The ashes of a heifer used to purify the unclean
August 11, 2019
Commentary
Laws had been given whereby a person coming in contact with a corpse would be considered unclean and disqualified from religious life and service for a period of seven days. These regulations about “clean and unclean, for those under the law,’ are spelled out in detail in Leviticus 11-15, telling the Israelites what they could eat, how they should deal with bodily waste and infections, and what to do about dead bodies. Masses of dead bodies, whether dying from plague, war, or natural causes, were a common sight to the Israelites in their dessert wanderings. If the law as prescribed by Number 5:2-4 was to be fulfilled (and it had to be), the majority of the survivors would inevitably be defiled because of proximity to dead bodies, and would find themselves very often outside the fellowship.
As we read this passage we may ask, What is the significance of the red heifer’s ashes? When a person touched a dead body; he was considered unclean and unable to approach God in worship. This ritual purified the unclean person so that once again he could offer sacrifices and worship God. Death was the most major of defilements because it was the final result of sin. Thus a special sacrifice (of a red heifer) was required and must be offered by someone who was not unclean. When it was burned on the altar, its ashes were used to purify water for the ceremonial cleansing. The unclean person then washed himself, and often his clothes and belongings, with this purified water as an act of becoming clean again. An innocent animal had to die to provide ritual cleansing for the Jews, but the innocent Lamb of God had to die to provide cleansing for all of us (John 1:29).
Application
Today I don’t need to be concerned about external ritual cleansing, but I need to take to heart the lesson of this chapter that God wants me to be a holy person. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9).
Numbers 19:1– 22 (NET)
1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 2 “This is the ordinance of the law that the Lord has commanded: ‘Instruct the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without blemish, which has no defect and has never carried a yoke. 3 You must give it to Eleazar the priest so that he can take it outside the camp, and it must be slaughtered before him. 4 Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of the blood seven times in the direction of the front of the tent of meeting. 5 Then the heifer must be burned in his sight—its skin, its flesh, its blood, and its offal is to be burned. 6 And the priest must take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool and throw them into the midst of the fire where the heifer is burning. 7 Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and afterward he may come into the camp, but the priest will be ceremonially unclean until evening. 8 The one who burns it must wash his clothes in water and bathe himself in water. He will be ceremonially unclean until evening.
9 “‘Then a man who is ceremonially clean must gather up the ashes of the red heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They must be kept for the community of the Israelites for use in the water of purification —it is a purification for sin. 10 The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer must wash his clothes and be ceremonially unclean until evening. This will be a permanent ordinance both for the Israelites and the resident foreigner who lives among them.
11 “‘Whoever touches the corpse of any person will be ceremonially unclean seven days. 12 He must purify himself with water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and the seventh day, then he will not be clean. 13 Anyone who touches the corpse of any dead person and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. And that person must be cut off from Israel, because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.
14 “‘This is the law: When a man dies in a tent, anyone who comes into the tent and all who are in the tent will be ceremonially unclean seven days. 15 And every open container that has no covering fastened on it is unclean. 16 And whoever touches the body of someone killed with a sword in the open fields, or the body of someone who died of natural causes, or a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean seven days.
17 “‘For a ceremonially unclean person you must take some of the ashes of the heifer burnt for purification from sin and pour fresh running water over them in a vessel. 18 Then a ceremonially clean person must take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all its furnishings, and on the people who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, or one who was killed, or one who died, or a grave. 19 And the clean person must sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he must purify him, and then he must wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and he will be clean in the evening. 20 But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person must be cut off from among the community, because he has polluted the sanctuary of the Lord; the water of purification was not sprinkled on him, so he is unclean.
21 “‘So this will be a perpetual ordinance for them: The one who sprinkles the water of purification must wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water of purification will be unclean until evening. 22 And whatever the unclean person touches will be unclean, and the person who touches it will be unclean until evening.’”