In studying the ordinances and ceremonies of the Levitical economy, nothing is more striking than the jealous care with which the God of Israel watched over His people, in order that they might be preserved from every defiling influence. By day and by night, awake and asleep, at home and abroad, in the bosom of the family and in the solitary walk, His eye was upon them. He looked after their food, their raiment, their domestic habits and arrangements. He carefully instructed them as to what they might and what they might not eat, what they might and what they might not wear. He even set forth distinctly His mind as to the very touching and handling of things. In short, He surrounded them with barriers amply sufficient, had they only attended to them, to resist the entire tide of defilement to which they were exposed on every side.
In all this we read, in unmistakable characters, the holiness of God; but we read also, as distinctly, the grace of God. If divine holiness could not suffer defilement upon the people, divine grace made ample provision for the removal thereof. This provision is set forth under two forms, namely, the blood of atonement, and the office of the priesthood. Precious provision! A provision illustrating, at once, the holiness and grace of God. The blood imparts perfect cleanness; the priesthood maintains it. The former makes us clean, the latter keeps us clean. We are made as clean as the blood can make us; and we are kept as clean as the priesthood can keep us. Did we not know the ample provisions of divine grace, the lofty claims of divine holiness would be perfectly overwhelming; but being assured of the former, we can heartily rejoice in the latter. Could we desire to see the standard of holiness lowered a single hair’s breadth? Assuredly not. How could we, or why should we, seeing that divine grace has fully provided what divine holiness demands? An Israelite of old might shudder as he hearkened to such words as these, “He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days;” and again, “Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel.” These words might indeed terrify his heart. He might well exclaim, “What am I to do? How can I get on? It seems perfectly impossible for me to escape defilement.” But, then, what of the ashes of the burnt heifer? What of the water of separation? What could these mean? They set forth the memorial of the sacrificial death of Christ applied to the heart by the power of the Spirit of God. “He shall purify himself with it the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.” If we contract defilement, even though it be through negligence, that defilement must be removed, ere our communion can be restored. But we cannot get rid of the soil by any effort of our own. It can only be by the use of God’s gracious provision, even the water of purification. An Israelite could no more remove, by his own efforts, the defilement caused by the touch of a dead body, than he could have broken Pharaoh’s yoke, or delivered himself from the lash of Pharaoh’s taskmasters.
And let the reader observe that it was not a question of offering a fresh sacrifice. It is of special importance that this should be distinctly seen and understood. The death of Christ cannot be repeated. “Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.” We stand, by the grace of God, in the full credit and value of the death of Christ; but inasmuch as we are surrounded, on all sides, by temptations and snares, and as we have within us such capabilities and tendencies, and further, seeing we have a powerful adversary who is ever on the watch to ensnare us, and lead us off the path of truth and purity, we could not get on for a single moment, were it not for the gracious way in which our God has provided for all our exigencies, in the precious blood, and all-prevailing advocacy of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not merely that the blood of Jesus Christ has washed away all our sins and reconciled us to a holy God, but “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,” “whoever liveth to make intercession for us,” and who is “able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.”
Now, then, Christian reader, what should be the practical effect of all this grace upon our hearts and lives? When we think of the death and of the burning, of the blood and of the ashes, of the atoning sacrifice and the interceding Priest and Advocate, what influence should it exert upon our souls? How should it act upon our consciences? Should it lead us to think little of sin? Should it cause us to walk carelessly and indifferently? Should it have the effect of making us light and frivolous in our ways? Alas! for the heart that can think so. We may rest assured of this that the man who can draw a plea from the rich provisions of divine grace for lightness of conduct, or levity of spirit, knows very little, if indeed he know anything at all, of the true nature or proper influence of grace and its provisions. Could we imagine, for a moment, that the ashes of the heifer or the water of separation would have had the effect of making an Israelite careless as to his walk? Assuredly not. On the contrary, the very fact of such careful provision being made, by the goodness of God, against defilement, would make him feel what a serious thing it was to contract defilement. Such, at least, would be the proper effect of the provisions of grace. The heap of ashes, laid up in a clean place, gave forth a double testimony — it testified of the goodness of God, and it testified of the hatefulness of sin. It declared that God could not suffer uncleanness upon his people; but it declared also that He had provided the means of removing it. It is utterly impossible that the doctrine of the sprinkled blood, of the ashes, and of the water of separation can be understood and enjoyed, without its producing a holy horror of sin in all its defiling forms. And we may further assert that no one who has ever tasted the anguish of a defiled conscience, could lightly contract defilement. A pure conscience is far too precious a treasure to be lightly parted with; and a defiled conscience is far too heavy a burden to be lightly taken up. But, blessed be God, He has met all our need, in His own perfect way; and met it, too, not to make us careless, but to make us watchful. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” But then he adds, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the whole world.”
But we must draw this paper to a close, and shall merely add a word on the closing verses of our chapter. “And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until even. And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean, and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.” (Num. 19:21, 2221And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until even. 22And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even. (Numbers 19:21‑22).) In verse 18, we are taught that it needed a clean person to sprinkle the unclean; and in verse 21, we are taught that the act of sprinkling another defiled oneself. Putting both together, we learn, as another has said, “That anyone who has to do with the sin of another, though it be in the way of duty, to cleanse it, is defiled; not as the guilty person, it is true, but we cannot touch sin without being defiled.” And we learn also that in order to lead another into the enjoyment of the cleansing virtue of Christ’s work, I must be in the enjoyment of that cleansing work myself. It is well to remember this, Those who applied the water of separation to others had to use that water for themselves. May our souls enter into this! May we ever abide in the sense of the perfect cleanness into which the death of Christ introduces us, and in which His priestly work maintains us! And let us never forget that contact defiles. It was so under the Mosaic economy, and it is so now. You cannot touch pitch and not be defiled.