Of all the odd things in the Bible, Numbers 5 has got to rank way up there near the top. Do you remember reading about a strange test for deciding if your wife is unfaithful? I didn’t until my son asked me about it after hearing a podcast.
In verse 11-31 we are told that if a man is jealous and angry because he suspects his wife has been unfaithful, he’s supposed to go to the priest who will give his wife water mixed with dust from the floor of the tabernacle. If she gets sick from drinking it, she’s guilty. If she doesn’t, she’s innocent.
Wait? What? Seriously? This sounds like Salem Witch Trial stuff to determine if someone is in league with the devil. “Did you feel a chill when their shadow crossed you?” I mean, really?
OK. Super strange . . . but I think there is a way to understand it that makes at least a little sense.
First, in other Ancient Middle Eastern cultures (and possibly Israel too before Moses), the husband would have had the right to immediately divorce his wife, kill her, or have her killed just on the basis of his feelings that she was unfaithful—with absolutely no evidence or testimony required. He didn’t have to consult anyone. Sadly we sometimes still hear of such honor killings in the Middle East. Remarkably, this whole Numbers 5 procedure hits the pause button on those unchecked impulses and takes it out of the husband’s hands.
Second, as Wendy Alsup reminds us, with “trials by ordeal” in other cultures, the accused person is usually found guilty and dies. In the case of Numbers 5, just putting dust from the floor in drinking water is not likely to make anyone die or even get sick. After all, especially in that peasant culture, they’ve been eating and breathing dust their whole lives.
So yes, it is odd to us, and while it seems (is?) very patriarchal (e.g., why isn’t another man accused of adultery along with the wife?), on the whole it protects a woman from rash, unjust, and violent actions by her husband. So while this isn’t anything we’d do today, it shows the direction of how God wants us to deal with each other (by moving from the reckless and harsh customs of surrounding cultures to being merciful and protective). And this trajectory finds its fulfillment in Christ.
Again, it’s so odd that you may not find this totally satisfying. Yet we see how God’s redemptive direction (pointing away from the values of culture, then to Old Testament principles, and then to Christ) plays out similarly when it comes to slavery and women. That is, even though what the Old Testament says about slavery and women is troubling to us, it moderates the severe practices common in that day.* This ethos is then more completely realized in Christ and in the New Testament, showing us the direction we should be headed today.
It points toward mercy. It points toward grace. It points toward compassion.
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Image by Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay
*See William Webb, Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2001).
Thanks, Andy, for this excellent explanation of a very challenging passage.
That’s great, Dave, especially coming from you!