Number 3-6

The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)

Numbers 3 - No mention of any women.

Numbers 4 - No mention of any women.

5:3 - God commands the Israelites to put any person who is leprous, has a discharge or has touched a corpse, male or female, outside the camp.
5:6-7 - When a man of a woman wrongs another breaking faith with the Lord, that person incurs guilt and shall confess the sin that has been committed.
5:11-33 - Concerning an unfaithful wife. If a man's wife goes astray and cheats on her husband and a fit of jealous comes over him because his wife defiled herself, or if a fit of jealousy comes over the husband even though his wife has not defiled herself the man shall bring his wife to the priest. The man will bring an offering of one tenth of an ephah of barley flour with no oil and no frankincense on it since it is an offering of jealousy. The priest shall set her before the Lord and take holy water in an earthen vessel and add some of the dust that is on the tabernacle floor to the water. The priest will dishevel her hair and place the grain offering into the woman's hands. She shall drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and if she has not been unfaithful then she will be immune to it and be able to bear children, but if she has been unfaithful under her husband's authority and has defiled him then her uterus shall drop and her womb discharge. The priest shall put this into writing and wash it off into the water of bitterness. The woman then drinks the water and a bitter pain shall enter her. Then the priest will offer up the grain to the Lord. This is the law in the case of jealousy and the priest shall apply this entire lawto the woman. The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.

6:2-4 - If an Israelite, man or woman, takes a special vow, the vow of a nazarite, to separate themselves from the Lord they shall separate themselves from strong drink and wine.
6:7 - Even if father or mother, brother or sister should die, they may not defile themselves because their consecration to God is upon the head.
6:14 - Nazarite offering to the Lord includes: a one year old unblemished male lamb, a one year old ewe lamb without blemish, and a ram without blemish.

My Comments

So I guess the big part here is the unfaithful woman section. I do enjoy how the man only has to have a fit of jealousy to be able to bring his wife forward to be tested by the Lord on her faithfulness. No evidence needed, no eye witness testimony. He just has to think that maybe his wife might have been defiled by another man to bring her forward. And the wife bears the entire burden of the pain of the "bitter water" and the entire burden of the sin upon her, whether she is innocent of not, it seems. So yeah, that's so very just, right? Truly only a great and loving God could come up with such a law.

And what is so special about the dirt on the tabernacle floor? Is it filled with the power of God or something? Really, the woman is just drinking dirty water so the only thing that determines whether she's innocent or not is whether she gets an infection, bacterial or viral, from the dirt of not. Which wouldn't be that weird since I'm sure the entire tabernacle is coated with the blood of all types of animals, definitely not a clean environment nor a place I would want to injest anything that had been on the floor.

But does it only count if her womb explodes? Is it supposed to bring upon a horrible miscarriage and that's how you know she's been unfaithful, so a small cold or flu wouldn't be evidence that she's been unfaithful? Which, of course, brings up again the issue on whether God is against abortion or not, if this is supposed to expel a fetus in the process and all. From what I've seen so far God has no qualms with the slaughter of babies in utero or even children that are out of the womb. I guess God couldn't be considered pro-life or pro-choice, instead I think the best way to describe his views would be pro-death. Children are just a means to an end and usually that end is some sort of lesson to be learned. Here the lesson is don't do anything that may make your husband think that you have been unfaithful to him in any way shape or form. Of course many people, including the all loving God, would probably say it's not God's fault the fetus is killed in this process but the woman's because she was unfaithful. If she hadn't been unfaithful then she wouldn't have lost the baby ergo God is still the awesome all loving being he's claimed to be and that woman is a cheating whore. It's always easy to twist it to make God the "good guy" in any situation in the Bible, but just because you can twist it that way doesn't make it true.

Random side note: Why does God insist on the camp being so clean because he's gonna be there? Why do they have to get rid of all the sick and unclean? God is incorporeal and omnipresent, so if he can't get sick then why does he care if they are there or not. And if he's supposedly everywhere at once then why does he state he will specifically be in that camp and that's why the sick must be removed. If he's everywhere at once it really doesn't matter where the people are, now does it?

Tomorrow: Numbers 7-10