The Jealousy Ritual

““This is the law regarding jealousy when a wife goes astray and defiles herself while under her husband’s authority, or when a feeling of jealousy comes over a husband and he becomes jealous of his wife. He is to have the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest will apply this entire ritual to her. The husband will be free of guilt, but that woman will bear the consequences of her guilt.”” (Numbers 5:29–31, HCSB)

This ritual is some pretty powerful stuff. If women knew that this would happen to them if they were found out to be adulterous, they probably would not do it. Which is the point of the ritual. The ritual is there to discourage women from cheating on their husbands. 

While there is a procedure for dealing with sin in the church, it seems to me today that we don’t take seriously the consequences of violating the marriage vows. Of course, there are other consequences, but this Old Testament ritual, which is different than stoning a woman who has actually been caught in adultery, would be like a modern investigative tool. The priest operates like a private detective. You want to find out if your wife has been cheating on you, then bring her before the priest and let him try this ritual on her. 

Therefore, I ask myself, “What kind of application do we get from this passage?” If there is an application, it should remind us of the dangers of cheating on your spouse. The jealousy ritual reminds us that there are consequences to cheating others. 

Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash