Numbers 19:1-151And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 2This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke: 3And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face: 4And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times: 5And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn: 6And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. 7Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even. 8And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even. 9And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin. 10And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever. 11He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. 12He shall purify himself with it on 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. 13Whosoever 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: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him. 14This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. 15And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean. (Numbers 19:1‑15)
We now come to a most interesting and instructive chapter, telling the children of Israel what they were to do when they became defiled. We all know that the world is a very defiling place. Young and old alike are surrounded with evils of every kind, and we continually need this cleansing, which is brought before us in a typical way, in our chapter. It is not a second cleansing by blood, for this is never needed. One application of the blood of Christ cleanses completely and eternally, as far as the eternal judgment of our sins is concerned, “for by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:1414For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14). The moment a sinner puts his or her trust, in the finished work of Christ, His precious blood is applied once for all; but what we have particularly in type in our chapter, is for the defilements of the way, and we need the death of Christ for this. Let us notice how beautifully all this is brought out here.
A red heifer, without spot or blemish, and which had never been under a yoke, was taken and brought outside the camp by Eleazar the priest. There it was killed, and its blood was sprinkled seven times before the tabernacle of the congregation. Surely the Lord Jesus is the Only One without spot of sin, and who was never under sin’s power or yoke, all through. His blessed life, and it is by His blood alone that we have access into God’s presence —perfect access too, for the blood was sprinkled seven times. What follows then, is for our defilements.
The body of the red heifer, every bit of it, even with the rest of her blood, was to be burned outside the camp, and the priest was to throw in some car wood, hyssop, and scarlet, into the fire which was burning up the heifer. It was to burn until all was reduced to ashes.
Then the priest was to wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. Any occupation with sin, though it may be necessary in dealing with a brother, defiles one, and we have to be watchful lest the very talking about it, and dealing with it, should make us careless about the sin. We therefore have to apply the water of the Word, like the washing of the clothes, lest contacts with such sins be taken too lightly, and it becomes a habit to talk about the evil. Is this not too often the case? Then there is the applying of the Word even closer, cleansing our very minds and bodies from such things, typified by the priest washing all over. One feels this is sometimes forgotten, and a self-righteous attitude is taken, not realizing that contact with sin, even in the right (as the priest here was actit: for God), defiles just the same. Not only the priest, but the very man who burned the heifer, had to wash himself, and bathe himself in water, and the one who gathered up the ashes was to wash his clothes also.
The ashes were to be gathered up and put in a clean place outside the camp, where they were kept, for the cleansing of those who had become defiled among the people. If any Israelite touched the dead body of a man, or a bone, or a grave, he became defiled and unclean. If a man died in a tent, then everyone in the tent, every open vessel, and all who came into the tent, were unclean. There was, however, the prision that any vessel in such a tent, which had a covering bound upon it, remained clean in spite of the death there.
ML 11/18/1951