The "Huh?" passages

Reading Numbers for our study group has made me wonder a few times, 'what's that all about?' One of the more strange (at least to my modern mind) passages has to do with suspicion of marital unfaithfulness. In the 5th chapter there is a lengthy passage about the ritual of mixing a foul beverage made of holy water and dust from the Tabernacle floor which the priest compels the wife under suspicion to drink. He then prays a curse of infertility that will only take effect if the woman is guilty. It makes me say, "Huh?" I don't recall ever hearing anybody preach from that passage. For me, at least, it defies broad application to the Christian life and violates the principle of respect for women that is so prominent in the New Testament.

When I come to passages like that I am tempted to just dismiss it as ancient superstition and would, except for two things, I have a high view of the Scripture as the inspired word of God; and the passage begins with this claim, "The Lord said to Moses..." There is a big step between saying, "I just don't get it," and outright rejection of the passage as so much hokum. The fact is that I don't have the same context as the Israelites who received it and thus I do not understand it in a full way the way that they understood that passage. So, I must step back and admit my ignorance of the meaning, give myself room to wonder, and move on to the passages which do speak to my life.

Some people seem to delight in tearing up the Bible because of obscure and difficult passages like that one. Ignoring the beauty of much of the Holy Scripture- the prayers and meditations of the Psalms, the accounts of God's love and provision for His people, the amazing revelations of the grace of God in Jesus Christ - they go to passages like Numbers 5 and say, "That's your Bible?" Yes, I answer, that is a part of my Bible, a part that I honestly admit I do not understand. But I do understand, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16, NLT)

I take seriously the command to "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15, NKJV) That includes the "huh" passages as well as those that yield easily to my mind and that feed me with Truth. I come to the Bible with humility. I cannot assume to be its judge. It judges me! Yet, at the same time, I am not gullible, nor do I give up my mind to simplistic, overly literal methods of interpretation of the Scripture. I remain submitted to the God who gave the Word to us. Based on the whole revelation of the Scripture, I don't plan to start to subject women whose husbands are suspicious of their fidelity to drink a mixture of holy water and church floor dust, but I'm also not going to throw away the Bible as unreliable because there is a chapter here and there that offend my sensibilities.

Are you a student of the whole Bible?
Do you read the words with reverence and love, praying for the Spirit to guide you into all Truth?

"Your word is a lamp that gives light wherever I walk.
Your laws are fair, and I have given my word to respect them all." (Psalm 119:105-106, CEV)