Numbers 5 -- A Reason For The Separation

My commentary started by saying, “Too often God’s people get in the way of God’s work.”  Often it is our sin that causes the problem.

For this huge group of people travelling together toward the Promised Land, prevention of disease and the spreading of it were very important and therefore God issued commands to help protect healthy people.  It wasn’t only about disease, however.  “Cleanliness involved being acceptable to God in what they ate, what they wore, and how they conducted themselves at home and in public … God compared sin to disease and defilement and holiness to health and cleanliness.  Unclean people were put out of the camp until they had met the ceremonial requirements for reentry.”

There was physical defilement caused by disease.  Some diseases were the result of sin, while many were not.  While health and hygiene were involved in the laws, “their basic purpose was to teach the Jews the meaning of separation and holiness … by obeying God’s Word in every area of life.”

There was also interpersonal defilement.  “The person who committed a trespass against another had to confess it and make restitution …”  The offender also had to pay a 20% penalty.  “In this way, the Lord taught His people that sin is costly and hurts people, and that true repentance demands honest restitution.”  (Also, when they eventually went to war against the inhabitants of Canaan, the members of their army didn’t need the distraction of unresolved offenses against each other during battle.)

God also addressed marital defilement with a unique, public way of handling suspicions.  My commentary said there was no record in Scripture that it was ever used.  “There are clearly some built-in roadblocks that would make a husband hesitate to rush to the priest and ask for his wife to be tried.  The whole camp would know about it … Would a husband want to expose his marital problems that openly? …. Also, if the husband loved his wife and was deeply hurt by her possible infidelity, why would he want to expose her publicly?  But if he didn’t love her and only wanted to hurt her, he might be embarrassed and proved wrong … If his suspicions were proved wrong, he owed his wife an apology and had to work at rebuilding the relationship … If she was found guilty, he had to live with her, wonder who her lover was, and suffer the physical consequences of the curse” – barrenness of her womb – and still having to provide for her and any children they’d had before the sin.

“The major message:  God wants purity in marriage, and husband and wives can’t escape the bitter consequences of marital unfaithfulness.  God can forgive adultery, and husbands and wives can make new beginnings in the Lord.  However, adultery hurts everybody, and it’s sometimes difficult to live with the consequences of forgiven sin.”

Father, thank You for this clear picture of the harm and consequences of sin if I allow it to take root in my life.  Help me never to be blinded to Your truths by the deception Satan tries to use against me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford