Numbers 5

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TALKS FOR GROWING CHRISTIANS

Three Areas of Law Designed by God to Protect His People

BACKGROUND NOTES



DOCTRINAL POINT(S)

  1. The Law of Separation protected the health of the camp.

  2. The Law of Recompense protected the injured of the camp.

  3. The Law of Jealousy protected the women of the camp.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

  1. Thank the Lord that He remembers that we are dust.

QUESTIONS

  1. Who did God protect with these three laws?

  2. Summarize the Law of Separation.

  3. Summarize the Law of Restitution.

  4. What was the offender to do if the person they wronged had already died?

  5. How did the law against marital infidelity, the Law of Jealousy, protect the women?

ANSWERS

  1. He protected the health of everyone in the camp. He protected the injured and the women of the camp.

  2. People with contagious diseases or infections were quarantined from the rest of the camp for a specified time.

  3. Anyone who wronged a fellow Israelite had to confess his sin, give an offering, and make full restitution for the wrong plus an additional twenty percent.

  4. He was to pay restitution to the surviving relatives. If there were no relatives, he was to offer restitution to God, through the priests.

  5. It gave the woman a way to prove her innocence publicly and prevent rumors and scandals. Also, since this legal procedure was demanded under the Law, it protected the woman from the rash actions of a jealous husband.

DISCUSS/CONSIDER

  1. The laws concerning physical holiness symbolized the covenant community’s spiritual holiness. God is holy. He dwells in the midst of His people. In the church today unconfessed sin infects and defiles the body of Christ. Have you seen the negative effects on a local church when sin is not judged? Now discuss the issue of paying full restitution when you have wronged someone. Often we do not apologize and repair the situation out of embarrassment or pride. Are you in the midst of an unresolved conflict with a brother or sister in Christ? Make it right without delay (Acts 24:16).

  2. Review the process of the law of jealousy. Although this law may strike us as odd at first, it carries an important spiritual picture. In the law, the woman was symbolically submitting herself to God and His word, when she drank the words of the curses that had been scraped into the water. God miraculously controlled the outcome of this test. We need to submit to the standards of the word of God and let our lives be examined by Scripture. See Psalm 139:23-24. Are you drinking the water of God’s word and allowing it to examine your life and convict your conscience?

CHALLENGE

  1. Read Psalm 103:13-14. We do not have to be afraid to allow God’s word to examine our lives. We can thank Him that He is a gracious and merciful God and He remembers that we are dust.

KEY VERSES

  • “As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:13-14

  • “You shall put them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camps in the midst of which I dwell.” Numbers 5:3

  • “This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself.” Numbers 5:29

Talks, Old Testament, NumbersRon ReidNUMBERS 5