Thought from today’s Bible reading from Numbers 5-6.
When the Law was first handed down to Moses, adultery was explicitly condemned (Exodus 20:14). If this command was violated, God revealed the punishment for this sin – “If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife… the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death” (Levitucus 20:10).
What if there was only a suspicion of adultery? What if one was all but certain his wife had committed adultery with another man, but he had no evidence to prove she was guilty? The Law addressed this:
“If any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, and a man has intercourse with her and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and she is undetected, although she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act, if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has defiled herself, or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has not defiled herself, the man shall them bring his wife to the priest…” (Numbers 5:12-15).
This addressed cases in which a wife may have been guilty of adultery or she may only have been suspected of being guilty. With no proof (witnesses, cf. Deuteronomy 17:6-7), she was not to be put to death. The priest would administer a test in which God would miraculously reveal her guilt or innocence (Numbers 5:16-28). If she was found to be guilty as a result of this test, she would “become a curse among her people” (Numbers 5:27), but she would not be put to death. Even though she was found by God to be guilty, there was “no witness against her and she [had] not been caught in the act” (Numbers 5:13).
There is no virtue in human courts punishing one who is probably guilty or is suspected of being guilty of a particular crime. The phrase, “innocent until proven guilty,” is not just a good rule of justice. It is Biblical. If evidence cannot be presented to prove one’s guilt, man’s judgments should err on the side of caution. If it happens that the guilty goes unpunished for lack of proof in human courts, God will deal with him appropriately in the end (2 Corinthians 5:10; Hebrews 4:13).
Tomorrow’s reading: Numbers 7
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
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