In Numbers 19 we have a most instructive ordinance of God, peculiar to the Book of Numbers. “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” (Num. 19:22This 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: (Numbers 19:2)). What the great atonement day is to the center of the Book of Leviticus, the red heifer is to the Book of Numbers. Each seems characteristic of the book wherein it is given, which shows how systematic are the order and contents of Scripture.
Provision for Defilement
We have here a provision distinctly for the defilements which are met with as we journey through this world. This is of vital importance in practice. There are many souls disposed to make the atonement do all the work. There is no truth more blessed than the atonement, unless it be His Person who gives that work its divine value, but we must leave room for all that our God has given us. There is nothing which so tends to make a sect as to take truth out of its proportions, treating a part as if it were the whole mind of God. Thus it will not do to confine the saint then even to Christ’s atoning work, which has forever abolished our guilt before God, not even if we add to this that we know that in Him risen we are placed in an entirely new position, a life where evil never enters. Both most true and precious, but are these the whole truth? Certainly not, and there is no course more dangerous than to construe them as the whole truth. They are as precious as they are needed for the soul, but there is really no part of truth which is not needed.
By Blood and by Water
The red heifer teaches the children of Israel that the work of the day of atonement had not so completely dealt with all sin that they might treat daily defilements as immaterial. It is impossible to exaggerate the value of the shedding of Christ’s blood for our sins. It does give us to have no more conscience of sins. We are justified by His blood, and with Christ we have died to sin; we are alive to God in Him. But though this is all quite true (and was then set forth as far as types could, although imperfectly, when we look at an Israelite), such grace is the strongest motive why we cannot tamper with what is defiled. The very fact that we are cleansed perfectly before God is a loud call to us not to endure a blot before men. It was to guard His people from soils by the way that God gave here a provision so remarkable. A red heifer was to be brought, a striking picture of Christ, but of Christ in a way not often spoken of in Scripture. The requirement supposes not only the absence of such blemishes as was indispensable in every sacrifice, but also it must have never known the yoke, that is, the pressure of sin. How this speaks of the antitype! Christ was always perfectly acceptable unto God. “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” (Num. 19:33And 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: (Numbers 19:3)).
The blood was taken and put seven times before the tabernacle, for it is the blood that makes atonement and vindicates God wherever the thought of sin occurs. But its special use points to another feature, for purification for sin is spoken of again. “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” (Num. 19:56). Then we find the ashes of the heifer laid up in a clean place. “And 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” (Num. 19:99And 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. (Numbers 19:9)). In what sense? Simply and solely with a view to communion — of restoring it when broken. It is not at all a question of establishing relationships (that was already done), but on the ground of the subsisting relation the Israelite must allow nothing by the way which would spoil the holiness that suits the sanctuary of Jehovah. This was the point.
A Thorough Realization of the Offense
This shadow of good things demanded separation from anything inconsistent with the sanctuary. While traveling through the wilderness, they were exposed constantly to the contact of death. It is death that is here brought in as defiling in various shapes and degrees. If one touched the dead body of a man, he was to be unclean seven days. What was to be done? “He 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” (Num. 19:1212He 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. (Numbers 19:12)). It was not permitted to purify one’s self on the first day. Why not at once? It was ordered not for the first but the third day. When there is defilement on the spirit, when anything succeeds in interrupting communion with God, it is of deep moral importance that we should thoroughly realize our offense.
This seems the meaning of its being done on the third day. It was to be no mere sudden feeling that one had sinned, and there was an end of the matter. The Israelite was obliged to remain till the third day under a sense of his sin. This was a painful position. He had to reckon up the days and remain till the third, when he has the water of separation first sprinkled on him. A hasty expression of sorrow does not prove genuine repentance for sin. We see something like this with children. There is many a one who has a child ready enough to ask for forgiveness or even own its fault, but the child that feels it most is not always quick. A child who is far slower to own it may, and commonly does, have a deeper sense of what repentance means. It is right and becoming that he who is defiled (that is, has his communion with God interrupted) should take that place seriously. This I believe to be the general meaning of the Lord’s ordinance here. Of course, in Christianity it is not a question of days, but of that which corresponds to the meaning. There should be time enough to prove a real sense of the evil of one’s defilement as dishonoring God, and not the haste which really evinces an absence of right feeling. He who duly purified himself on the third day was in effect purified on the seventh day.
A Sense of Sin and Grace
Thus, first of all, the defiled person has a sense of his sin in the presence of this grace that provides against it by washing on the third day. Then, he has at last the precious realization of grace in the presence of sin on the seventh day. The two sprinklings are the converse of each other. They set forth how sin had brought shame on grace, and how grace had triumphed over sin. This seems the meaning, and more particularly for the following reason. The ashes of the heifer express the effect of the consuming judgment of God on the Lord Jesus because of sin. It is not simply blood, showing that I am guilty and that God gives a sacrifice to put it away. The ashes attest to the judicial dealing of God in the consumption, as it were, of that blessed offering which came under all the holy sentence of God through our sins. The water (or Spirit by the Word) gives us to realize Christ’s having suffered for that which we, alas! are apt to feel so little.
For Matters Small and Great
There is another thing to notice in passing. The water of purification was not merely wanted when one touched a dead body, but in different modes and measures. Touching a dead body might be called a great case, but the institution shows that God takes notice of the least thing. So should we —at least in ourselves. “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” (Num. 19:14-1614This 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. 16And 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. (Numbers 19:14‑16)). “The bone of a man” might be a much lesser object, but whatever defiles comes into notice and is provided for in Christ our Lord. It is not only grave matters that defile, but little occasions, as men would say, which come between us and communion with our God and Father. At the same time, He provides the unchanging remedy of grace for every defilement.
W. Kelly, adapted