the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Numbers 5:1-31
The camp of Israel had to be preserved from all impurity, and this for one fundamental reason: the LORD dwelt there (v. 3). The same motive is invoked by the apostle to call upon each child of God to keep himself from all defilement: his body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). The man suffering from leprosy (representing sin) or from "a flux" (the inability to hold back the manifestations of the flesh) had to be put out of the camp until he was cured.
From v. 11 onwards the trial of jealousy is referred to. It suggests to each one of us careful and frequent examination of our affections. Has Christ remained their object? If we love the world, the Word applies to us the terrible epithet of "adulterers". Even if externally everything appears to be in order, we are become God’s enemies; we have betrayed the Lord (James 4:4; 1 Corinthians 10:22). Yes, let us stand before Him, like this suspected woman before the priest, and let us allow the Word (the holy water) to penetrate our conscience, and to reveal our most secret feelings. "Search me, O God, and know my heart", prays the Psalmist, "try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalms 139:23-24).
