Numbers 5: Unclean People --- 2019/06/11

Rev. John Lukomski, retired pastor, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Numbers 5.

Numbers chapter 5 is one of the strangest and most foreign parts of the Bible from our modern Western perspective. What is leprosy? Why did people with leprosy have to live in quarantine outside of the Israelite camp? Besides this passage about disease, most of the chapter deals with suspicions and accusations of adultery. But what is this “water of bitterness that brings the curse”? Some modern readers have declared this passage to be hypocritical, superstitious, and misogynistic.

When we consider the ancient Near Eastern setting, we see God graciously caring for His people. God gave Moses laws which were comprehensible in the Israelites’ context, and yet these procedures showed much greater restraint than those of Israel’s neighbors. In the end, as good as these laws were though, they merely foreshadowed something greater to come. Our Lord Jesus gave forgiveness and healing to lepers, thieves, and adulterers. Their lives were transformed for service and love that far exceeded any rules or requirements.