And the priest shall adjure her, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone astray in uncleanness, in being with another instead of thy husband, be free from this bitter water that bringeth the curse.
A husband suspects his wife but has no proof. In Numbers 5:19 the priest's first words offer her a way out, not a curse — so why does God act on a mere suspicion, and what is this bitter water?
The chapter deals with what defiles the place where God lives among His people. This last case involves no proven wrong. There is only a shadow over the closest of human bonds.
But there is another case, where there was not a trespass but a suspicion of evil. It happens in the closest relationship — the husband about his wife. Now the Lord had His eye on this. He did not want anyone to grow hardened. What is more dreadful than to be carrying suspicions? … The wife was to be brought to the priest; everything was to be done in a holy way. It was not human feeling, but connection with God Himself, and a judgment of what was unsuitable for His presence.
The chapter moves in three steps, and this ordinance is the last one.
In the first section, the people as a whole judge evil. In the second, each person judges himself, confesses, and makes restitution. In the third, we learn that God cannot endure even the mere suspicion of evil.
The priest puts the woman under oath, but he never gives the verdict.
However, this was not a matter even for the priest to judge. When they followed the procedure Scripture laid down, the whole matter rested in the hand of God, who would bring the woman's guilt or her innocence to light.
The law called for oaths on other occasions too.
The law set out several occasions when a person had to swear an oath. In those cases God required His people to swear by His name (Deuteronomy 6:13; Exodus 22:11; Numbers 5:19-21). The oath did more than confirm the truth. It was also a solemn vow before the Lord, in the knowledge of His presence.
Her drink has two ingredients, both from the tabernacle — the tent where God lived among Israel.
The woman had to drink bitter water, made of "holy water" with dust from the floor of the tabernacle in it. This pictures the Holy Spirit applying what death is, as God's judgment of sin, by the word to the conscience. If she had been unfaithful it would be a curse to her. It pointed in a figure to Israel's unfaithfulness to the Lord.
The two ingredients point in opposite directions.
The priest was to take holy water in an earthen vessel and mix dust with it from the tabernacle floor. The holy water speaks of life, but the dust speaks of death (Psalm 22:15). Where there was no sin unto death, there would be life; but guilt would lead to death.
God Himself provided the test, and it settles the case either way.
Where there was even the suspicion of evil, and no evidence available, He Himself devised a method of trial that brought the truth perfectly to light. The guilty one had to drink death, and found it to be judgment. The faithful one drank death, and found it victory.
Read as a picture of Israel, the ordinance does not end with the curse. It ends with restoration.
She has played the harlot, it is true, and the trial of jealousy has found it so. She has said, "I will go after my lovers." But the Lord has also said, "I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy" (see Hosea 2, 3). And when that day comes, the blessing promised to the wife who stood acquitted in the trial of jealousy will be Israel's.
The ordeal also has a lesson for anyone who falls under suspicion.
It may be very painful for us to be suspected. But when we are, let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts… A restless desire to explain away and deny is always a sign of weakness at the least, and very often of guilt. As a rule, the fiercer the denial, the more certain the guilt… When the heart is willing to have God test everything in His presence, the Lord takes up the cause of the one suspected without cause, and makes everything flourish as never before.
- Suspicion — God will not let a shadow sit untested in the home or the camp. Even unproven evil is unsuitable for His presence.
- Oath — The priest speaks the words, but they place the woman before God. He alone knows, and He alone gives the verdict.
- Water — Holy water speaks of life; the dust from the tabernacle floor speaks of death, God's judgment of sin.
- Freedom — The priest's first word to her is release. The innocent drink death and find victory; the guilty drink and find judgment.
- Restoration — For Israel the test exposed unfaithfulness, yet God's promise ends in re-betrothal and blessing. The believer under false suspicion can face the test without resentment.
But if thou hast gone astray to another instead of thy husband, and hast been defiled, and a man other than thy husband have lain with thee,
The priest's oath now names the dark possibility — a wife who has turned aside while still bound to her husband. Why would God make a law for a sin no one could prove, and why place it here, in a chapter about keeping the camp clean?
God lived in the middle of the camp. That one fact shapes the whole chapter.
Chapter 5 presents three things. They have to do with the purity of the camp, seen as the dwelling-place of God, and with our pilgrim journey through the wilderness, which is the great subject of the Book of Numbers. On that journey everything is put to the test, and the presence of God, ungrieved among us, is our only security, guidance, and strength.
Notice that nothing has been proved. The husband suspects; there are no witnesses. Yet God provides a trial rather than let the doubt sit.
Suspicion on its own is unbearable. Where it takes hold of the heart, the matter must be sifted right down to the bottom. The suspected one must go through a test so searching that only a faithful person can endure it. If there was a trace of guilt, the bitter water could search down into the very depths of the soul, and bring it fully out.
This verse is the priest's own speech. One writer walks through the ceremony around it.
Her head was uncovered, to show that on this occasion she knew no subjection to anyone but the Lord. She took the covering off her head, because that covering was the sign of subjection to her husband (1 Cor. 11:3). Then the priest held a vessel of holy water — water taken from the bronze basin — mixed with dust (the sign of curse, or the fruit of sin; Gen. 3:19). He solemnly put the woman under oath and read her the curses that would come upon her if she were guilty. If she chose to face the trial after all this warning, she said, "Amen, Amen." Then the priest wrote the curses in a book, blotted them with some of the bitter water, and gave the rest of it to the woman to drink.
Each of the two ingredients carried its own meaning.
It seems to me that the dust of the tabernacle was the power of death in God's presence. That death was fatal to the natural man, but precious, as the death of sin, for the one who has life. The water is the power of the Holy Spirit acting by the word on the conscience.
The same water met two women, and the results were opposite.
If she had been unfaithful, the water would enter her and turn bitter; her belly would swell and her thigh would rot, and she would become a curse among the people. But if her husband's suspicions had wronged her, none of these things would happen to her. The curses in the book would all be blotted out, so that they could be read no more; and so, set free and cleared, she would receive strength from the Lord to bear children.
Another writer puts the difference in one line.
The guilty one had to drink death, and found it to be judgement. The faithful one drank death, and found it victory.
One writer reads the trial on a national scale, with Israel as the wife. He sets Israel's own cry beside the woman's "Amen."
At last the Lord pleads with her by this ordeal, while she defies divine justice, like any hardened wife who would dare to face the trial with the awareness of sin upon her. "His blood be on us and on our children," from the lips of Israel, was like the woman's "Amen" to the calling down of the curse.
The same writer does not stop with judgment.
She has played the harlot, it is true, and the trial of jealousy has found it so. She has said, "I will go after my lovers." But the Lord has also said, "I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in steadfast love, and in mercy."
The law tests the wife, not the husband. One writer sees a reason for that.
The man primarily is a picture of Christ, in whom there can never be even the least suspicion of unfaithfulness. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13). But believers are joined to the Lord by a bond pictured by marriage (Rom. 7:4), and they often face the danger of becoming unfaithful to Him.
- Dwelling. God lived in the middle of the camp, so hidden disloyalty was never a private matter.
- Suspicion. Rather than leave doubt to poison a marriage, God supplied a trial that settled it completely.
- Death. The dust and water together bring the sentence of death and the Spirit's word to bear on the conscience.
- Verdict. The same cup judged the guilty and cleared the innocent. The curses written against her were blotted out.
- Betrothal. For Israel the trial exposed unfaithfulness, yet the Lord's answer is not divorce but a fresh betrothal in steadfast love.
-- then the priest shall adjure the woman with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman Jehovah make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when Jehovah doth make thy thigh to shrink, and thy belly to swell;
The priest does not decide this case. He puts the woman under a solemn oath and reads out the curse that would fall on her if she is guilty. Then he leaves the matter with God, who alone can see a hidden life.
The priest says the curse out loud before she drinks anything. She must then answer for herself:
The priest would put the offering in the woman's hand and hold the bitter water himself. If she was guilty, that water would bring a curse on her. Then the priest would put her under oath. Of course, if she had already confessed her guilt, this would not be needed. Her oath was a statement that she was not guilty. The priest would warn her that if she was lying, the Lord would make her thigh rot and her belly swell, so that she became a curse among the people (v.21). She was to answer, "Amen, so be it" (v.22).
This is the Bible's first "Amen". Notice what it agrees to:
A strong statement of agreement and consent. We first read of its use when a woman was suspected of being unfaithful to her husband and had to drink the bitter water. The priest spoke a curse that would fall on her if she was guilty, and the woman had to answer, "Amen, Amen." Numbers 5:22.
The curse sounds harsh when nothing has been proved. But an unproved suspicion does its own damage:
The camp was to be holy, because it was the dwelling place of God. If a man began to suspect his wife, that suspicion was not to be left to fester in his mind. It had to be tested, whether it rested on fact or on imagination. If it was true, judgment fell on the woman. If it was false, she went free, and the trial showed it.
No human court can settle a hidden sin. This trial could, and it worked both ways:
He wanted His people together to judge evil, and each one to judge himself. But even where there was only a suspicion of evil, with no evidence to be had, He Himself designed a trial that brought the truth fully to light. The guilty one had to drink death, and found it to be judgement. The faithful one drank death, and found it victory.
The cup itself carried a message, drawn from God's dwelling place:
The law of jealousy, for when a man suspected his wife of being unfaithful to him, is given in Numbers 5:11-31. The woman had to drink bitter water. It was made of "holy water" with dust from the floor of the tabernacle put into it. The dust pictures the Holy Spirit using the word to press on the conscience what death is, as God's judgement of sin. If she had been unfaithful, it would be a curse to her.
One writer sees the nation itself standing where this woman stood:
At last He brings His case against her by this trial. She acts like a hardened wife who dares to face the test while she knows her own guilt, and she defies divine justice. When Israel said, "His blood be on us and on our children!" it was like the woman's "Amen" to the curse spoken over her. But their confidence has been their shame.
The curse is not the end of her story:
The Lord she wronged will accept her again. She has been unfaithful, it is true, and the trial of jealousy proved it. She has said, "I will go after my lovers." But the Lord has also said, "I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy."
There is a lesson here for anyone who is suspected without cause:
It may be very painful for us to be suspected, but when we are, let us never resent it in the pride of our hearts... A restless urge to make excuses and deny the charge is always a sign of weakness at the least, and very often a sign of guilt. As a rule, the fiercer the denial, the more certain the guilt. ... Where the heart is willing for everything to be tested in God's presence, the Lord takes up the cause of the one suspected without cause, and makes everything flourish as never before.
- Suspicion — an unproved doubt was not to be buried or nursed; God gave a way to bring it into the open and settle it.
- Oath — the priest spoke the curse aloud first, so no woman drank in ignorance of what she was risking.
- Amen — her own word sealed it; the Bible's first "Amen" is a person agreeing to be judged by God.
- Water — the same cup meant judgment for the guilty and full vindication for the faithful.
- Nation — Israel stood where this woman stood and said her own "Amen" to the curse. The Lord still promises to betroth her in steadfast love.