Love Potion!
Have you ever read the book of Numbers? If you have not, please, read this passage. Numbers 5: 11-31. I want to hear what your thoughts are. I want to name this passage the “Love Potion.” Why? Because here is the secret formula to catch adulterers, according to the book, the women who are unfaithful.
If a woman commits adultery then the man will take her to the priest. The priest will give her some sort of a concoction to drink and if she has committed adultery, then it will make her sterile and give her a stomachache.
In a way, it was a kinder way of dealing with men’s jealousy. It was the way how women were protected from jealous husbands. Instead of the men taking the law into their hands, ending up in the death of the woman many times, they brought the woman to the presence of the priest who confirmed if she committed adultery or not by giving her a special drink and watching for the reaction.
At the time, for a tribal society, all of these kinds of tricks and techniques were required to protect whoever was considered weak. But what they failed, even today for that matter is to look deeper into the situation to find the real perpetrator.
I am pretty certain a woman couldn’t have committed adultery on her own. Could she? I am sure there was a guy involved somewhere but it was the woman who got punished for her “transgression,” and the man went scot-free. This is the sad state of the story. We often fail to see there is always more than one person involved in sin and there is always somebody who gets away with it. Divine justice is far beyond these kinds of failed human understanding of sin. God knows justice will be served eventually. However, in the short term, you and I have the responsibility to treat people justly. If there is a stomachache, it won’t be for women alone! Don’t you agree?
Fr. Jos+
