You're not finding Jesus in this passage. Okay, all the Bible is not about Jesus.
Everything in the Bible contributes to the story that culminates in Jesus.
But you need something other than "let's talk about Jesus"
to make sense of this kind of stuff.
The test for adultery. Ok, we all know this story.
«Speak to the people of Israel, If any man's wife goes astray and breaks faith with him,
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, and if the spirit of jealousy comes over him
[the husband] and he is jealous of his wife». Okay, then there's a test.
There's a test: «And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels
and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.’»
And so, they go through this whole procedure.
This is what scholars like to call "trial by ordeal."
And you say, "Well, why do I bring this up?"
Because there is a context in which Numbers 5 will make sense,
if we're actually aware of it.
Now, I'm speaking to this mostly for people
who are not familiar with me and my content.
You're not finding Jesus in this passage. Ok, all the Bible is not about Jesus.
Everything in the Bible contributes to the story that culminates in Jesus.
But you need something other than; "let's talk about Jesus," to make sense of this kind of stuff.
It's a form of divination, trial by ordeal. Context is essential.
If we ignore context, then what we do
is we either ignore passages like this and never preach about them.
Or we, "well, there's the gospel in there, let's go find it."
And you never answer the question.
Now, people like you are not really satisfied with that.
Serious Bible students want to know; "what in the world do I do with something like that?"
It's part of the canon. It's part of the Torah. It's part of of Scripture.
It's there. It has a role to play in some way. And it should be comprehensible.
It should make sense. And it does, we'll get to a little bit later, on its own terms.
What do the Israelites believe is going to happen when they do this?
To be fair, the Old Testament never records that this trial by ordeal ever being used.
What do they assume? Put yourself in the priest's situation, (Numbers 5).
Let's say you have some guy come out of the camp. And he's like,
"you know, I think my wife cheated on me."
"Well, did you catch her in the act?" "No." "Did you do..." "Nope, nope, nope, nope.
But you know, Moses said we're supposed to do this trial thing. So get on that. Hop to it."
What do the people assume will happen?
They assume that God will actually show them the truth.
See, other cultures have trials by ordeal. And so this is a familiar thing, culturally.
I mean, the literated Israelites going to know things like this or in other cultures.
And so the assumption of those people is that their gods are going to reveal truth.
"So here we have the true God telling us to do this.
So, we believe that God will actually not let an innocent person die.
So yeah, we'll do that. God told us to do that, we'll do that.
We believe that God will tell us the truth, and the innocent will not suffer.
Because if we don't have a means to do this,
then any husband at any time can accuse his wife of a death penalty offense."
You do realize that, don't you? Adultery is punishable by the death penalty in the Torah.
Numbers 5 is actually a means to prevent the death of an innocent person.
And so God specifically singles this one out.
There are other modes of divination in the Torah: urim and thummim.
The two stones in the breast pouch,
you know, the pouch of the breastplate of the high priest?
This isn't the only one. All of these things are God telling the people:
"look, when you're in this situation, come to me and do this. Do that.
Do this other thing. I will reveal to you what is the truth, and what is a lie."
That's what it is. Now, to our eye it's really strange.
But again, in their culture, this is the kind of thing that people expected the gods to do.
"Well, the Mesopotamian Gods help their people with this question, right?
Like, what are we supposed to do here? God Forget that one? You know."
No. This is why these sorts of things are in the Torah.
Because God knows the expectation. He knows where the gaps are here.
And so this is actually a means by which to prevent the death of an innocent woman.
So it's actually a good rule. It might be helpful,
but again, the underlying assumption is that God actually will tell us the truth.