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Opening Prayer
Thank the Father for the day and his Word, asking for understanding, heart-level application, and holiness that reflects him.
Read
Scripture Passage
Concerning Unfaithful Wives
11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him, 13 and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and it is concealed that she has defiled herself, and there was no witness against her, nor was she caught—14 if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, although she has not defiled herself—15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for remembering, for bringing iniquity to remembrance.
16 ‘And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord. 17 The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. 18 Then the priest shall stand the woman before the Lord, uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse. 19 And the priest shall put her under oath, and say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to uncleanness while under your husband’s authority, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse. 20 But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you”—21 then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman—“the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh rot and your belly swell; 22 and may this water that causes the curse go into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot.”
‘Then the woman shall say, “Amen, so be it.”
23 ‘Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water. 24 And he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her to become bitter. 25 Then the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, shall wave the offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar; 26 and the priest shall take a handful of the offering, as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water. 27 When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, that the water that brings a curse will enter her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman will become a curse among her people. 28 But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children.
29 ‘This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself, 30 or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he becomes jealous of his wife; then he shall stand the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute all this law upon her. 31 Then the man shall be free from iniquity, but that woman shall bear her guilt.’ ”
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Nu 5:11–31.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
When a husband suspected adultery without witnesses, Israel's priestly procedure placed the accusation before Yahweh through an oath, written curse, holy water, dust, and a jealousy offering. The water was not a natural drug; God himself would vindicate the innocent or expose guilt, protecting marital fidelity from secret sin and mere suspicion.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Numbers 5:29-30
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
This is the law of jealousy. Then a wife, while under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself, or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man and he becomes jealous of his wife, then he shall stand with the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute all this law upon her.
The transcript contains no explicit best-verse selection. Verses 29 and 30 summarize the two situations the law addresses and the central action: the husband and wife bring the unresolved accusation before Yahweh through the priestly procedure he commanded.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do
Honor God's command against adultery by building marriages marked by trust, fidelity, loyalty, holiness, and love. Husbands and wives should be trustworthy toward one another, seeking the safe homes, covenant children, and healthy society God's moral law protects.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every weekday morning we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word, and we, you take it from here. God, we're in love for the Lord together, and this year, 2024, we'll make it through the numbers, through the book of Numbers, through Hebrews, Deuteronomy and Hebrews. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and get into God's Word.
Okay. Oh, you drank all that milk, huh? Okay, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your Word. And we pray, Lord, that you would please help us to understand your Word this morning. Please apply it to our hearts. Teach us, Lord, to be holy as You are holy. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Okay, I'm going to move your tea for you. And we are still in the book of Numbers chapter 5. Nathan, you do need a Bible. I'm just going to give you Daniel's for a moment. It's okay. Alright, Numbers chapter 5. We're at a really interesting point here in Numbers chapter 5. We come to a law that has a lot of controversy, but I think once we work through it, it will be very easy for us to understand. So, Numbers chapter 5, beginning at verse 11. Nathan, can you read, how about you read 11 through 15, I'll read 16 through 28, and you can read 29 through 31.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, If any man's wife goes astray, and behaves unfaithfully toward him, and a man lies with her, and behaves carnally, And it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and it is concealed that she has defiled herself, and there was no witness against her, nor was she caught. If the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he becomes jealous of his wife, who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he becomes jealous of his wife, although she has not defiled herself, Then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring the offering required for one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal, she shall pour no oil on it, and put no frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for bringing iniquity to her members."
Okay, so what's the problem going on here? What's the problem going on here? There's a husband and the wife. And what's the husband suspect? that the wife is being unfaithful toward him. Now I'm going to read, there's kind of seven different steps here of what happens after that that the Lord's going to show, and I don't think this happens today, but I think in Israel there are seven steps that they could follow to find out whether or not she had been faithful or not. Okay, you guys ready?
And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord. The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and put it in the water. Then the priest shall stand the woman before the Lord. uncover the woman's head, and put the offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse.
And the priest shall put her under oath, and say to the woman, If no man has lain with you, and if you have gone astray to uncleanness while under your husband's authority, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse. But if you have gone astray while under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some other man defiled yourself, and some other man, other than your husband, has lain with you, then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse. And he shall say to the woman, The Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your right thigh rot and your belly swell. And may this water that causes the curse go into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot. Then the woman shall say, Amen, so be it.
Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water. And he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter to become bitter. Then the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, shall wave the offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar. And the priest shall take a handful of the offering as a memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water. When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, that the water that brings a curse will enter her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman will become a curse among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free. and may conceive children.
You gonna read the last part? Yeah, 29 through 31. This is the law of jealousy. Then a wife, while under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself, or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man and he becomes jealous of his wife, then he shall stand with the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute all this law upon her. Then the man shall be free from iniquity, but that woman shall bear her guilt.
Yeah, right. So there's a few different steps here, right? So they're going to bring the grain offering. They're bringing the grain offering. They think that the husband thinks she's been unfaithful to him. Right? And so here's the different steps, right? The priest puts her before the Lord. Number one, he uncovers her head. Number two, he puts the grain offering of jealousy in her hands. Number three, he asks her for an oath.
Right? Whether these sayings are true or not. If no, then she's free of curse. If yes, then what's going to happen to her belly? It's going to swell. It's going to swell. And what's going to happen to her thigh? It's going to rot. Right? The woman responds, yes or no. And then this is an oath, right? So he writes it out on a piece of parchment. And they didn't have erasers back then, right? So they would take a razor blade of sorts, or like a knife, and they would scrape off the letter off the leather. And it would become like a pile of ink.
And they would put that in the water. And what's in the water? What else is in the water? Dust from the floor of the tabernacle. So it's holy water with dust and now the ink, the shavings from the words. Then what's going to happen is a woman's going to what with that water? She's going to drink it. No. Yeah, that's gross, huh? She's going to drink it.
And then he's going to offer that, then the actual sacrifice is going to happen with that wave offering. He's going to burn a handful on the altar and then everybody stops and they wait. What do they wait to see? If it starts happening. Yeah, if it starts happening. Now let me ask.
If she's been unfaithful and she's got a baby and her belly swells and her thigh rots, what's going to happen to the baby? Probably going to die. That's probably going to die. And what's going to happen to the woman if this happens and becomes true? She's probably going to die. Yeah, right. So adultery in Israel was a capital punishment, right? So she would be put to death, right?
But do you think drinking some dusty water with some ink in it would typically cause a miscarriage? Nope. Or an abortion? Nope. Do you think it would normally make somebody's belly swell and their thigh rot? Nope. No, no, no, no. No, it's not. This is not just like, you know, chemistry or biology or like Old Testament pharmacology, right? Like that's not what's happening here. Who's the one who would actually make the belly swell and the thigh rot? God. It's the Lord Himself, right? The Lord's the one prescribing this. It wouldn't be normal for this to happen. But the Lord's saying, I'm going to give you this weird thing.
And this weird thing, when a husband thinks his wife cheated on him, Here's the way that I can prove it to you. What if? Now what if the guy is wrong? What if he's been jealous but her thigh doesn't rot and her belly doesn't swell? Then she's free to go. They're free to go.
Do you think this is going to go well for the marriage? No. Do you think a husband is going to want that child to die? No. Yeah, because it's His baby if it's His baby, right? So do you think that they did this very often? Nope. We don't actually have any story in the Old Testament about them ever actually doing this. But this is one of these things that the Lord gives. Why? Let me ask. So we've talked a lot about this, but why do you think the Lord would give this type of commandment? What do you think the Lord is teaching us at the heart of this what He loves?
Justice. Okay, maybe justice. What's right? And what do you think is right in this? That she, that the woman and the wife have his trust. Yeah, right? So God wants trust in a marriage, right? Should husbands be able to trust their wives? Yeah. And should wives be able to trust their husbands? Yeah. Does he want fidelity? and loyalty and love. That's right.
Okay, let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you so much that you are the one who gave us a law, do not commit adultery, but you gave us that because you desire safe homes, you desire covenant children, you desire a healthy and well-functioning society. Lord, we pray that you would please let us follow after you in Jesus' name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. Deborah just walked in the room. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ, and we'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.