Sharper Iron — Wilderness Wanderings – Numbers 5:1-31: Living with God’s Holiness in the Camp

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The LORD desires that His people approach His holiness according to His will and Word. Those who are unclean through a skin disease or contact with the dead must be put outside the camp until they are made clean again. Someone who comes to realize a sin after the fact must not ignore it. Instead, he must make restitution to the one he wronged or to the LORD. In the case where the sin of adultery is unknown, the LORD provides a test whereby the matter is made evident. In this way, He provides for the innocent woman to be vindicated, and He also ensures that sin will not run rampant among His people. In the ways that the LORD provides for His people to live with His holiness in their midst by providing for cleansing, atonement, and restitution, He preaches Christ to them.

Rev. Zelwyn Heide, pastor at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Hanover, ND and Zion Lutheran Church in New Salem, ND, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Numbers 5:1-31.

“Wilderness Wanderings” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through the book of Numbers. After the LORD delivers His people from slavery in Egypt, He leads them toward the Promised Land. Although the first generation of Israelites proves faithless, the LORD remains faithful to His people and brings a new generation of Israelites to the plains of Moab. This strengthens us to listen to God’s promises today and stay faithful to Him as He guides us toward resurrection life.

Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God’s Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen.

Sharper Iron is underwritten by Lutheran Church Extension Fund, where your investments help support the work of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit lcef.org.

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Numbers 5:1-31

Unclean People

5 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous^[a] or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. ³ You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.” ⁴ And the people of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the Lord said to Moses, so the people of Israel did.

Confession and Restitution

⁵ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁶ “Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt, ⁷ he shall confess his sin that he has committed.^[b] And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong. ⁸ But if the man has no next of kin to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for wrong shall go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement with which atonement is made for him. ⁹ And every contribution, all the holy donations of the people of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be his. ¹⁰ Each one shall keep his holy donations: whatever anyone gives to the priest shall be his.”

A Test for Adultery

¹¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹² “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man’s wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, ¹³ if a man lies with her sexually, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act, ¹⁴ and if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, ¹⁵ then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah^[c] of barley flour. He shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.

¹⁶ “And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord. ¹⁷ And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. ¹⁸ And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and unbind the hair of the woman’s head and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse. ¹⁹ Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while you were under your husband’s authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse. ²⁰ But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you, ²¹ then’ (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman) ‘the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your body swell. ²² May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen.’

²³ “Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness. ²⁴ And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain. ²⁵ And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand and shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar. ²⁶ And the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. ²⁷ And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. ²⁸ But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.

²⁹ “This is the law in cases of jealousy, when a wife, though under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself, ³⁰ or when the spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife. Then he shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall carry out for her all this law. ³¹ The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”

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Footnotes

1. Numbers 5:2 Leprosy was a term for several skin diseases; see Leviticus 13
2. Numbers 5:7 Hebrew they shall confess their sin that they have committed
3. Numbers 5:15 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. esv.org