Can you break your marriage covenant in secret?
unfaithful or treacherous act, trespass: ma‛al מעל
Think about how common adultery is in America today, even including the construction
of a website dedicated to providing opportunities to commit this act. Ashley Madison
even advertises, “Life is short. Have an affair.®” Those two statements are their
registered trademark. Protected so that no one could copy their marketing of grievous
sin and protected so that the one who is the victim of the adultery can not find out.
“And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man’s
wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, and a man lies with her with semen, and it
has been hidden from her husband’s eyes, and is kept hidden, and she is defiled, and
there is no other witness against her, and she has not been caught;” (Numbers 5:12 – 13
LITV)
The ESV calls this “breaks faith with him” which in Hebrew is literally “and trespasses –
against him – a trespass (ma’al).” Trespass is in essence the crossing of a line that
should not be crossed. It can also mean to fall away after being close beside, to cross
that line by a willful act. This is the case addressed in this chapter of Numbers.
So what in particular is this transgression? It is breaking the covenant with a husband
by a willful act and it has been hidden from her husband’s eyes and is kept hidden. He
didn’t see it and no one told. That leaves the situation without a witness. Literally this
situation is “and lies – a man – with her – lying – seed” stating very clearly that they have
had intercourse including the man “sowing seed” with her.
What follows is a chain of evidence that shows adultery may be hidden from the eyes of
man but is never hidden from the eyes of our Creator God.
There is no magic in what follows in Numbers. This is not a spell carried out. The steps
outlined in the rest of the chapter all account for the God who sees what is hidden from
us and sometimes from ourselves and who acts on behalf of the innocent.
While this may be in a not-so-well known portion of the Bible, in Revelation 2:20 and
following is a rebuke against the church in Thyatira for tolerating “that woman Jezebel
who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice
sexual immorality. . .” In v.23 it says, “and all the churches will know that I am he who
searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.”
How is it they will know? “I will throw her into a sickbed. . .” (v. 22).
This is the outcome of the steps outlined in Numbers 5. In v. 19 of Numbers, the priest
has the woman accused take an oath that if she denies committing adultery and did not,
she is “free from this water of bitterness that brings a curse.” Read this part of Chapter
5 for the details of this water made with dust from the floor of the Tabernacle and given
her to drink. It will bring a curse upon her if she is guilty and hiding her willful sin.
If she is bold enough to drink this although guilty, the priest says to her, “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 the woman shall say,
‘Amen, Amen.’ (Numbers 5:21 – 22)
All this is done in the context of a grain offering made without oil or frankincense
because “it is a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.” (v.
15). When the grain offering is completed, she drinks the water mixed with dust.
“And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has
broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and
cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the
woman shall become a curse among her people.” (5:27)
In Revelation it is summed up as “I will throw her into a sickbed.”
The outcome is the same whether it is found in Torah in Numbers and God is called as
the witness against her to bring about the curses written in this part of the book. Or her
adultery is revealed by “the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose
feet are like burnished bronze.” (Rev. 2:18). The evidence is in her illness whether from
the left hand side or the right hand side of The Book we call The Bible.
The message is consistent no matter the address.
Listen to the words of the prophet, in this case a man being faithless with his wife:
“Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you
have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he
not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? . . . So guard yourselves
in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. For the man
who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers
his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts.” (Hosea 2:14 – 16 edited)
Breaking bad in marriage is never covered, it is always seen by YHVH of Hosts and by
the Son of God.
“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of
him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13 ESV). Whether it is from dust
mixed with water, or from the Son of God, be sure your faithlessness will be seen.