 tells us that “God is love.” Whatever is a transgression against God has to do with love for Him and forsaking all others. Remember the setting here – all the unclean people outside the camp, all the clean people inside the camp being instructed as to the path of restoration regarding trespass and, in this case, infidelity. What are we going to do with trespassers and outcasts in our midst?
A condition of broken fellowship exists between the husband and wife. Many couples live their whole lives in this state. They have a cold war mentality of brokenness and estrangement even though they live under the same roof. In this passage, we see that as far as God is concerned, this is not a situation to be lived with. When the problem exists, it is brought before God, and a ceremonial rite is carried out whereby the situation is ended one way or the other, either by the unfaithful wife dying of disease or the faithful wife becoming pregnant.
The wife or bride is to drink holy water. What does this represent? Eph. 5:26 tells us that the water is the word of God. The reference is in the midst of a comparison of Jesus being a husband and the church being a bride. Any Jew familiar with the law on reading Eph. 5 would reference this chapter in the book of Numbers. What does a jealous God do when He is longing for our faithfulness? He gives us His word. What are the implications of this?
The bride is given the word and what she does with it determines her faithfulness. In Luke 18:8, Jesus said when the son of man would come, “would he find faith in the earth”? So, we as the bride of Christ and members of the bride-company (the church), all we have to do is receive the word, and we are ok, right? No – something had to be added to the word. The dust from the floor of the tabernacle had to be added to the holy water. Dust? Yes, that stuff we’ve been putting under our feet in the tabernacle of God. What is the tabernacle? We are (corporately and individually; 1 Co. 6:19).
What is the dust, then? Ge. 2:7; 3:14; 19 tells us that man in his flesh is dust. His flesh is the serpent’s food. This tells us why the devil has pursued man for 6000 years – it is his appetite to do so. Your sin is food on his table, and he is famished without it. The flesh represents the vulnerable, natural side of things. What does this have to do with the jealousy of the bridegroom and the fidelity of the bride?
We as Christians are always willing to drink of the “holy water,” i.e., the word of God. But your fidelity is not determined unless you are willing to also take of the water MIXED with the dust of the tabernacle – the human, vulnerable, defective side of things in the people and particularly in the church.
We receive a word from the pastor, and it is anointed and life-changing. We rejoice and say, “Yes! I love this church! It feeds me the pure and holy water of God’s word, and I am refreshed!” What happens when you get a report or are faced in some way with the human, flawed, and defective side of things in the pastor or the church? We say, “that’s it! I’m outta here! I don’t have to take this!” Thus your infidelity is exposed.
You see, we are willing to fellowship the assets of the people of God but not the liabilities of the people of God or our leaders. People are imperfect. They are sinful. They fail. They demonstrate a lack of integrity and good character. But your fidelity to your bridegroom is established by being willing to, as Jesus said, “drink ye all of it.” Notice the law of jealousy didn’t prove the woman’s faithfulness to the temple but her faithfulness to her husband.
What is the outcome? When you take the holy water (the word of God) combined with the dust of the temple (faults, shortcomings, failings of those around you), then there will be an outcome. Either the thigh would rot, or pregnancy would take place. The thigh speaks of COVENANT. What happens when a scandal hits the church? There is a mass exodus; thus, covenant is broken. If the early church had this attitude, there would be no Christianity. Every one of her leaders were felons and did jail time. If your reaction to imperfection in others is to break relationship, then you are one whose spiritual thigh (capacity for covenant) is diseased, and the problem is not just a people problem; it is an expression of infidelity to Jesus, your husband.
If, one the other hand, your heart is pure before God and you drink of the holy water and endure the sediments of human frailty in your brothers and sisters – A BIRTH takes place. Conception happens! New life comes! Revival and restoration breaks out in the group. So, give this some thought today. When you are faced with the imperfection of your brothers and sisters in Christ, do you run? Do you break fellowship and go the other way? Your response to others, even in the midst of failure, is a reflection not of your religious integrity but of a state of infidelity between you and God.
