Naturally, when I was growing up, a favorite activity was making those wonderful mud pies and slinging them at others. While some see this as child's play, it's actually an imitation of the Divine. Take for example that God made Adam out of mud (depending on the translation: dirt, dust, etc.) (Genesis 2:7).
Yet there is another very significant passage from the Mosaic Law that deals with dust (Numbers 5:11-31), and I believe that it is very closely linked to Joe. Basically, I'm talking about the ritual that was for women who were suspected by their husbands of being unfaithful without actually finding them in the act of adultery:
- The husband first brings his wife to the priest with a offering of barley meal (aka the important ingredient of Scotch Whiskey).
- The priest leads the woman to "stand before the Lord".
- The priest uncovers the woman's head and gives her the barley meal to hold.
- The priest then takes holy water and adds "some dust from the floor of the tabernacle" to the holy water.
- The priest makes a pronouncement to the woman saying if she is faithful, nothing will bad will happen, but if she was unfaithful to her husband, then some serious consequences will come about.
- The priest writes the pronouncement down on paper and washes it in the holy dust water.
- The priest and the woman switch objects (water and barley), and the priest burns some of the barley on the altar.
- Finally, the woman drinks the "water of bitterness", and God does his work of vindicating or condemning the woman.
Well, its a pretty safe assumption that Mary was not caught in the act of adultery because, well, she never committed it (of course, we know that, but Joe didn't). So, before Joe could accuse her as being an adulteress, he and Mary had to go through with this ritual since they were Law-abiding Jews. So, when nothing bad happened to Mary, Joe was left questioning. He knew it was not his child, and he believed that it was not another via the ritual. So, how was it possible for her to be with child?
It seems to me that Joe assumed that God was mysteriously involved but had absolutely no idea how. And if he could not explain it to himself, how could he explain it to others? Hence, he did not want "to expose her to shame, [and] decided to divorce her quietly" (Matthew 1:19). And it wasn't until the Angel filled him in on the current events of Mary's life in a dream, that he found out about the true nature of his wife's baby.
Just a couple more observations:
- Incidentally, one of several interpretations of the meaning of the name of Mary is "bitter sea." How appropriate for the one that the bitter water left unharmed!
- The woman's head was uncovered in the ritual. In Hebrew culture, veiling was used to cover the sacred. So, in unveiling Mary and through the ritual, the priest uncovers to Joseph the most Sacred of All - God Himself!
- Do you remember that scene from Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ when the Jewish leaders bring Mary Magdalene to Jesus, and Jesus epically writes in the sand (John 8:2-11)? Of course, there have been many speculations on what he wrote (and it is all speculation!), but I would like to offer just one more: Jesus was reminding the Jewish leaders of their duty to put Magdalene to the bitter water test (who incidentally also bears the name Mary!).
- Finally, the significance of the barley...
- The quantity is the same as the manna that Aaron the priest placed in the ark of the covenant, and Mary is the new ark of the covenant! (Exodus 16:16,32-36)
- Barley loaves were miraculously multiplied by Christ in the feeding of the multitude (John 6:5-15)
- Both the manna and the barley loaves are prefigurements of Christ the "bread of life" (John 6:31-35)
