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Dust on the Floor and No More

     Be careful where you go, don’t think you can go in a bar here and there and not be affected. Did you ever wonder why the bars are always so dark inside? Stay away from those type of “dark places.” You go into the darkness, you get the results. Watch the garments you put on your body. Until YHVH brought this home to me, I was the queen of the yard sales for buying used clothing. Stop and think, you don’t know who had that garment on before you and what darkness and sickness they had going on in their life. Do you really want to robe your body in their raiment? Numbers 5:11… Sotah/the wayward wife We learn now about how they dealt with a woman whose husband suspected she was guilty of adultery. Many women get upset because it only deals with an unfaithful wife, not the husband. But you must keep in mind that what the Torah really is talking about here is “us” as a bride being unfaithful to Yeshua. It’s only done in the physical to show us the spiritual. Since Yeshua could NEVER be unfaithful to his bride, the groom is not dealt with here. Notice this was performed when there was not an eye witness to testify she was guilty. It was only when the husband suspected she might be guilty this ceremony was done. The Torah provided a miraculous process by which she was either condemned if she was guilty, or proven innocent, and thereby restore trust and love to the marriage. If she was guilty and confessed, the marriage would end in divorce, but she would live (Ephriam was divorced in Hosea, at the crucifixion Judah was widowed). This is the only halachic procedure in the Torah that depends on a supernatural intervention. The ordeal lost its effect and was discontinued by the Sanhedrin during the second Temple era. Yeshua died on the tree during that time, I wonder if that might have had something to do with its losing its effect, hummmm. The meal offering of jealousies… The grieved husband brings a meal offering on behalf of his wife in this ordeal.

    Rather than the normal offering that is intended to bring mercy and forgiveness, this offering is a reminder of the sin she has been accused of committing. For that reason the husband brings it because it would not be proper for the wife to bring an offering that might evoke God’s anger against her own self (Ramban). The offering was composed of course barley flour, course because she acted coarsely, and barley which is usually used for animal food, because she behaved like an animal. I have heard another opinion on the barley being used as representing a cleansing agent also. Either way it was not beautiful and fragrant with frankincense like other meal offerings. The verse calls it an offering of “jealousies”, in the plural, because she had earned the resentment both of her husband and her God (Rashi). However, you won’t see the plural in most English translations. Keep in mind here that a woman wasn’t brought before the Kohen on any and every whim of her husband. She must have been secluded with a man other than her husband for a period of time. In that time she could have committed adultery, but there were no eye witnesses to the act. There may have been witnesses to the fact that she was secluded with another man, but they didn’t see the actual act take place.

     So now the Kohen has her impose an oath in which she accepts the consequences of her sin if she is guilty. He gives her the bitter water to drink with the curses written and scraped off in it, YHVH’S name written and then scraped off in it, and dust from the floor mixed in it. Then they poured it all in the blender, just kiddingJ. The water was called bitter not because it tasted bitter, but because of the bitter results that came from drinking it. The water came from the brass laver. Notice the woman has to say Amein to this. We discussed how you should watch what you say Amein to (or Amen if you’re in a Christian church). People say Amein to everything some preachers get up and say, and thereby they are swearing by way of an oath to God that what that person said is true. That could cause you trouble in your life, beware. So getting back to the wayward wife, she’s either innocent or guilty. If she’s guilty, she’s in for a swelled stomach and a destroyed womb, as thigh here really refers to womb. But if she’s innocent, that same womb would be blessed with a child. What is interesting is the sages say the ordeal of the bitter waters was effective “only” if the husband was free from sin himself. If he was immoral himself, then the waters would not affect his wife. So if he knew he was guilty, there would be no use in going through this as it would prove nothing. Interesting picture here, Yeshua had to be sinless in order to be able to have a sinless bride. In Chapter 6 the Torah switches to teaching about being a Nazirite. It contrasts between a picture of someone unfaithful in comparison to someone who wants to be totally dedicated.

    In order to be a Nazitite you had to do three things:

1. no cutting your hair

2. you could not eat or drink grapes or grape products (there goes the raisins for the oldsters)

3. you could not be contaminated by being around a human corpse.

     The minimum period of Nazirism was thirty days, but you could choose to go longer. If the Nazirite became contaminated by a corpse during his vow it became void and he had a special ritual that had to be performed before he could begin all over again. It deals with this in Chapter 6 beginning in verse 9. Somehow a picture pops into my head here of Charlie Brown coming to his 29th day of his 30 day vow and a stranger drops dead beside him on a park bench. Rats, there goes the entire month long vow out the window. Come on, lighten up out thereJ. By the way, on the completion of a Nazirite vow, one of the things involved in his offering was a ram.

     The upper foreleg was given to the Kohanim. This is the only offering where that particular part of the animal is given to the Kohen. So how does the Nazirite vow apply to us today? His vows had to do with three areas. The head area, the mouth area, and his halacha (walk in life). So today we watch our thought life (head area), we watch what we eat as kosher or not kosher, besides what we speak as in Lashon Hara (mouth area) and we watch where we go, and what we spend our time doing (our walk). Actually our entire life should be one ongoing Nazirite vow because we should never stop watching any of these areas in our life. In Numbers 6:24 we get to the Priestly blessing. One of the last things mentioned in the blessing is for peace. You can have prosperity, health, and food, but if you don’t have peace it’s still all worthless. As Solomon said, it is all vanity, vanity. In man peace is the proper balance between the needs of the body and the “higher needs” of the Spirit. Peace only comes with the Prince of Peace! Besides your own personal peace, we should have peace when you enter, peace when you leave, and peaceful relations with everyone. This alludes to three levels of peace: within the family, in the community where you live, and throughout the world. Without Yeshua and the Torah in everyone’s heart however, this is impossible. Yet we should all be striving for this goal. In Chapter 7:12 we see the tribal leaders bringing their offerings. You will notice that Nachshon was the only one mentioned who was not listed as the ‘leader’ of his particular tribe. Sometimes what the Torah doesn’t say means something. Here the sages say there was a reason for this. It is said that his modesty was so great before the Lord that he saw himself as no better or of any higher status that any other member of his tribe.

      The offering was a heart thing, just as Yeshua looks at the heart today. Nachshon had a humble heart, he wasn’t shooting for head man. The Word tells us not to go sit in the main seat at a table, lest someone come along and embarrass us by asking us to move down. It always puzzled me, that in some churches, people would have “their personal seat” and God forbid if a visitor sat in that seat. Bad, bad, bad! There was a lot of symbolism in the offerings given, let’s take a look at just a few: The numerical value (gematra) of silver bowl (silver is redemption) is 930, corresponding to the years of Adam. Its weight was 130 shekels, corresponding to the age at which Adam and Eve had Seth. Seth’s name means appointed one, as Yeshua was the appointed one for redemption. ‘One silver basin’ has the numerical value of 520, an illusion to the number of years from the time God told Noah there would be a flood until his first child was born. That would mean that God told Noah way before we thought he did about the flood coming. His instructions to ‘build the ark’ must have come later on, however. The flood came in Noah’s 600th year of life (a picture of 6,000 years of redemption). You have to do a bit of accessory book digging to find the above info. Seventy shekels corresponds to the 70 nations that descended from Noah. (70 stands for ‘sod’, the deepest level of scripture study) The ladle is similar to a hand (yod in Hebrew which equals 10), symbolizing the Torah that was given by the hand of God.

     The ten shekels of weight corresponds to the ten commandments. The young bull alludes to Abraham, who used such an animal as an offering. Also a bull represents strength and Abraham was the first to have the strength to cross over from many idols in his household to belief in one God, YHVH. Abraham was the first “HEBREW”, not the first Jew as many Jews wrongly refer to him as today. The ram alludes to Isaac who was replaced on the altar by a ram (picture of Messiah to come). The sheep allude to Jacob who tended sheep during his years with Laban. The three groups of five animals allude to the three components of the nation-Kohanim, Levites, & Israelites as well as the three parts of scripture-Torah, Prophets, & Writings. The number five, of course, to the five books of Moses. In wrapping up, each of the tribes brought the identical offerings, but also each leader brought their offering with the heartfelt intent of their and their tribes own spiritual striving. This is why even though the offerings were identical, God listed them each individually. Each tribe had an individual part to play that was given to benefit the nation as a whole. Today we don’t work it quite like that, but none the less, we have our own part to play in the body. We have our own gifts to offer the body of Yeshua. What gifts do ‘you’ offer? Do you offer a kind word, a smile, knowledge, a song, encouragement, finances, or whatever YHVH has given you to help someone else with? Just work on your “life long” Nazirite vow and you’re bound to help someone, but watch who sits down on the bench beside you Charlie Brown