“‘The
priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. Then he
shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle
floor into the water. After the priest has had 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. 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. 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”— 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. 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.”
Numbers 5:16-22
This
is an unusual test by our standards—a sort of truth sermon that promised to
punish the woman for lying about her adultery.
But instead of looking at the crazy potion and horrific side effects,
let’s look at why it’s in the Bible.
First
of all, the marriage bed is sacred and should not be tampered with. This test showed the extent God emphasized to
make sure it was pure.
Second,
the purpose of the test was to cause fear and fear is a good deterrent at times
for committing sin.
Finally,
it showed the importance of confession and telling the truth. There are always consequences for lying and
sneaking around someone’s back. This test
showed the importance of all these purposes and cleared up any jealousy that
crept into the relationship.
If
the man was wrong, there were consequences too for shaming his wife so he had
to be pretty convinced of infidelity to continue down this road.