Numbers 5 Devotional

Making Wrongs Right

“and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution, add a fifth to its value, and give all this to the one he has wronged.”Numbers 5:7 (BSB)

The first instruction here carries a reason that shapes everything after it. The unclean are to be sent outside the camp, because God dwells among his people (5:3).

When someone wrongs another person, God counts it as unfaithfulness toward himself (5:6). The guilty person must confess, repay in full, and add a fifth more, and if the one wronged has no relative left, the payment goes to the LORD (5:7-8). The chapter then turns to a husband who suspects his wife of adultery with no witness. The ritual is strange and hard to read, but the verdict is not left to his jealousy. She stands before the LORD, and the outcome is in God's hands (5:14-16, 30). God takes hidden wrongs seriously, and he does not leave them to be settled by suspicion. Because the God who lives among his people cares about every wrong, you can go and make things right with someone you have harmed, and go beyond the bare minimum.

To think about: Is there someone you have wronged, and what would making it right, and more than right, look like?