When you’re going on a long journey with others, it’s best to get things right before leaving.
When a family is getting ready to go on a journey, parents should wisely check everything twice. Has the trash been put out? All the bills paid? Is everyone happy and cooperative? So it goes. That’s what is happening in Numbers 5. First, there is clean-up; some matters must be put outside the camp (vv 1-4). “Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, everyone who has a discharge, and whoever becomes defiled by a corpse” (v 2). It might seem harsh, but anything that defiles others couldn’t be left to cause growing problems. What about unpaid accounts (vv 5-10)? “When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit in unfaithfulness against the Lord, and that person is guilty, then he shall confess the sin which he has committed. He shall make restitution for his trespass in full, plus one-fifth of it, and give it to the one he has wronged” (vv 6-7). Always good to settle wrongs quickly; if not, trouble can spread like a disease. And speaking of setting wrongs right, God deals with a really awkward one in verses 11-31—jealousy and unfaithfulness in marriage. He knows that bitterness and broken vows lead to a breakdown in society, as we’re seeing today. The question was: if a man is jealous regarding his wife without proof, is she guilty of unfaithfulness or not? A barley meal offering was brought, and the priest administered a strange mix of “holy water…and…some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle” (v 17). If guilty, she would have serious physical symptoms; if not, she was unaffected. Clearly, God was operating this “lie detector test.” Make no mistake: “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.…Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren” (Jas 1:14, 16).