Numbers 5:23

Numbers 5:23 says, And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water:  This is still talking about a woman whose husband thinks she is cheating on him, and the priest is to write a curse against her that would apply if she is and to blot it out with bitter water.  Verse twenty-four adds, And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter.  The woman would then be forced to drink the bitter water.  It would seem that confession might have been easier, except the husband probably wouldn't have believed her if she didn't confess.  Verse twenty-five continues, Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the LORD, and offer it upon the altar:  The priest was then to take the jealousy offering from the woman and wave it before before God and offer it on the altar.  It didn't matter whether the woman was guilty or innocent, since this was an offering given because of the husband's jealousy.   Hopefully, when we give offerings to God it will be for a more positive reason than jealousy.  Verse twenty-six states, And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water.  The priest was then to burn a handful of the offering, and then have the woman drink the water.  I have to assume that this is just a repeating of the earlier statement about the woman being forced to drink the water and not a second time to drink it.  Verse twenty-seven adds, And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.  If the woman was guilty, the bitter water would cause her to suffer greatly physically.  It was really not the water though, but God's judgment of the woman’s sin, which was not hidden from Him, that would cause this.  He could have just as easily have caused this to happen without all the ritual, just as He could today.  Verse twenty-eight continues, And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.  If the woman was innocent, then she would not suffer and would be physically able to have children.  We are not told of a test for a man if the wife was jealous of him, and some people say because of this that God is not an impartial God, but we cannot believe in God as a God of love and forgiveness and see Him as being partial to some people.  Verse twenty-nine says, This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled;  Verse thirty adds, Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.  This law applied to both women who were guilty and to those whose husband just believed them to be.  Matthew Henty says that if the husband was also guilty that the woman would not be affected according to Rabbinic teaching, but this does not state that, and that because of this that the ritual became almost unused in time.  We do know that men and women are held equally responsible by God when it comes to adultery.  Verse thirty-one continues, Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.  I believe that the man's iniquity would have been to divorce his wife unjustly, but if she were innocent, he would have still been guilty of allowing his jealousy been guilty of falsely accusing her.  We can never let our own fears or jealous to cause us to accuse someone else of sin and still be effective in our life as followers of Christ.