E. God’s Will for His People: Camp Purity (5:1-31)

Numbers now shifts its focus from census lists to regulations that were to govern individual’s relationships to each other. But the overarching concern was still the same—purity in the camp and conformity to the divine will—as that in chs. 1-4.

Three different cases are delineated. The first involved the expulsion from the camp of any person who, for any reason, was unclean (vv.1-4). It is imperative that we not equate uncleanness with sinfulness. For example, to be the victim of some ravaging skin disease does not automatically mean that the diseased person is a sinner. In the OT uncleanness is a physical concern, a situation that has the potential to contaminate the dwelling place of God. Viewing uncleanness in moral categories is more an emphasis of the NT, but one that is without meaning without the OT’s earlier concerns.

The second case involved a situation where one person stole from another, i.e., one believer from another believer (vv.5-10). In the case of such a trespass, the offending culprit confessed his sin first, then made full restitution plus 20 percent. This recalls exactly the counsel given by Jesus (Mt 5:23), i.e., making things right with people precedes making things right with God. The point in the whole section is, of course, that God’s people cannot possibly be a match for the enemy when their own relationships with one another have soured.

The third case concerned (1) the husband whose wife was guilty of adultery, but for which the husband lacked proof, and (2) the husband who suspected his wife of infidelity (vv.11-31). Thus, not only actual sin must be dealt with (vv.5-10), but possible sin as well. In such an instance the wife was subjected to an annoying but not life-threatening ordeal to determine guilt or innocence. (By the way, there was no corresponding law that addressed the concerns of the suspicious wife.) Adultery in the OT was not only a sin, a violation of moral law, but an act that contaminated and unleashed impurity in God’s camp. As such it was an aberration that must be confronted quickly and thoroughly.