We come to a Chapter, Numbers 5, that I have read and I confess as a woman I have had trouble with. My ire gets up because at first blush it sounds as though God is awfully hard on women and not on men. So I prayed this morning and asked Him to help me understand, not with my understanding, but with His love.

The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘Any man or woman who wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the Lord is guilty and must confess the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth to the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged. v. 5-7. So far, so good and note when we wrong others, we are unfaithful to the Lord. Make it right with God and with the person harmed.

Then comes the troubling bits. If a man’s wife is unfaithful…or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure…v. 11-31. At this point they were to go before the priest with a different offering and a test would be provided to prove her faithfulness or unfaithfulness…drinking holy water with dust from the tabernacle floor v. 16-22. What if the man is unfaithful? Why even if he is jealous without cause as some men and women are, should she be subjected to that test?

So I prayed. I know that God is love. God is love. 1 John 4:16. Our Pastor tells us to always start with the truth you know when reading Scripture you don’t understand. It helps to start there when you bring all of it to God. I know that God doesn’t hate women. He chose a woman, Mary, to carry His Son and be his Sons earthly Mom. He was compassionate to the woman “caught in the act of adultery”…note the man wasn’t brought as well…but the woman they were ready to kill with stoning, John 8:1-11. He didn’t condemn her as they wanted him to. He told her to go and sin no more when all of her accusers left after watching Jesus write in the sand…possibly the names of those very people who sinned and “deserved” stoning. Divine love and compassion which brings forgiveness and restoration.

God restores in great love and compassion because He knows what we are and He knows the deep hurts we cause one another. Speculation on my part only, but I think He provided a needed way for that man and woman to come to the priest and undergo a ritual so that they could bring that broken faith between them to God. Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” Matthew 5:10-11, 17-20.

This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and makes herself impure while married to her husband, or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the Lord and is to apply this entire law to her. The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin. v. 29-31. We all bear the consequences of our sins and the sins of others. And lest we think we are so wonderful when “others” sin…Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24.

We sin. We fall short…all of us. God leads us in the way everlasting…and it begins and ends with His divine love which brings forgiveness and restoration. Healing. God restores in great love. He knows the way…He is the Way and the truth and the life John 14:6. Can we see the big picture? We live our lives on this planet of ours and we all sin and fall short and in doing that we cause wedges of hurt that need healing. I need healing. You need healing. The hurts we cause need healing. Only God can heal us completely. Only God wants to. I thought about that at the end of my praying to Him this morning. I thought about the wounds that Jesus suffered on the Cross, physical and spiritual, and how He needed God’s loving care to heal the awful pain those wounds caused. We want to condemn. God heals with great, needed Divine Love. Thank you Lord!