Numbers 19
Perhaps the first thing that strikes one on reading this remarkable chapter is, Why is this offering given to us in the Book of Numbers, and not with the other offerings in the first seven chapters of Leviticus? The answer, no doubt, is that Numbers is especially the Book of the wilderness: and the Red Heifer died to provide cleansing for defilements by the way, in the wilderness especially. It tells of the death of Christ as a purification for sin, to meet our need in passing through this defiling world, on our way Home to the Father’s House.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, This 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.” Verses 1, 2.
You will remember in 1 Peter 1:19, our Lord Jesus is described as the Lamb without blemish and without spot. Here without blemish may speak of inward perfection, and without spot of His outward perfection: and perhaps the same may be said of Him, when He is looked at through the type of the Red Heifer. But here it is added, “upon which never came yoke.” You and I have borne the heavy yoke of sin: but that yoke never came on our blessed Lord and Savior. “My Yoke”, of which He speaks in Matt. 11:29, is the yoke of implicit subjection to the Father’s will: and of this He could say: “I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” True, “His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree,” (1 Pet. 2.24); but that is very different from ever bearing the yoke of sin.
“And 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.” (Verse 3) We have in the priest, and the offering, a joint picture of Christ. He was the Offering, and He was the Priest. But the death of Christ was not the act of priesthood, so the priest who brought the heifer did not kill it; but it was killed in his presence: he was there to take knowledge of the deed. In Hebrews we learn that if He were on earth He would not be a priest. (8:4). Heaven, not earth, is the scene of His priestly service: but it was on earth He died.
We must notice that the priest was to bring her forth without the camp. “Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.” (Heb. 13:12). Do we not often forget this? Do we understand it? Should we not more seriously consider the place where the Lord Jesus died? And should we not seek to better understand the voice that speaks to us in this act? “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” No doubt in this passage, “the camp” primarily refers to Judaism: but it also applies to every system of religion set up by man, and governed by the principles of this world.
“His cross has severed ties which bound us here:
Himself our treasure, in a brighter sphere.”
“And Eleazer the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times.” Verse 4. Here we have the solid foundation for all real purification. “Before the tabernacle” is where the people were to meet God. There the blood was sprinkled seven times, for it was there that God met with His people. Seven times tells of a perfect testimony in the eyes of God to the atonement made for sin. The blood has been shed and presented to a holy God as a perfect atonement for sin. This, when simply received by faith, takes away from the conscience all sense of guilt, and all fear of condemnation. God only sees the perfect work of Christ that atoned for my sin.
And, notice, there is no further mention of the shedding of blood all through this chapter. We find just the same thing in Hebrews 9 and 10. The worshippers, once purged have no more conscience of sin. “For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:13, 14).
“And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn: and the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.” (Verses 5, 6). We have been gazing on the death of the red heifer, now let us look for a moment at the burning of it. We have seen the blood sprinkled before the tabernacle: where God and man met. We have seen that this made a perfect atonement for sins. Now the heifer is completely burned: even its blood and its dung: and the priest casts into the midst of that burning, cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet. Cedar wood represents nature, natural gift, in its highest form: hyssop represents the same thing in its lowest form: Solomon spoke of trees, “from the cedar tree... even unto the hyssop:” From the highest to the lowest. Scarlet is external glory: the glory of the world. The whole was burned in the fire which consumed the heifer: which speaks of Christ bearing our judgment on the cross.
The Scripture says: He “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God our Father.” Gal. 1:4. The first part of this verse: “He gave Himself for our sins:” tells of the atonement, so clearly typified by the blood sprinkled seven times. And what does the second part of the verse tell us? Surely it is just what we have been watching: the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet all cast into the fire which burned the heifer to ashes. For us, if we have the mind of Christ, the attractions of the world and of nature are past and gone: we see them in ashes now: in the burning of the heifer, they were burned also. He has delivered us from this present evil world, by His cross. The same work that put away our sins, has also delivered us from this present world.
But there is more.
We’ve heard the words of love,
We’ve gazed upon the blood,
We’ve seen the mighty sacrifice:
And we have peace with God.
But now we are to gaze, not on the blood, but on the ashes. In the blood we have the mighty sacrifice of Christ as the only purification for sin. In the ashes we have the remembrance of that death applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit, through the living Word, in order to remove any defilement contracted in our walk from day to day, down here. This gives great completeness and beauty to this wonderful type. God has not only made provision for past sins, but also for present defilement, so that we may be ever before Him in all the value and credit of the perfect work of Christ.
We have boldness now to enter the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, by that new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. But to dwell in the holiest, not only must we know the atonement of all our sins: but we must have in our own self-consciousness the deep inward sense of cleanness in His sight: the certain knowledge that we are purified from the defilements all around, that so easily defile us; that our communion with our Lord is unbroken, and undisturbed. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7). But if we fail to walk in the light—if we forget, and touch the unclean thing, how is our communion to be restored? Only by the removal of the defilement. And how is this to be effected? By the application to our hearts and consciences of the precious truth of the death of Christ. The Holy Spirit produces self-judgment, and brings to our remembrance the truth that Christ suffered death for that defilement, which we so lightly, and so indifferently contract. It is not a fresh sprinkling of the blood of Christ—a thing unknown in Scripture: but the remembrance of His death brought home, in fresh power, to the contrite heart, by the Holy Spirit, through the Word. So, if anybody contracted defilement, though it were merely through neglect, in whatever way it might be, God took account of the defilement. And this is a solemn and important fact: God provides for cleansing, but in no case can He tolerate anything in His presence unsuited to it. It might seem hard in an inevitable case, as one dying suddenly in a tent. But it was to show that for His presence God judges of what is suited to His presence. The man was defiled and he could not go into God’s tabernacle, indeed, the one “defiled by the dead,” must be put outside the camp: and, why? “That they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell.” (Num. 5:2, 3). If the Lord is not in the midst, then association with evil may not be so serious: but if He is: it cannot be allowed.
Perhaps we should pause for a moment to notice how the defilement came. “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. And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean. And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.... 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.” (Verses (Verses 14-16, 21, 22). Should not this Scripture impress our souls with the seriousness, in the sight of God, of any sort of defilement? We are apt to think so lightly of sin and defilement: but not so the thrice holy God. One touch of a bone of a man, or a grave: and he is unclean for seven days. It is true, that such things now do not defile a man: but well do we know that they were types of things moral and spiritual that do defile the man now. Our Lord Jesus told us very plainly what defiles the man: “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man.” (Matt. 15:19, 20). But not only was a man defiled if he touched a bone, or a grave, but “whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.” (Verse 22). We see this very clearly illustrated in the New Testament. We have just seen in Matthew 15 that fornication was one of the things that defile a man. In 1 Cor. 5 we read of a man who was thus defiled: and the assembly at Corinth was going on in communion with this man. What saith the Spirit of God? “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.” Leaven in the Scripture always speaks of evil: perhaps in a special way evil that works unseen, reaching out to all it touches. It was useless for the saints in Corinth to say, “We are not fornicators. We are blameless in walk. We are not defiled.” No! It only takes a little leaven, as the Scripture points out, to leaven the whole lump. They only had to go on allowing this fornicator to remain in communion, and every saint in the assembly at Corinth would have been defiled: just as one man defiled by the dead defiled his whole camp.
In the assemblies of Galatia it was not moral evil: it was one of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity that was being attacked: is a man justified by faith or by works? In Galatia they said it was, in part at least, by works. And what says the Spirit of God? The very same words He spoke to Corinth: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” Many of the saints at Galatia might have said: “We still believe that a man is justified only by faith. We are not defiled.” No, says the Spirit of God, “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump:” and every saint of God in Galatia would be defiled if they still permitted this evil doctrine to continue. So we see that to go on in association with evil in either walk or doctrine defiles.
Both Old and New Testaments are full of this same teaching. I think seven times in Numbers 19 it insists that defilement comes by a touch. See Lev. 5.2: “If a soul touch any unclean thing,... he also shall be unclean, and guilty.” Haggai 2.13 teaches us the same thing, a touch of what is unclean defiles. Listen again: “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Cor. 7:17, 18). And again: “The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” (2 Tim. 2:19-21). This latter is very personal. “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor.” The great house is Christendom: all that takes the name of Christ: whether true or false: whether defiled or undefiled. There are all kinds of vessels in this great house: some to honor and some to dishonor: some that have purged themselves from what is defiled: some that have not: this is individual separation from evil. The unity of the assembly is so precious, it has such authority over the heart, that there is danger, when failure has set in, lest the desire for outward unity should induce even the faithful to accept evil and walk in fellowship with it, rather than break this unity. God therefore even in the days of the Apostles established this principle of individual faithfulness, of individual responsibility to God, and set it above all other considerations; for it has to do with the nature of God Himself, and His own authority over the conscience of the individual. God knoweth them that are His: here is the ground of confidence. I do not say who they are. And let those that name the name of Christ separate themselves from all evil. This is plain and clear and decisive. To maintain in practice the possibility of union between that Name and evil, is to blaspheme it.
But the reader, whose whole soul longs for holiness, may eagerly inquire, “What, then, are we to do, if it be true that we are thus surrounded on all sides with defiling influences, and if we are so prone to contract defilement? Further, if it is impossible to have fellowship with God with unclean hands and a condemning conscience, what are we to do?” First of all, Be watchful. Wait much and earnestly on God. He is faithful and gracious: He is the God that heareth prayer and that answereth prayer: a liberal Giver, Who unbraideth not. “He giveth more grace.” This is a blank check which faith may fill up to any amount. If you really desire to do the will of God, and to be partaker of His holiness, beware how you continue, for a single hour, in contact with what defiles and hinders your communion. If you want a whole heart for Christ, give up, at once, the unclean thing, whatever it be, habit, or association, or anything else. Some say—some even who are true Christians—provided I myself am blameless in conduct and doctrine, it does not matter about my associations: I am not responsible for them. Dear Reader, you are, in God’s sight, responsible to come out from such associations, and touch not the unclean thing. That is your very first responsibility: and you are responsible to God to obey His Word. Cost what it may, give it up. No matter what the pain and loss, give it up. No earthly gain, no worldly advantage, no loving companionship, or human ties, can compensate for the loss of your Father’s approval in simple, straightforward obedience to His Word. Oh, for more who “tremble at His Word.” (Isaiah 66:5 & 2).
But you may ask, “What am I to do when defilement is actually contracted? How is it to be removed?” Numbers 19 tells us this: “And for an unclean person, they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel. And a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave. And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.” (Verses 17-19). Please notice that in the 12Th and 18th verses, there is a double action set forth. There is the action of the third day, and the action of the seventh day. Both were necessary to remove the defilement. What did this double action typify? What is it, for us, that answers to this? We believe it to be this: When we touch the unclean thing, and get defiled, we may even be ignorant of it: but God knows all about it. He cares for us, and is looking after us: not as an angry judge, or stern accuser; but as a loving Father, who will never impute sin to us, because it was all, long ago, imputed to the One Who died in our stead.
But though He will not impute it, He will make us feel it, and perhaps feel it deeply. He will be a faithful reprover of the unclean thing; and He can reprove more powerfully just because He will never reckon it against us. The Holy Spirit brings our sin to remembrance, and this may cause unutterable anguish of heart. I think this convicting work of the Holy Spirit is typified by the action of the third day. He first brings our sin to remembrance; and then He graciously brings to remembrance, through the living, written Word, the value of the death of Christ: and He applies this to our souls. (The running water speaks of the living Word.) This answers to the seventh day, and removes the defilement, and restores our communion.
And my beloved fellow-failing-believer; let us remember that we can never get rid of defilement in any other way. We may seek to forget it, or slur it over, to heal the wound slightly, to make little of the matter, to hope time may make it fade from our memory. It will not do. It is most dangerous work. There are few things more disastrous than trifling with conscience or the claims of God’s holiness. And it is foolish, as well as dangerous, for God has in His grace made full provision for the removal of the uncleanness: but the uncleanness must be removed else communion is not possible. “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.” The suspension of a believer’s communion is what answers to the cutting off of one from the congregation of Israel. The Christian can never be cut off from Christ: but his communion can be interrupted by a single sinful thought. (Did you notice when the Lord tells us of what defiles, “evil thoughts” head the list?) And that evil thought must be judged and confessed, and the uncleanness of it removed before communion is restored. We found our will and pleasure, if only for a moment, in what was the cause of His pain; and this in the face of His sufferings for sin, but, alas! in forgetfulness of them—even for that sin the motions of which we yield to so lightly now. The water of purification was sprinkled with hyssop: a bitter herb: telling of the bitterness of soul, when we realize what we have done: but lastly, it is the consciousness of the love of our Lord Jesus, and of His great grace, and the joy of being perfectly clean, through the work of that love. For the believer, the extent of time for the third day and the seventh day, may be seconds: or, alas, it may be years.
This chapter also tells us very plainly that any one who has to do with the sin of another, though it be in the way of duty to cleanse it, is defiled: not defiled in the same way as the guilty person, but we cannot touch sin without being defiled. And we must notice that the Spirit of God takes note of the difference in the defilement: for the one is unclean for seven days, the other only until the evening. (See Verses 10, 19, 21 & 22). This answers the flippant, almost blasphemous, statements that one sometimes hears even believers make, in their efforts to “unlord” (take away the authority of) the Word of God, in its solemn teaching that one who even wishes God speed to a person who brings not the doctrine of Christ, is partaker of his evil deeds: showing only too plainly that association with evil does defile.
When we think of the death, and of the burning—of the blood and of the ashes—and of the Priest who makes us clean: what effect should it have upon our souls? Should it make us light and frivolous in our ways? Should it make us think lightly of sin and of defilement? Alas, that some should seem to think so! Such an one must know little of the awfulness of sin and of defilement, or of the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The ashes were kept, laid up in a clean place, without the camp it is true, but ever bearing testimony to the hatefulness of sin, on the one hand; and, on the other, of God’s own remedy, ever at hand, for the defiled one. (See Verse 9).
One thing more: we also learn that the one who leads a defiled one into the enjoyment of the cleansing virtue of Christ’s work, must be clean himself. Yet he uses it at the cost of becoming unclean, and having to use the water for himself. May we ever abide in the sense of the perfect cleanness into which the death of Christ has brought us, and in which His priestly work maintains us! And, Oh! let us never forget that contact with evil, or, association with those who are defiled,—does defile us. It was so in the Old Testament, and it is still so today.
(Based on, Notes on Numbers, CHM; and The Synopsis, JND)