Numbers 5:11-31 to some is one of the most mystifying passages in all of the law. God does not normally prescribe physical trials such as the one described for establishing guilt. While some pagan cultures have depended almost exclusively on such trials--medieval duels and witch trials are familiar examples--they are almost completely foreign to the scriptures. A detailed examination, however, will show that this passage is far more than a trial by fire. It may be one of the most profoundly symbolic passages in the Torah. The Sotah may seem barbaric to our modern sensibilities, but it is actually a message of hope. The Accuser stands against us, but our High Priest washes away our crimes with his own blood.
First, it establishes a Biblical precedence for the common law doctrine of the accused being innocent until proven guilty. Verses 12 - 15 show that if there is no evidence of a crime, but only suspicion, then no one but God alone can mete out punishment. The husband in this case could not rightfully divorce his wife simply because he suspected her of adultery. If there was no evidence and no eye witness, then the fact of her guilt could only be tried by God himself. It may be significant that the husband--the woman's accuser--and not the woman provided the jealousy offering. The jealousy offering is a form of guilt offering. It could be that he is the one in sin by unjustly suspecting his wife. He is also her head, and no head could be completely free of an infection present in some part of the body.
The most important symbolism is in the clay jar and the actions of the priest. The clay jar is the Messiah's physical body, fragile and hollow. (Paul used this same analogy for the body in 2 Corinthians 4.) The water is his spirit, and the dust is his blood. The woman was set directly before God, and any head coverings were removed to symbolize the removal of her husband's protection and authority. The jealousy offering was set in her hands to say that, if she was guilty, then the sin was hers alone, but the jar remained in the hands of the priest, because Yeshua as our High Priest, willingly gave his life for ours.
The priest had the woman speak an oath of innocence and an accompanying curse for guilt, and then, like God recording our deeds in the annals of Heaven, he wrote it into a book. He then took some of the water from the jar, stained red by the dust saturated by the blood of countless sacrifices, and washed the ink from the book into the jar, just as the blood of Yeshua washed away all record of our sin and took upon himself the curse that was rightfully ours.
If the accused woman was innocent, then the bitter water containing the "sin" of the tabernacle dust and the curse from the book would do her no harm and exonerated her of all wrong-doing. She was free from the accusation and could return to her husband cleared of guilt. But if she was, in fact, guilty and had sworn to her innocence, then, just as eating and drinking unworthily at Passover brings us under a curse, she would become cursed by the water and by her oath. She would become diseased and barren, as one who knows of Yeshua's sacrifice but rejects it as unnecessary, claiming innocence on his own account.
In light of the death and resurrection of the Messiah, we can see one more great truth in this trial. If she had followed the commands laid out in the preceding passage, she and the man with whom she committed adultery would have confessed their sin and offered to make some kind of reparations. If she allows the trial to get this far and she is guilty, then she clearly has no intention of owning up to her sin and repenting of it. If she had confessed there would have been some chance of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Likewise, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. If we wait too long, we will lose our opportunity to repent, and He will be faithful and just to condemn us.
