THROUGH THE BIBLE - Numbers..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So Numbers chapter 5 and I'm reading from the ESV version. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp anyone who is leprous or has a discharge and anyone who is unclean through contact with the dead.

You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp in the midst of which I dwell. And the people of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp, as the Lord said to Moses, so the people of Israel did. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel. When a man or a woman commits any of the sins that the people commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has committed, and he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it, and giving it to whom? to him to whom he did the wrong.

But if the man has no next of kin to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for the wrong shall go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement with which atonement is made for him. and every contribution all the holy donations of the people of israel which they bring to the priest shall be his each one shall keep his holy donation whatever anyone gives to the priest shall be his 11 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, if a man lies with her sexually and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected, though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act, And if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance. And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord.

And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. And the priest shall set her or set the woman before the Lord and unbind her hair or the hair of the woman's head and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse. Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanliness while you were under your husband's authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse. But if you have gone astray, though you were under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you, then let the priests make the woman take the oath of the curse and say to the woman, 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. Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off with the water of bitterness. And he shall make the womb drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse.

And the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain. And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand and shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar. And the priest shall take a handful of grain offering as its memorial portion and burn it on the altar, and afterwards shall make the woman drink the water. 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 the thighs shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.

This is the law in cases of jealousy when a wife, though under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself, or when the spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife. Then he shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall carry out for her all this law. The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity. Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord remains forever.

Well, brothers and sisters, we have a very interesting chapter before us here in the fifth chapter of the book of Numbers. It's very, very interesting, but it's also, I hope, we'll come to see very Christological, because I hope you can see that Christ is all over this chapter, all over this chapter. Now, we know the context of where we are in the book. We know that the people of Israel are now at the base or the foot of the Mount Sinai, and they're being prepared to move on. come chapter 10, they're going to move from the base of Sinai, and they're going to begin their journey to the land promised by Yahweh, by God, to their father Abraham, Isaac, and Isaac.

That land flowing with milk and honey. But here what we have is God still giving them instruction. Instruction of how they ought to be as a people, especially with Him being in their midst. So, at the center of what we find here is that Yahweh is holy, he is perfect, he is clean, and therefore his people ought to be pure, holy, and clean. That is the standard of God for God's people.

The chapter is nearly divided into three sections. From verse 1 through 4, it speaks to the ritual purity of cleanliness of the people, which is mandated by God. Then we have verses 5 through 10 which speak to the importance of dealing with sin among the people in the camp who are before the Lord. Then we have the section in verse 11 through the end of the chapter, the longest by far, and that speaks to the marital faithfulness. And it gives instruction, as we heard, of how to deal with a husband's suspicion that his wife has become unfaithful to him.

And if that is the case, what needs to be done to find that out when there are no witnesses? Now, what we have before us in verses one through four, and we'll start there, is ritual purity and cleanliness, which is emphasised in this section. Now in our study in the book of Leviticus from chapters 11 through 15, we've worked our way through the first three books of the Bible, and now we're in Numbers. We've gone through Leviticus. So those chapters from 11 through 15 were very much predominantly emphasizing the purity and the cleanliness of the people of Israel.

Ritual purity and ceremonial cleanliness was an essential if they were to dwell among a perfect and pure and a thrice holy God. And so a lot of what we read here in this chapter has already been articulated for us in previous verses or chapters in the book of Leviticus. But what we have here is in particular three cases of uncleanliness, or how people can become defiled or unclean. And the three instances we have in the first four verses are one, leprosy, bodily discharges, and contact with a dead person. All three would make a person ritually unclean, ceremonially unclean.

And beloved, if we've learned anything in the book of Leviticus thus far, when we work through that book, we would know over and over and over again, we're told the message that God is pure, that God is infinitely holy. and nothing short of pure and holy and clean ought to enter into His presence. He has given these people an incredible privilege of dwelling among them. He has covenanted with these people, I will be your God and you will be my people. However, you are to remain clean.

You are to remain pure. You are to be holy as I am holy. That's the instruction that God has given to his people. Nothing, nothing defiled is to be tolerated in the camp, especially among the tabernacle of God. Because in Leviticus chapter 15, verse 31, it warns that the tabernacle of God can be defiled, and the wrath of God will come upon those who defile the tabernacle.

And that's why, of course, every year you have Yom Kippur, which is a day where the tabernacle is cleansed from impurity and the defilement of just being human. The human being defiles everything he comes across because of his own sin. So the people of Israel were to be diligent in their ritual cleanliness before the Lord. And the point is that God is holy. Even to the case that if someone is ceremonially unclean, we were told in the book of Leviticus, if someone is unclean and they come and partake of the peace offering by eating of the sacrifice, the Bible says that that person needs to be cut off from among the people.

That's how serious God is, that the people remain clean. Being cut off is very likely to mean being killed. It means death. I'm not going to spend too much time explaining the purity laws and the ceremonial cleanliness laws, because we've already covered those when we went through the Book of Leviticus. But it will suffice to say that the three examples we're given, serious skin disease called leprosy in our text, bodily discharges, and of course, coming in contact with a dead person, will all make a person unclean.

Now the first of two of those, which is the serious skin diseases and bodily discharges, these two make a person unclean because they make a person incomplete. Someone who has a skin disease or a bodily discharge or the fluids that should remain in are coming out, they're making a person incomplete or unwhole. And God is a God who is complete and only completeness comes into his presence. And so that would make a person ceremonially impure and unclean. And we're told also that anything dead or anyone who contacts anything that is dead will also become unclean.

You see, death is the result of sin. Death is the result of unrighteousness, and that contamination, the contamination of death, must be far removed from the camp. It must be far removed from the living God. Death must not be in His presence. If someone was to die and you touch that person, you become unclean.

If an animal were to die and you touch the carcass, you would be unclean. In the case of an animal, it's one day. In the case of a human being, it's seven days. We'll be told that later on in the book of Numbers chapter 19. But also, brothers and sisters, we need to realize that uncleanliness is transferred from one person to another.

You see, you're not dead, but you touch a dead person or a dead carcass, and that uncleanliness comes onto you. You become defiled with uncleanliness. It's the same if someone touches someone with a bodily discharge. It's the same there. If someone has leprosy, a serious skin disease, and someone in the camp touches that person, they become unclean.

See, this is transferable. The uncleanliness, the ritual impurity is transferable from one person to another. So the people here must be thinking, How easy is it for me to be contaminated in this world? If you're alive and your heart beats, it's just a matter of time, isn't it? It's just a matter of time before one becomes unclean at one point in their life.

And we know that unclean people, they don't remain in the camp among the people of God and before Yahweh. An unclean person must be expelled from the camp. They must be taken out of the camp and from before the presence of God himself. Now, of course, the purity laws were painting to something so much more. Something more profound than the physical aspect of the law.

We know that. We've discussed these things before. God is always more concerned with what is within than what is on the outside. If you remember, in Matthew 15, He said that it's not what you put into your mouth that makes you unclean or impure. It's what comes out of your heart.

Because that's where sin resides. It resides in your heart. And God is always more concerned with your spiritual cleanliness than your physical cleanliness. But this was a picture, it was pointing to something greater for the people of Israel. That they would see through these physical laws and it would be hammered into their mind over and over again that God is so holy that He won't tolerate anything unclean.

He won't tolerate anything impure. That means He doesn't tolerate anything sinful. Nothing short of perfection enters into his holy presence. And therein lies the problem. Because contamination, impurity, and uncleanliness is inevitable to come.

Even touching a person with a bodily discharge that you're not even aware of, and you become unclean. What have you done? Just a matter of time and you become unclean. Israel was to be constantly thinking, as hard as we try, we are all at one point or another will be removed from the presence of God because we are unclean. Who is worthy?

Who is worthy to be in the presence of God? And they would be thinking it is only by His mercy, in any case, once they become unclean and they're put outside the camp and they're brought back and they're clean again. It's only by the mercy of God that Yahweh allows them back into the camp, is it not? No doubt they knew this. And they knew in the back of their minds, and I think this is what Yahweh was trying to teach his people, that if they have any chance of permanently dwelling in the presence of God, in an unbroken relationship with him, meaning that they have to be in a perpetual state of cleanliness, then he would require mercy, mercy from God, and mercy, and mercy for them not to get what they deserve.

That's the only way, that's the only way they can remain permanently clean. 2,000 years later, that's exactly what the Son of Man had come to do. It's no coincidence that the gospel according to Matthew, whose original readers were the Jews and people who definitely understood the Torah, understood these laws, that the first miracle he recorded of Christ was a leper being healed by Jesus Christ. But when you hear how he records it, it's interesting because he said that Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the leper. In the very next chapter, in Matthew, we're told that a woman who has been bleeding for some 12 years comes and touches the hem of the garment of Jesus Christ, and she's made well.

And then in that same chapter, Jesus comes to a girl who had been dead. She's lying dead in her home. And then Jesus, we're told, takes her by the hand and makes her live. In all instances, Jesus himself would have become defiled according to the law. He would need to be cast out of the camp, right?

Unclean. That's where defiled people go. But isn't that what Jesus did? Isn't that where Jesus suffered for his people? Hebrews 13 tells us he suffered outside the camp to sanctify his people by his own blood.

That's what he came to do. To take upon himself the impurities and the uncleanliness of his people. To take the curse that they deserve in order to make them permanently clean. And he put that upon himself. Beautiful verse that displays that reality.

That truth is profound. It's found in 2 Corinthians 5.21. Most of you know it off by hand. And it says, For our sake he made himself to be sin, who knew no sin.

This is the perfect son of God, the one who is righteous in every sense, the one who has never been unclean, he's never been impure, never did he know a sin, and yet we're told he became sin, so that in him we, that is God's people, might become the righteousness of God. What a glorious verse. The next section from verse 5 to 10, that reality is also seen. We're told when a person commits a sin or breaks faith is what is used in verse 6. Breaks faith with the Lord and at the point that he realizes his or her guilt, That is, when your conscience convicts you of sin, because there are instances you may not have known, but when your conscience convicts you, something is made known, and you realize, I have now sinned, I've broken faith against God.

At that point, the Bible is telling us here in this section that that sin must be dealt with. Not neglected. Dealt with. You've committed a trespass against God and your neighbor. And now you are aware of that trespass.

You must deal with that sin. And the Lord gives three stages to deal with the sin in this text. The first is in verse 7. A person must confess the sin. In other words, not suppress it.

Not try to get away with the sin. Okay, now I realize it. It's been a few days, a few months. Maybe I'll just let it go. No, no, no.

Once the Lord brings sin to remembrance, we must deal with that sin. its impurity, its uncleanliness within, then we deal with that sin. We confess it. I've wronged God and I've wronged my neighbor. Now I must humbly come before God and before neighbor and confess and admit my sin and seek forgiveness.

Confess the sins, the first of the three stages. And if it's true, genuine confession, it's rooted in the heart that seeks to make things right. The second thing we're told is restitution must be made. Whatever harm or cost your sin has caused your neighbor, you have to repay. You're in debt to him because of your own sin.

You restore that which you have taken away from your neighbor. That's the principle. And then on top of that, you pay one fifth. That's the principle here. And we spoke about that when we went through the book of Leviticus.

It's found in Leviticus chapter six. Now, that's enough, right? They've confessed their sin. Sin has been made aware of sin. And now I know I've sinned.

I've confessed my sin. And then I will now go make restitution for the things that I owe my neighbor. That should be enough, right? You see, even now as New Testament Christians, We know that if we've wronged our neighbor, that's what we should do. We should confess our sins before the Lord and ask for forgiveness.

We should confess our sin to neighbor. And then if we've wronged our neighbor, if we've cost them anything, then we should take full responsibility for the things or the harm that we have done. And we might not add the one fifth or the 20% to that, but we will at least fully take care of the damage that we caused. Is that enough though? Too often we forget that when we confess and we restore, it's not actually sufficient at all.

Sure, we've humbled ourselves to admit guilt. Sure, we've paid our debt to our neighbor. But who's our sin or who has our sin affected the most? We violated God's perfect law. We've gone into unrighteousness when God has called us to righteousness.

And the people of Israel were taught this lesson because after confession and after restitution, we're told that the third thing, if you see that in your text, they were to bring a ram offering. A ram offering to make atonement for sins. You see, their own sin before the Lord requires a ram to shed his blood and to die in their place. The wages of sin is death. Confession and restitution may suffice to make things right between you and your neighbor, but God's wrath burns upon unrighteousness.

And unrighteousness is deserving of death. But the ram was a picture. It was a picture of substitution to come. The offerer would see a vivid picture of this animal being slaughtered before them, their hand placed on the ram's head as to identify with the ram. It's offered as an atoning sacrifice, that that animal is bearing the penalty that I deserve.

That's the picture. And of course, as New Testament Christians, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that these sacrifices were all types and shadows of the One to come, the once and for all sacrificed Jesus Christ. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Without that sacrifice, beloved, all the confession in the world is meaningless. Without that sacrifice, all the restitution in the world is completely meaningless.

Everything these people did was predicated upon Christ to come and be that once and for all sacrifice. Everything. Otherwise, if Jesus didn't come, they're not forgiven. They're not forgiven. Without sacrifice, we'd still be in our sins.

They'd still be in their sins. Because that debt is too great for either they or us to pay. None of us have enough to pay for that debt before the Lord. That is the grace that we find on the cross of Jesus Christ. And the final and longest of our sections, but it won't be the longest time I explain it, I hope, is from verses 11 through 31.

And it speaks to the faithfulness of a marriage and what should be done if trust is broken. That is, if a husband suspects his wife of being unfaithful to him, or if he has been overcome with a spirit of jealousy because he suspects her of doing the wrong thing, of being with another man, a very serious, wicked sin. He has no proof of the infidelity, but he has a strong suspicion. So the Lord has given instruction of how he should deal with that. Now, of course, our God is a God who sits on the throne of justice.

So far be it from him that he would penalize someone for something they've never done. That's not our Lord. So he will put a prescription out because the woman may be guilty indeed, or she may be innocent and her husband may be in sin. Either way, the Lord is concerned with justice. And so he gives the prescription from verse 11 through 31, and it must be followed.

And even though there are no witnesses to the fact, and that's the whole idea, no one knows. The sin is now only known to God and the woman in her heart. Of course, the other man's not there. So who reveals the secrets of the heart? Yahweh himself, God himself.

And so what we have here is an example to be followed so that God will reveal the contents of the heart. And it's very interesting. The husband is to bring his wife to the priest to the tabernacle. And he used to bring with his wife a grain offering. It's a grain offering of jealousy.

And the priest takes the wife and he takes her now before the Lord. He used to get an earthen vessel and he used to fill it up with water. And then he used to take some of the dust from the ground of the tabernacle and put it in the water and mix that in. Wife's hair is typically unbound, and there's a lot of meaning to a lot of this, but I'm not going to explain that here this evening because of the fact of time. But we'll look at the big picture.

And then holding the water in his hand, the priest will then recite. He'll recite something, either a blessing or a curse that will come upon this woman, depending upon if she's found guilty or if she's found innocent. After this, After hearing this, the wife is to say, amen, amen, as if to say, I agree with this. I'm going to partake with this ceremony, with this ritual, because I agree to it completely. And then the priest, we're told, he writes the curse in a book, and then he washes that book with the water that he had.

The wife is now, or after this, an offering is to be presented to the Lord as a portion of the grain offering on the altar. And then the wife is to drink. The wife is to drink. She's innocent. She's pain-free, and she'll be blessed by God with a healthy, child-bearing womb.

No harm done. The Lord will pronounce her innocent. The sin's on the husband already, right? The husband has accused his wife of something she hasn't done. Her husband's allegations are proven to be sinful and baseless.

But if she's guilty, the curse of God shall befall her. The Lord who knows the contents of the heart will now bring about his judgment. so that all will know. We're told here that the womb will swell and the thigh will fall away. What that really means exactly is difficult to know, but it's enough for us to look back and say this sounds like a pretty severe curse from the Lord.

And that's probably all we need to know at this point. It's a severe curse that will come upon the woman if she's found guilty. And her guilt will be made known to the people, and she'll be known from that point as a defiled woman. Her wickedness will be revealed, even though no one has proof of her sin. Only God does, and God's going to reveal it.

Now, beloved brothers and sisters, as we read this, it's certainly true that the Lord is concerned that the marriages in the covenant community people in that camp to be deemed holy. It is God who unites two people together, a husband and a wife. He's the one who makes two flesh into one. It is a holy, covenantal marriage and it should be deemed as holy. And God is very, very concerned with the sacredness of a marriage.

But I have to ask you, is a physical marriage, is that the only message we find in this prescription? I think not. It is important, but I think not. You see, the Lord is painting a picture again. Every one of these sections are pictures to be painted for the people there and for our edification as well.

See, our relationship, the relationship between God and his people over and over again in the Old Testament is one that is known to be a husband with his wife. The people of God are known to be the bride and he her husband. The language is throughout the Old Testament and of course the New Testament also. We are the bride of Christ. But it makes sense to charge Israel through the prophets as we see as we progress through the Old Testament.

We'll see a charge against Israel over and over again of spiritual adultery. The book of Hosea is a classic example of this. See, Yahweh has covenanted with Israel, with these people now in the base of Sinai. And she has covenanted to be faithful to Yahweh. It was a two-way covenant, if you remember.

All that the Lord has said, we will do. But we know the story. We know over and over again, Israel's history, she's committed adultery with other gods, and she's given her heart, she's prostituted her heart to idols. An unfaithful wife is worthy of the curse of God, is she not? That's what we're told.

Now, although no record is being given that this prescription is practiced in Israel, or no record of its practice, I should say, in this context at least, but the spiritual adultery is evident throughout. But don't be too quick to point the finger. Because we are guilty of the same. Our hearts are desperately unfaithful to the Creator who created us for His glory. He's the Creator and we are the creature, and the attitude to the Creator by the creature should be one of perfect obedience.

Anything short of perfect obedience is unrighteousness. It's unfaithfulness to God. On the outside we might look like angels, but He knows the secrets of our hearts, does He not? And if the, just like the wife was suspected of foul play, so it will be for us. Everything in here will one day be revealed.

There might not be any evidence around us, but everything in here will one day be revealed. So my question to you, and I'm gonna end with this. How will you fare up if you drank that cup? Have you been completely and perfectly faithful to God? What will the verdict be?

You don't have to answer that question. I know the answer. I'm no prophet, but I know the answer. The answers given to us in God's word all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every single one of us is guilty.

Everyone here and every human being in this world, if we drink that cup, it will immediately slump over in excruciating abdominal pain. We'll be in so much pain. Why? Because the curse of God will come upon us because we are all guilty and the cry will be guilty, guilty, guilty. You are unfaithful.

I am unfaithful in and of myself. It will be the bitter, cursed cup of the wrath of God being poured out upon unrighteousness and beloved. That is just. That's the bad news. But there's good news that follows.

You can't end with the bad news. That's grace. 2,000 years ago, there was a perfect and righteous one in Jesus Christ in a place called Gethsemane. Praying to the Father, he was in such anguish. His sweat drops like blood coming from his forehead, because he was so troubled in his spirit.

Because he who knew no sin, no sin, perfectly righteous, perfectly pure, perfectly clean, the only clean one. the son of God. He's in that place, sweating drops of blood because of what's coming upon him. But willingly, not against his will, willingly in complete obedience to his father's will and in his perfect, unfathomable love for his bride. He snatches the cup from the hand of his wife and he says, I'll drink that.

I know you're guilty. You don't need to drink that to tell me that you're guilty. I know. I see your heart. I know.

I know you're guilty, but I love you. And I will drink the bitter cup of the wrath of God on your behalf because I love you. I will take your shame. I will take your reproach. I will take your penalty.

so that you may be blessed with eternal life. That's the blessing of being Christ Jesus. Let's pray.