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 10:14. 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