I love the Word of God and I love talking about it. I have to be careful though, not to dive in too deep. I try to remember that folks out here in the world-wide web have different amounts of Bible study under their belts and some have none at all. I pray that the Lord shows me how to be clear and keep these things in mind as I go on.
There have been a few things recently that have caused me to think, "I really need to read the book of Numbers again." So, I did. Well, I started it anyway.
I got hung up on the 5th chapter and had to go a little deeper there. this is where we find what is called 'The ritual of Jealousy' or 'The Trial by Bitter Waters,' something like that depending on who you ask, or your translation. It starts in Numbers 5:11, and continues through the end of the chapter. It is a rather lengthy passage but I'm going to include it anyway so you can see exactly what I'm talking about:
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:
18And 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.
There it is Folks, the Curse of Bitter Waters. If a woman fails the oath of faithfulness, her guilt will bring on a curse. Her belly will swell, and her thigh will rot. This is important. All translations that I have access to say something like this, except the New International Version. It says she will miscarry.
Oh, how the unbelievers have grabbed on to this one! The only time you will hear those that are not Christians quote the Bible is to scorn God. They use this one verse in this one translation to say that God approves of abortion. Let me assure you, based on the testimony of the entire volume of scripture that remains, He does not.
I personally do not believe the curse was a miscarriage, although God is God and if it is so, so be it. Children were considered precious in ancient times and as we saw when God took the son conceived in sin with David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:14-18), a lost child would certainly be seen as judgment.
This is not the most important point to this passage though, not even close. But I will linger long enough to repeat, this passage in no way paints God as pro-abortion. And for those who would say that the bitter water was an abortive, really? Holy water, dust from the tabernacle floor, paper particles and even the ink on the paper does not a potion make.
This passage seems pretty hare-core on the surface, I mean, all that swelling belly, thigh rotting and stuff. You might consider God to be very harsh. Think it through, though. This is a picture of the mercy of God.
When you consider the culture of the day, women had almost no rights. This is the way God found His people. Even today, in nations that don't know the God of the Bible, women are treated like property and are considered, literally, half as valuable as men. You can find many times in the Bible that God Brings about change for the better on the behalf of women. This is one of those times.
In countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, women are killed for just an accusation of adultery. Recently, a 19-year-old girl was stoned to death. She had been raped at gunpoint and reported the crime to the authorities, but she was the one that was charged and found guilty. They killed her because of it.
Imagine that poor girl having already been brutalized, ruined for life in the eyes of her culture, running to those who were supposed to protect only to be pronounced guilty and stoned to death, alone in the midst of a crowd of angry men. If this is going on today, how much more in ancient times?
What God did here was take the judgment of the woman out of the hands of the man who was accusing her and even the hands of the men who would judge her situation. Remember:
"And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean' then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed." vs 28
If the woman walked away healthy, no one in the camp had a right to say a word. God had judged her and found her innocent. Her husband couldn't throw her out and there would be no negative consequences. If the woman was guilty, then she would be judged.
People tend to overlook the fact that all sin was to be judged. This was not oppression of women. Deuteronomy 22:22 and Leviticus 20:19 say that if a man and woman commit adultery, they will both be put to death. Sin wasn't allowed to take hold in the camp.
Remember our study of Sodom and Gomorrah. We are to, "Give no place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27). This 'bitter water' trial insured justice for secret sin as well as protection for an innocent woman whose husband may have just gotten tired of her.
When I consider the roots of this ritual and try to come up with where it may have originated, my mind goes back to the golden calf incident we find in Exodus 32. Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Tablets of the Testimony, inscribed front and back by the finger of God. God told Moses to get back down the mountain at once because the people had corrupted themselves. Bear in mind, the Tablets of the Testimony, or the Law, was according to most scholars, a marriage contract between God and the people.
Moses went back down the mountain and was appalled at what he saw, at the depths of depravity in the camp. He broke the Tablets, ground up the golden calf, scattered the dust in the water supply and made the people drink it. This made for some bitter waters indeed.
Moses then calls anyone who stands with the Lord to join him. The Bible says that all the Levites joined him. This is how the Levitical priesthood came about. Originally, the firstborn of Israel were to be the priestly class. They lost their rights that day.
Moses sent the Levites out with swords to slay transgressors. After that, God sends a plague and many more died. Why three judgments? the Bible doesn't really say but this is what the Jewish teachings say. The Levites killed everyone who sinned in the presence of witnesses and were properly warned.
Imagine someone heading off to the party and a Levite saying, "You better not. God will judge!"
Then they say the plague killed those who had sinned with witnesses but were not properly warned. Imagine someone walking by the revelry and saying, "Party! YAY!"
People saw them partying, but there wasn't a Levite there to warn them and say, "You better not, God will judge!"
Now imagine someone saying, "I think I'll take advantage of everyone's distraction with this golden calf and sneak a Midianite woman into my tent (obvious Phinehas reference; sorry, you know I love him and his story is in Numbers 25). They say that secret sin was dealt with by the bitter waters of the golden calf.
Now, flash forward 1500 years or so, to the book of John, chapter 8 starting at verse 3. Jesus was in the temple teaching when the scribes and Pharisees showed up. These were men who were super religious. they were all caught up in the traditions of their religion and were more concerned with what they thought was righteousness than what the Bible honestly said. They brought to Jesus a woman who, they said, was "Taken in adultery, in the very act!"
They said to Jesus, "The Law of Moses says this woman should be stoned, but what do you say?" The Bible tells us that they did this to find fault with Jesus. But Jesus knelt and began to write on the ground as though He hadn't heard them.
How many times have I wondered what Jesus wrote that day? I have heard so many sermons on this passage and heard so many interpretations of what people think happened. Most assume the woman was guilty and Jesus forgave her. They say that Jesus was listing the sins of the accusers. They say it is the very picture of God's forgiveness. After all, Jesus did say, "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone." Didn't He?
People are so quick to jump to judgment. Let me give you my take on this story and it may be an interpretation you haven't heard before.
I think Jesus was writing a list, and I think He was writing the Ritual of Bitter Water. When He did this, the Pharisees knew exactly what he was doing. If you didn't know, one of their trademarks was the memorization of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible of which the book of Numbers is one. I think they also knew that if God were doing the judging, He would likely find the woman innocent.
Do you remember the scriptures from Deuteronomy and Leviticus we covered before? If this woman had been caught in the very act of adultery, the man would have been brought with her. Since the man wasn't brought, it could be assumed that she was brought for secret sin. What if she had just been in a compromising situation. Maybe she was at the store unescorted, an offence that (as we covered before) can get you stoned in a Muslim majority country even today.
Finally, in all their knowledge of the scriptures, they would know what the Bible had to say about false witnesses. Remember that ninth commandment? I believe this is why they began to depart, one at a time, oldest to youngest. That says something, oldest to youngest, or wisest to most passionate, but that's for another time.
Now for the big moment in my mind. Jesus turned to the woman and said, "Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?"
The woman said, "No one, Lord."
Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you."
What just happened there? Did you catch it? According to the Trial by Bitter Waters, only God judges the accused woman. Jesus assumed God's authority by not condemning the woman. Jesus was showing Himself to be God.
We know that Jesus has every right to forgive sin. This isn't the only time He said. "Your sins are forgiven," or "Go and sin no more." But just maybe this woman wasn't guilty and had been framed for the sole purpose of trapping Jesus. Just a thought. Remember, they wanted to kill Lazarus, too (John 12:10), just because Jesus raised him from the dead.
On the other hand, one might argue that if the woman had been guilty, Jesus would have had no choice but to stone her according to the Law. The Trial by Bitter Waters came to her rescue. God declared her not guilty. There was no 'secret sin.' She had been justified by God.
How did I never see that before? How have I never heard that taught? There are other parallels between this story and the ritual from Numbers 5 like, God wrote the Tablets of the Testimony on stone with His finger and Jesus wrote with His finger in the dirt. The dust on the tabernacle floor used in the ritual was holy ground due to the presence of God. Jesus made the Temple ground on which he stood holy.
Oh, there's so much more! I won't even be able to touch on all the things that are wrapped up in this little ritual that is tucked away in Numbers; this ritual that unbelievers use against God. Just think about how often God declares that Israel is His wife. Examples like Ezekiel 16:59-60, Isaiah 54:5 and Hosea 2:7 are only a few. There are many. And God almost always refers to Israel's sin as adultery. Now consider that believers are referred to as the Bride of Christ in Revelation 19:7-10
Think about the many, many times in the Bible we read things like: cup of God's wrath, Isaiah 51:17, Jeremiah 25:15-28 and Revelation14:9-10. How about drinking to your own destruction, Psalm 72:2-8, or even the cup of fornication, Revelation 17:4?
There is also the cup of blessing in 1 Corinthians10:6 and a cup of salvation, Psalm 116:13. It appears that the Ritual of Jealousy is represented throughout the Bible, salvation for the innocent through the cup, and judgment for the guilty. Every one of these examples could be plugged into the ritual. God names the cup depending upon your guilt or innocence.
Now, let's wrap this up with a wallop. What did Jesus pray in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He went to the cross?
"Father, Let this cup pass from Me, but not my will but Thine be done." Matthew 26:39
How many times have we heard that the cup imagery is just a metaphor for His trials and tribulations culminating with His crucifixion? I have said before, almost every word out of the mouth of Jesus was out of the Old Testament. Why wouldn't the cup He was referring to be the cup of the Trial of Bitter Waters?
He was about to be found guilty of sin, though He was innocent. It was a cup full of the bitter water of God's judgment. Jesus would stand in the court of man and God. He would be judged, but not for any sin He committed, but for the sins of the world, our sin.
Why do we take communion? We do it in remembrance of Him and we do it with a cup.
What about the bread at communion? Remember the plain grain offered in the ritual? It was without oil and frankincense. It was for remembrance of sin. We take communion in remembrance of Him who knew no sin but became sin for us.
I'm so thankful that God showed me this ritual. I'm so glad He showed me how important it is throughout scripture. It is why it is easy for me to say that the Red Thread of Salvation that runs through the Bible, is carried in a cup.
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