We are back in the book of Numbers, chapters 5. The focus of chapter 5 is on the rules of the camp, that is, rules for how the People of Israel are to behave in order to keep the encampment (one for 1.5 million people) clean and pure. Most of this is common sense. Basically, if a member of the community had a bodily discharge or or an infectious skin disease, or if they had physical contact with a dead body, they had to temporarily reside outside the main camp, until their days of purification were past.
The next section of Scripture, though, veers off into the seemingly wacky. The passage is verses 11-31. The procedure describes how to deal with a jealous husband and his wife who might or might not be cheating on him. Yes, God actually did address these matters with the Hebrew people. You ladies reading this are about to get very offended, but before you go there, hold on. God does deal with the menfolk in other passages of Scripture.
At any rate, this passage in Numbers is a help for the wife who is laboring under her husband's constant suspicion and jealousy. It is not a pleasant place to be, always accused and never able to be vindicated. The ritual is also a help for a man who legitimately suspects his wife is cheating. It's quite an elaborate procedure, to be sure, and its accuracy rate appears to depend mostly on the "psychology of suggestion". Thank God we are not "under the law" anymore. However, although we are under grace, this passage, and others like it, serve to illustrate how serious God is about marital fidelity.
Here are some other similar passages, which also pertain to men who cheat:
Leviticus 18:20 "'Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her.
Leviticus 20:10 "'If a man commits adultery with another man's wife--with the wife of his neighbor--both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death."
Deuteronomy 22:22 "If a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel."
Deuteronomy 5:18 "You shall not commit adultery."
So, the point is that God hates adultery, the biblical definition of which is: sexual relations outside the bonds of biblical marriage, marriage between one man and one woman.
The episode of King David and Bathsheba may have occurred to you, and you may be wondering why they both did not die. Well, first of all, Bathsheba had little choice in the matter. In those days, the King of Israel was not trifled with. Had she refused, he could have had her put to death. And, though God did not require David's life, He did require the life of the toddler child who was born from that sexual union.
God will always forgive our sin, if we ask Him to forgive, cleanse and restore us, (as David did, in Psalm 51:3 "my sin is ever before me"). He wrote this Psalm after being confronted by the prophet, Nathan, about his sin with Bathsheba. He wrote it from a broken heart. I really believe that, at this point, he had lost his will to live. In verse 12:
"Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."
Although He forgives our sin, God does not negate the consequences of our sin, nor does He explain away our sin, whether it be adultery (also called in the Bible "fornication"), murder, lying, stealing, dishonoring our parents, or breaking any of the other laws He has laid down in his Word for us to follow, in order to live holy lives for His glory.
He takes our sin so seriously, hates it so much, that He as Father God "put on a human body", was born to a virgin, lived among us for 33 years, laid down His life in the most horrible of deaths, and by His own magnificent power raised His Son from the dead....all to buy us back from the enslavement of sin and our own everlasting damnation in Hell.
Our world wants to make light of cheating on your spouse as well as other sins. In our world, crooners sing songs like, "Your cheatin' heart....will tell on you." And, we twitter and bleat and giggle and croon right along.
Don't you believe it! God is deadly serious about sin. He stated through the prophet, Ezekiel, (Ezek. 18:20) "The soul that sins, it shall die." He is so serious about it, is so intolerant of it, that He will allow us to spend eternity in Hell if we choose to reject His one way to salvation, that way made through His Son, Jesus.
Eternity in Hell - - - that's about the most serious thing I can contemplate.
Dear Righteous Father, we are somber when we read the examples You provide in your Holy Word about Your response to sin. Help us to see it as you see it. Help us to hate sin as much as You hate it, but to love people - - - all of us sinners - - - as much as You love us. What a holy juxtaposition! Thank you, Lord, that "if we confess our sin, You are faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9). Thank you for cleansing and restoration!
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