Numbers 5:11

The third and last section of our chapter teaches us a very solemn lesson. We can look at it as part of God's dealings through the ages, or simply as a moral lesson. It holds the record of the great law given for the trial of jealousy. Its place here is striking. In the first section, we have the whole community judging evil. In the second, we have the individual judging himself, confessing, and making amends. In the third, we learn that God cannot bear even the mere suspicion of evil.

The camp had to be holy, because it was the dwelling place of God. So if a man began to suspect his wife, that suspicion was not to be left to eat away at him. It had to be tested, whether it rested on fact or on imagination.

The LORD had His eye on this. He did not want anyone to grow hard. What is more dreadful than carrying suspicions? We ought to guard against it. Still, there may be times when we sense that something is wrong, and yet we can hardly explain it… The husband was to bring his wife to the priest, and everything was to be handled in a holy way. It was not human feeling, but a link with God Himself, and a judgment of what did not suit His presence.

We can only point out that the offering was not fine flour, as in the grain offering, but barley meal, which was coarser. It had no leaven in it, since leaven would have implied the woman's guilt before the test. No oil or frankincense went on the offering either. No joy and no worship could go with this offering of jealousy. Then the priest took holy water in a clay jar, took dust from the tabernacle floor, and put it into the water… The water stands for the Word, and the dust is a picture of death and the curse.

The suspected wife had to go through a test so searching that only a faithful woman could come through it… There was no escape for the guilty one. And we may say that the very fact that the guilty had no way out only made the clearing of the innocent more glorious. The same process that declared the guilt of the guilty also brought the innocence of the faithful into the open… The guilty one had to drink death, and found it to be judgement. The faithful one drank death, and found it victory.

This may be because the matter carries a special spiritual meaning. The husband here mainly stands for Christ, in whom there can never be even the least suspicion of unfaithfulness. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13). But believers are joined to the Lord by a bond that marriage pictures (Rom. 7:4), and they often face the danger of becoming unfaithful to Him.

There is forgiveness with the Lord for Israel… She has been unfaithful, that is true, and the trial of jealousy has found it so. She has said, "I will go after my lovers." But the Lord has also said, "I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in steadfast love, and in mercy."