Numbers 5:1-31
Thus far we have had the arrangement of the camp, in preparation for the wilderness march. Now God acts to see that the camp is cleansed from evil in order that He, in whom alone was all their strength, might be with them.
They were to put out of the camp “every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead.” Typically the first two speak of the outbreak of the flesh, unjudged sin. It must be put outside, for “holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, Forever.” Psa. 93:5.
Defilement with the dead tells of contact with the world. The world has on it the stamp of death, and so in the Word of God to be connected with the world in any way is to be associated with uncleanness. The world is all around us and we have to pass through it; here we go to school and in it we have our daily occupations, but we are called to walk in separation from it It is attractive still to our old nature, but it is the enemy’s country where “the prince of the power of the air,” works “in the children of disobedience.” We “strangers and pilgrims,” are called to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” “Our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Phil. 3:20.
Next, in the case of a man who had committed a trespass, God was not satisfied merely to have the wrong made up, but the man must add “the fifth part.” He must make restitution above and beyond the wrong inflicted. It is not sufficient to merely go to the one wronged and say, I am sorry. God views every trespass as against Himself. If one has wronged another, he must confess it to God and make full restitution, proving that he has thoroughly judged the matter. Thus God Himself is glorified in it.
The Trial of Jealousy
We now come to the ordinance of “the trial of jealousy,” when a husband suspected his wife had been unfaithful to him. It was not left to natural feelings or human judgment, but the suspected wife was to be set by the high priest in the presence of God as the Searcher of hearts, and she was tried by the bitter water.
Her husband brought for her a meal offering of barley flour — not the fine wheat flour usually used in the meal offering, nor was there any oil or frankincense put on it, for the sad circumstances did not admit of these. Afterward the priest took the meal offering from her hand and waved it before the Lord, and a memorial of it was offered on the altar. By this both husband and wife signified that they had committed the matter to God. The priest then took a vessel containing holy water mixed with dust from the tabernacle floor. The water speaks of the searching power of the Word of God mingled with the dust of death.
The priest read to her the curses that would come upon her if she were guilty. If she was pleased to stand the trial after all the warning, she said, “Amen, amen"; then the priest wrote the curses in a book, blotted them with the bitter water and gave the rest to her to drink. The trial Was then made.
If she had been unfaithful, decay would set in and she would be made a curse among her people. However, if her husband’s suspicions proved groundless, and she had not been unfaithful, none of these things would happen to her. She would be declared innocent and set free, happiness would be restored in the family, and she would enjoy the Lord’s blessing in having children.
Here we have a type of Israel first, unfaithful to Jehovah, her true Husband. But she will be acquitted and set free in the coming day, the result of His faithful and unchanging love who bore all her sin and curse upon the cross, so that He can say, “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
ML-04/15/1973