Numbers 5:11-31 – Be faithful, especially in our marriage.

Marriage has frequently been used in the Bible to illustrate God’s relationship with His people. Like Israel, the church is married to God. Like every marital relationship, faithfulness is required and valued. So God also values faithfulness in a wife’s relationship with her husband. When Israel committed idolatry, God reckoned it to be spiritual adultery and a breach of relationship with Him. Just as spiritual adultery is a breach in relationship with Him, a physical adultery committed by a wife is a breach in a marital relationship with her husband. Just as God expects fidelity from His people, He also expects a wife to be faithful to her husband.

In the first 10 verses of Numbers 5, God dealt with the sins of defilement and transgression. In Numbers 5:11-31, He sets out to deal with the issue of unfaithfulness, a sin commonly found in a marriage. While the account here talks about the unfaithfulness of a wife, we need to know that infidelity is not just an issue with a wife. In fact, a husband is equally if not more capable of being unfaithful in marriage. The intention of the passage is not to denigrate wives, but to show us how God detests unfaithfulness and wants it to be dealt with.

When a husband suspects his wife to be unfaithful, she would be made to go through a very unusual procedure to ascertain her guilt or innocence. The whole process of determining the unfaithfulness of a wife is described in these verses. What is important for us to know in a situation like this is that firstly marital unfaithfulness, though hidden from one’s spouse, is never hidden from the eye of God. He knows every infidelity of His people. Secondly, because nothing is hidden from God, besides confronting our spouse, we should bring the suspicion of infidelity before God in prayer and trust Him to help us deal with it. Thirdly, God wants us to know that it will be a painful and bitter experience for a person when He exposes the infidelity. Wisdom suggests that every marital infidelity should be dealt with and resolved soonest before God exposes it.  

Living together as husband and wife requires tenacity, and faithfulness to the marriage will make it easier. Keeping faith in a marriage is not an option but a priority. With the help of God, make loyalty our goal in marriage!