Slices
Prepare
Reflect on a time when you were wronged in a relationship. What was its impact on you and others?
Bible passage
The purity of the camp
5 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has a defiling skin disease or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. 3 Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.’ 4 The Israelites did so; they sent them outside the camp. They did just as the Lord had instructed Moses.
Restitution for wrongs
5 The Lord said to Moses, 6 ‘Say to the Israelites: “Any man or woman who wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the Lord is guilty 7 and must confess the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged. 8 But if that person has no close relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the Lord and must be given to the priest, along with the ram with which atonement is made for the wrongdoer. 9 All the sacred contributions the Israelites bring to a priest will belong to him. 10 Sacred things belong to their owners, but what they give to the priest will belong to the priest.”’
The test for an unfaithful wife
11 Then the Lord said to Moses, 12 ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him 13 so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), 14 and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure – or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure – 15 then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing.
16 ‘“The priest shall bring her and make her stand before the Lord. 17 Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. 18 After the priest has made the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse. 19 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. 20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband’– 21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse – ‘may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.’
‘“Then the woman is to say, ‘Amen. So be it.’
23 ‘“The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. 24 He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. 25 The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar. 26 The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to make the woman drink the water. 27 If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: when she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse. 28 If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.
29 ‘“This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and makes herself impure while married to her husband, 30 or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to make her stand before the Lord and is to apply this entire law to her. 31 The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin.”’
Explore
For Israel to live out their calling as God’s holy people, right relationships were vital. Moses spells out just what this means. Clear but challenging guidelines are given.
The first relates to purity within the camp. Potential dangers are highlighted – infectious skin diseases, bodily discharges, a decaying body (v 2). The remedy is social distancing (v 3) – not a recent invention! The second set of guidelines deals with unethical financial dealings. If you break promises to others you are being unfaithful to me, says the Lord (v 6). Confession followed by generous restitution must occur (v 7).
Finally, the importance of faithfulness in marriage (vs 12–31). How quickly jealousy and suspicion arise when trust is eroded. The ceremony described seems strange to us but ultimately ensures that truth prevails. In a world with few rights for women, innocent wives are protected from ‘the inevitable bias of the male dominated trial’.* God alone can be trusted to be fair. He will guarantee justice be done.
If we are to be salt and light in the world, right relationships amongst God’s people are vital (Matthew 5:13–16). Supporting marriages to be faithful and encouraging integrity in financial affairs are practical ways in which we can do this. What might this look like in your church community?
*Roy Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, NIV Application Commentary series, Zondervan, p525.
Respond
Pray for any broken relationships you know of in your church – for truth and grace to prevail.
Deeper Bible study
Give thanks that we have a faithful, pure, forgiving God.
Ritual and distancing represented one way to protect the people in the presence of a holy God, but impurity could be brought into the camp in other ways: personal defilement, sins against others and suspicion of a wife’s infidelity. Personal defilement was dealt with by temporary separation outside the camp in accordance with the regulations given in Leviticus.1 Death and disease are not God’s intention for his people. They are part of our living in a fallen world and we have in Scripture both healings and the promise that God’s new world will have none of this. Hebrews tells us that Jesus went outside the camp for us, taking out sicknesses to bring us healing, to make us holy.2
The camp is also defiled by people doing wrong to each other. It is unfaithfulness to the Lord who has made all his redeemed people. Sin is to be confessed and restitution is to be made. Here is restorative justice at work. What if the person has died? The penalty is not waived, but the restitution goes to the priests for their support as they minister. It is the equivalent of giving it to God, but the text makes clear that the priests have it for themselves.
The third case is the most difficult. It uses the same word, ‘unfaithful’, that we had earlier (vs 6,12). Here it is marital discord that brings impurity into the camp. God will judge whether a wife has been unfaithful. The case is in the hands of the priests, not a vengeful husband. An innocent woman is not harmed in any way, but the guilty are revealed. False suspicion is as defiling as sin. Jesus also once gave water to a sinful woman, but with it a new life.3
‘Search me, God … See if there is any offensive way in me’.4
1 Eg Lev 13–15 2 Heb 13:12; see also Isa 53 3 John 4:13–26 4 Ps 139:23,24
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Genesis 49,50; Matthew 18
Pray for Scripture Union
Please pray for the South East team as Josh Booth settles into his new role as Team Leader. As the team gather the Faith Guides across the region, pray that they would continue to be encouraged and equipped to share Jesus with the 95 in their local communities.
