The Waters of Truth
Introduction: When Trust is Broken
We come now to a passage that makes modern Christians squirm in their seats. It strikes our therapeutic and egalitarian age as bizarre, misogynistic, and frankly, a bit magical. The secularist scoffs, the feminist is outraged, and the timid believer wishes he could just quietly tear this page out of his Bible. But because all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable, we must not do that. We must instead roll up our sleeves and seek to understand what God is teaching us. And what He is teaching us here is a profound lesson about the sanctity of marriage, the horror of sin, and the stunning mercy of His justice.
The foundation of any marriage is covenantal trust. When that trust is poisoned by suspicion, the marriage itself begins to die. Jealousy is a corrosive acid that eats away at the very fabric of the one-flesh union. And in a world without a final court of appeal, a husband's suspicion, even if baseless, could become a tyrannical and abusive weapon against his wife. With no witnesses, she would have no way to prove her innocence, and he would have no way to confirm his fears. The marriage would be condemned to a living death of resentment, bitterness, and coldness. The husband might be tempted to violence, or to put her away unjustly.
Into this impossible human dilemma, God provides a divine solution. This law, far from being an instrument of patriarchal oppression, is a profound mercy. It is a shield for the innocent wife and a final resolution for the tormented husband. It takes the matter out of the realm of human accusation and subjective feeling and places it squarely before the throne of God Himself. This is not a pagan trial by ordeal, where the accused is thrown into a river to see if they float, or forced to walk on hot coals. Those were arbitrary and often fatal tests based on superstition. This is a divine tribunal, a supernatural intervention designed to reveal the truth and restore order. God is intervening to save a marriage from the cancer of suspicion.
This law establishes a principle that is foundational to all justice: when human means of discovery fail, we must appeal to the God who sees all things. He is the one who judges the secrets of the heart. And as we shall see, this strange ritual with its barley meal and bitter water is a startling foreshadowing of the ultimate trial, where our sin was judged and our innocence was secured by another.
The Text
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, and a man lies sexually with her, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected; but she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, and she has not been caught in the act, if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife and she has defiled herself, or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife but she has not defiled herself, the man shall then bring his wife to the priest and shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall not pour oil on it nor put frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, a reminder of iniquity.
‘Then the priest shall bring her near and have her stand before Yahweh, and the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel; and the priest shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. The priest shall then have the woman stand before Yahweh and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and he shall place the grain offering of remembrance in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy; and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings curses. Then the priest shall have her swear an oath and shall say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray into defilement, being under the authority of your husband, be free from this water of bitterness that brings curses; if you, however, have gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself, and a man other than your husband has lain with you” (then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman), “Yahweh make you a curse and an oath among your people by Yahweh making your thigh fall away and your abdomen swell; and this water that brings curses shall go into your stomach and make your abdomen swell and your thigh fall away.” And the woman shall say, “Amen. Amen.”
‘The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness. Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings curses, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her to cause bitterness. And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before Yahweh and bring it near to the altar; and the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water. So he will have her drink the water, and it will be that, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings curses will go into her to cause bitterness, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become a curse among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive a seed.
‘This is the law of jealousy: when a wife, being under the authority of her husband, goes astray and defiles herself, or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he shall then make the woman stand before Yahweh, and the priest shall apply all this law to her. Moreover, the man will be free from guilt, but that woman shall bear her guilt.’ ”
(Numbers 5:11-31 LSB)
The Unprovable Suspicion (vv. 11-15)
The law addresses a very specific and difficult situation. A wife is suspected of adultery, but it is "hidden from the eyes of her husband." There is no witness, and she was not caught in the act. This is the crucial context. The normal judicial process, which requires two or three witnesses, cannot function here. The law then acknowledges two possibilities: the "spirit of jealousy" in the husband might be justified because she has defiled herself, or it might be unjustified because she has not. The law is designed to adjudicate between these two possibilities.
The husband's responsibility is not to act on his suspicion through violence, slander, or a hasty divorce. His duty is to bring the matter to the Lord's priest. This is an act of submission to God's authority. He also brings an offering, but it is a very particular kind of offering. It is barley meal, the grain of the poor. And it has no oil, which symbolizes the Holy Spirit's blessing, and no frankincense, which symbolizes the sweet aroma of acceptable prayer. This is a stark, grim offering. It is called a "grain offering of jealousy" and a "reminder of iniquity." It is not a pleasing aroma to the Lord; it is the stench of a potential covenant-breaking sin being brought into the light for judgment.
The Divine Tribunal (vv. 16-22)
The priest then takes over, acting as the agent of God's court. The woman is made to "stand before Yahweh." This is the critical action. She is not on trial before her husband or the community, but before the living God. The priest prepares a mixture that is saturated with theological symbolism. He takes holy water, water from the sacred laver, in an earthenware vessel, a common clay pot representing our fragile humanity. To this he adds dust from the floor of the tabernacle. This dust connects us back to creation and the curse. Man was made from dust, and the curse on the serpent was that he would eat dust. This is a solemn reminder of our mortality and our fallenness.
The priest then unbinds the woman's hair. This was a sign of shame or mourning, stripping away her normal social covering and leaving her exposed before God. He places the grain offering in her hands, making her hold the very symbol of the iniquity in question. The priest holds the "water of bitterness that brings curses."
Then comes the formal oath. The priest lays out both outcomes clearly. If she is innocent, she will "be free from this water." This is a promise of public vindication. But if she is guilty, a specific curse is invoked: "Yahweh make you a curse... by Yahweh making your thigh fall away and your abdomen swell." We should not think of this in grotesque, literalistic terms. The "thigh" is a biblical euphemism for the reproductive organs, the source of posterity. The curse is a direct attack on her fruitfulness. It likely means she will miscarry any illegitimate child and be rendered barren. In a culture where children were the supreme blessing, this was a devastating judgment. It was a covenantal curse, the opposite of the blessing of life and fruitfulness. The woman must assent to this judgment, saying, "Amen. Amen." She is agreeing to submit her case to God's perfect justice.
The Supernatural Verdict (vv. 23-28)
The process continues with even more potent symbolism. The priest writes the very words of the curse on a scroll and then washes the ink off into the water. She is literally going to drink the words of the curse. The written Word of God is to be internalized, and it will either vindicate or condemn. After waving the offering before the Lord, the priest makes her drink the water.
The result is supernatural and binary. There is no middle ground. If she is guilty, the water goes into her and causes bitterness, and the curse of barrenness comes upon her. She becomes a public example of God's judgment on adultery. But look at the alternative, for this is the heart of the law's mercy. "But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive a seed." Her innocence is not just declared; it is demonstrated by a divine blessing. She is not simply acquitted; she is vindicated by God Himself, who opens her womb. The cloud of suspicion is not just lifted; it is obliterated by the sunshine of God's favor. The marriage can be restored, not on the flimsy basis of "let's agree to move on," but on the bedrock of a direct verdict from heaven.
Restoring Order (v. 29-31)
The passage concludes with a summary. This is the law for this specific, otherwise irresolvable situation. And notice the final verse: "Moreover, the man will be free from guilt, but that woman shall bear her guilt." If the husband brought his wife for this trial and she was proven innocent, he was not guilty of bringing a false charge. Why? Because he did not take matters into his own hands. He did not slander her or abuse her. He followed God's prescribed method for resolving his jealousy. He submitted to God's process, and is therefore free from guilt. If she is guilty, however, the guilt is hers alone. The law restores order by assigning responsibility precisely where it belongs.
The Gospel in the Bitter Water
Like so many of the strange rituals of the Old Testament, this one throws a long shadow that lands on the cross of Jesus Christ. If we have eyes to see, this is a beautiful picture of the gospel.
We, the Church, are the bride of Christ. And we are not an innocent bride falsely accused. We are a guilty bride. We have gone astray, we have been unfaithful, and we have committed spiritual adultery with the idols of this world. Our sin is hidden, deep within the heart, with no human witnesses. We stand before God defiled.
And there is a cup of bitter water that brings a curse. It is the cup of the wrath of God, which is His just response to all iniquity. That is the cup that we deserved to drink. That is the curse of barrenness and death that was our rightful sentence.
But our Husband, the Lord Jesus, did not make us drink it. In an act of unfathomable love, He stood in our place before Yahweh. He took the cup of bitterness from our hands, and He drank it Himself. On the cross, He drank the full measure of God's curse against our adultery down to the dregs. He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" as He swallowed the bitterness of our sin.
The curse that should have fallen on us, fell on Him. His "thigh" was pierced, and His "abdomen" was struck. He bore the full consequences of our defilement. And what is the result for us, the guilty bride? Because He drank the curse, we are declared innocent. We are now "free and conceive a seed." Through His substitutionary ordeal, we are not only forgiven but made fruitful. We are enabled to bear the fruit of the Spirit and bring forth spiritual children for the kingdom of God. This bizarre law in the book of Numbers turns out to be a glorious portrait of the gospel. It is the story of how God provides a way for a guilty bride to be declared clean, vindicated, and fruitful, all because her loving Husband drank the water of bitterness for her.