This year for my daily Bible intake plan, I am following McCheyne's Bible Reading Schedule. One of the Old Testament readings for today included Numbers 5. If you read through this chapter without giving it a lot of thought, it seems a bit weird.
The chapter begins with the Lord's insistence that people who are ceremonially unclean are to be put out of the camp of Israel. From there the Lord tells Moses that those who are morally unclean are to make confession and restitution in the divinely prescribed manner. Then, beginning in verse 11, the Lord tells Moses what to do when a man suspects his wife of adultery but can't prove it. Let's just say it involves her drinking water with dirt from the tabernacle floor mixed in with some words of a curse washed off a scroll. If the woman is innocent, no worries. If she's guilty, the water will cause her womb to swell and rot, inducing sterility.
Like I said, weird stuff. What on earth are we to make of this text? What's up with this ritual?
As I read through this chapter, two things came to mind. The first was a sermon that I heard Ligon Duncan preach on this very same chapter about eight years ago. I never forgot it. More on that in a moment.
The second thing that came to my mind, oddly enough, was a scene from Anne of Green Gables. (Yes, I confess, I have watched that video series many times with my wife. I purchased the series for her as a birthday gift the first year we were married.) In one scene, Anne asks Marilla, "Do you never imagine things different from what they really are?" "No," says Marilla. "Oh!" responds Anne, drawing a sharp breath. "Oh ... Marilla, how much you miss!"
Surely something similar could be said to the casual Bible reader: "Do you ever take the time to see things as they really are? Oh, how much you miss!"
Getting back to Ligon Duncan, I must say that his sermon on Numbers 5 showed me the beauty of the gospel from this obscure text. He took no interpretive leaps to make that happen; rather, he delved into the text, revealed its place in the storyline of Scripture, and showed how it ultimately pointed us to the gravity of our sin and the grace of God in Christ. I would encourage you to read Ligon's sermon -- both Part One ("Defiled") and Part Two ("The Adultery Test"). I believe that as a result of reading this sermon, you will be not only spiritually enriched but also highly motivated to study God's Word at a deeper level on a more consistent basis.
The late and highly esteemed Dallas Theological Seminary professor Howard Hendricks was known to say, "There is no jewel more precious than that which you have mined yourself." May this motivate us to dig more deeply into the infinitely valuable treasure of God's truth.
The chapter begins with the Lord's insistence that people who are ceremonially unclean are to be put out of the camp of Israel. From there the Lord tells Moses that those who are morally unclean are to make confession and restitution in the divinely prescribed manner. Then, beginning in verse 11, the Lord tells Moses what to do when a man suspects his wife of adultery but can't prove it. Let's just say it involves her drinking water with dirt from the tabernacle floor mixed in with some words of a curse washed off a scroll. If the woman is innocent, no worries. If she's guilty, the water will cause her womb to swell and rot, inducing sterility.
As I read through this chapter, two things came to mind. The first was a sermon that I heard Ligon Duncan preach on this very same chapter about eight years ago. I never forgot it. More on that in a moment.
The second thing that came to my mind, oddly enough, was a scene from Anne of Green Gables. (Yes, I confess, I have watched that video series many times with my wife. I purchased the series for her as a birthday gift the first year we were married.) In one scene, Anne asks Marilla, "Do you never imagine things different from what they really are?" "No," says Marilla. "Oh!" responds Anne, drawing a sharp breath. "Oh ... Marilla, how much you miss!"
Surely something similar could be said to the casual Bible reader: "Do you ever take the time to see things as they really are? Oh, how much you miss!"
Getting back to Ligon Duncan, I must say that his sermon on Numbers 5 showed me the beauty of the gospel from this obscure text. He took no interpretive leaps to make that happen; rather, he delved into the text, revealed its place in the storyline of Scripture, and showed how it ultimately pointed us to the gravity of our sin and the grace of God in Christ. I would encourage you to read Ligon's sermon -- both Part One ("Defiled") and Part Two ("The Adultery Test"). I believe that as a result of reading this sermon, you will be not only spiritually enriched but also highly motivated to study God's Word at a deeper level on a more consistent basis.
The late and highly esteemed Dallas Theological Seminary professor Howard Hendricks was known to say, "There is no jewel more precious than that which you have mined yourself." May this motivate us to dig more deeply into the infinitely valuable treasure of God's truth.