The Red Heifer
In Numbers 19 we learn the excessive jealousy of the Lord about sin, not in the sense of guilt, but defilement. This He measures by His sanctuary. We have to do with it, and nothing unclean can be allowed. Once we are truly saved, we are “clean every whit” (John 13:1010Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. (John 13:10)), but the feet-washing is needed. We belong to the sanctuary and yet are in the world, though not of it (John 15:19; 17:1419If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. (John 15:19)
14I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14)); we need to have a just estimate of both. Even if we only slightly touch evil, a remedy is required. Still the remedy is not the question of justification, but of communion. Sin hinders that—hinders my coming boldly into the holiest. How was this possible? The blood of the unblemished heifer, representing Christ who knew no sin and could not be brought under its power, was sprinkled before the tabernacle seven times; that is, before the place of communion, not of atonement. The sin offering was burnt without the camp, but the blood of the red heifer was sprinkled seven times where we meet God in intercourse. This marks the full efficacy of Christ’s blood when I meet God. The body was reduced to ashes, as Christ was judged and condemned for what I am apt to be careless about; but God is not careless, and would make me sensible of sin. Christ had to suffer for it, and it is gone; but the sight of His suffering shows me the dreadfulness of it.
Defilement
When one had become defiled, then we read, “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 persons” (Num. 19:17-1817And 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: 18And 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: (Numbers 19:17‑18)). The water here speaks of the Word of God, applied by the Spirit, not to give new life, but to restore to communion. It New Testament terms, it is “the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. 5:2626That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, (Ephesians 5:26)).
God has an eye that discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart; He would have us discern them too, and without this there can be no communion. But we do not get back into communion as quickly as we get out of it. Seven days elapsed in the type before there was full restoration. The Spirit takes and applies the ashes in the water of purification (that is, the remembrance of Christ’s agony, and what occasioned it), and makes us feel practically the horror of sin.
When I look at my sin with horror, even in the sense of the grace which has met it, it is a right feeling, but this is not communion; it is a holy judgment of sin in the presence of grace. Hence, there was a second sprinkling, not on the third day, but the seventh, and then there is communion with God. We see that perfect grace alone maintains the sense of perfect holiness. The result, in the end, is that we increase in the knowledge of God, both as to holiness and love. We must have been out of communion before we sinned, or we should not have yielded. How did I come to fall? Because of the carelessness which left me out of God’s presence, and exposed me to the evil without and within.
J. N. Darby. (adapted)