The Jealous Husband
There are many passages in scripture which once offended my youthful sensibilities. Take, for example, the laws concerning menstruation. When I was young it seemed unfair to regard any natural bodily process as unclean as they were all designed by God. Menstruation laws, I thought, discriminated against women since they would necessarily be ritually unclean more often than men. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize that the category “unclean” is not a moral judgment. It is simply a regulation regarding worship. People who are ceremonially unclean cannot perform certain duties or be present in sacred spaces. Now that I’m older, I see this provision as a mercy and kindness. It would be lovely, I think, to be set apart for seven days, free from one’s normal duties, while dealing with the cramps and inconvenience of one’s period. Of course, human society has rarely accommodated women with such rest - but I can see the Father’s protective intention now that I know Him better.
Another way I see the Father’s love for His daughters is in the odd ritual prescribed in Numbers 5.
11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ….. 14 if the spirit of jealousy comes upon (a husband) and he becomes jealous of his wife, who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, although she has not defiled herself— 15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for remembering, for bringing iniquity to remembrance.
16 ‘And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord. 17 The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. 18 Then the priest shall stand the woman before the Lord, uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse. 19 And the priest shall put her under oath, and say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to uncleanness while under your husband’s authority, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse. 20 But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you”— 21 then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman—“the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh rot and your belly swell; 22 and may this water that causes the curse go into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot.”
‘Then the woman shall say, “Amen, so be it.”
23 ‘Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water. 24 And he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her to become bitter.
I confess that as a young woman, I took offense at this passage. Once again, it seemed biased against women. What recourse did a wife have if her husband was unfaithful, my heart protested? But the truth is that this law is designed specifically to protect women. Countless wives have been killed by husbands in fits of jealous rage. Relatively few husbands, on the other hand, have died at the hands of their wives. By providing a method for determining the guilt or innocence of wives, the LORD was saving lives and restoring peace in families. There was no way that drinking some dusty water would cause a woman’s belly to swell or her thigh to rot - not unless the LORD Himself intervened! This ritual was the antithesis of a medieval trial by ordeal. It was by default a presumption of innocence sealed with the LORD”s own Name.
This law recorded in Numbers 5 is the only place in Torah where the LORD’s name - the holy Name - may be destroyed. The curse is written on a piece of paper and the words, including God”s Name, are scraped off in the water. The woman drinks the NAME! And if she does not swell, she is rendered innocent by the NAME. Peace is restored between the man and his wife. The woman is vindicated. This is the jealous love of our heavenly Husband for His Bride!