Lepers,Jealousy Bitter Water Numbers 5

Numbers 5:3 "Both Male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell."

It may seem a cruel thing to do. I had some problem myself. The thing to remember is that Israel is preparing for war. Only if the children of Israel are clean will they receive the victory that is possible. The Lord is their strength and he will not occupy space with uncleanliness.

They were not cast away but put out of the camp. It was a common thing for lepers to dwell separately.

V6 "Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin hat men commit, to do a trespass against the Lord, and that person be guilty: V7 Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: .....

The passage goes on to describe the method for cleansing from their sin. I John 1:9 describes how, as Christians, we are to deal with our sin.

Jealousy

v14 "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:"

We all know what jealousy can do to a group of people. It would be bad to go off to war with the men jealous of each other over their wives. So this deals with that issue. The test falls on the woman. The test seems to be to remove doubt even when no deed was done.

Bitter water

V17 "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:"

The woman was to drink the liquid as a trial of her guilt. If she was innocent, she was restored. If she was not innocent she had physical ailments in her lower body.

The Bible seems to be dealing with some issues as they arise and incorporating them into the law. You will see here many of the practices of some denominations. Also some terms which will not appear in the New Testament i.e. holy water. Not that I remember anyway.

Proverbs 5:3-4 "For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword."

Romans 6:15 "What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid."