Insights Into The Covid-19 Church Era –Part XXXVI
One of the most harrowing scriptures of old wineskin judgment law is recorded Numbers 5:11-31. A jealous husband could make his wife’s life pure hell, even if she is innocent.
The Lord spoke to Moses, “Speak to the sons of Israel, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful, and has intercourse with another man, and it is undetected, hidden from her husband’s eyes, and there is no witnesses against her or caught in the act, if a spirit of jealousy come over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealously comes over him and he is jealous or his wife when she has not defiled herself, the man shall bring his wife to the priest with an offering of one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall not pour oil nor frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealously, a memorial, a reminder of iniquity.
The priest will have her stand before the Lord. He shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel and take dust that is on the tabernacle’s floor and put it into the water. The priest shall let her hair go loose, and place the grain offering of memorial in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealously. In the priest’s hand is to be the water of bitterness that brings a curse. He shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, ‘If no man has lain with you and if you have not gone astray into uncleanness, being under the authority of your husband, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse; If you, however, have gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband, by having intercourse’ (then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman), ‘the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people by the Lord’ making your thigh waste away and your abdomen swell; this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, and make your abdomen and your thigh waste away.’ The woman shall say, ‘Amen, Amen.’
The priest shall write these cures on the scroll and wash them off into the water of bitterness. He shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness. The priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand and shall wave the offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar; and the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the women drink the water. When he has made her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which bring a curse will go into her and cause bitterness, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will waste away, and the woman will become a curse among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive children.
This is the law of jealousy: when a wife, being under the authority of her husband goes astray and defiles herself, or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he shall then make the wife stand before the Lord, and the priest shall apply all this law to her. Moreover, the man will be free from guilt, but that woman shall bear her guilt.’”
Old wineskin judgment: Being beautiful could be a cure. A jealous, over protective husband could bring her total humiliation. The purpose of bringing her before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing body, was to find her guilty. The penalty was death by stoning. If innocent, she would “be free and conceive children.” She would be instructed to go home and have intercourse with her embarrassed, jealous husband in order to conceive children! How romantic is that?
New wineskin grace: If innocent, she would enter a side room off the Court of Men in Herod’s Temple to give a wave offering of thanks. Technically, being in the Court of Men, as an innocent woman, she would be equal to all her male peers. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatian 2:28)
The woman caught in the act of adultery was being dragged to the Sanhedrin for judgment when the Pharisees wanted to trick Jesus because they knew she was guilty. Jesus set the standard, “He who is without sin can throw the 1st stone.” Technically, He was the only one there qualified to throw it, but chose not to do so. Instead, He offered her the new wine of grace. She became the new wineskin that accepted it, and it changed her life. She was freed!