Numbers Chapter 19: Purification of the Red Heifer
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| The Guardian 2015, James Martin/Getty Images |
Numbers 19:1-22
Day 71. Getting lots done around the house. And after many days and many trips we were able to get a hold of some tomato and cucumber plants for our garden. Noticing that fewer and fewer people are wearing masks. No news on further ease-ups in Ontario, especially for meeting together. So, we go on living our “on-line” lives. We now tackle a very significant topic. Read on.
The Passage
19 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never [a]been placed. 3 You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. 4 Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5 Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. 6 The priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the [b]burning heifer. 7 The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his [c]body in water, and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8 The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his [d]body in water, and shall be unclean until evening. 9 Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and [e]the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity; it is [f]purification from sin. 10 The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the alien who sojourns among them.
Verses 11-22 are once again the details with respect to instructions of someone touching a corpse and how they are to become clean. And really, it is a repeat of some earlier instructions God had given Moses.
Footnotes
- Numbers 19:2 Lit come up
- Numbers 19:6 Lit burning of the heifer
- Numbers 19:7 Lit flesh
- Numbers 19:8 Lit flesh
- Numbers 19:9 Lit it shall be to the congregation...Israel, for a guarding as water of impurity
- Numbers 19:9 Or a sin offering
Thoughts on the Passage
We do not always know the exact order or timing of these various times that God spoke to Moses and/or Aaron. But here God introduces the offering that involves an “unblemished red heifer” with no defect and which has never been put to work in the field under a yoke. A heifer is a young female cow that has not borne a calf and thus could not yet give milk. And of course, they had to find a ‘red’ which would be rare. David Guzik quotes Wenham as saying the color was needed to resemble the blood to be shed.
And Moses was instructed that this animal be taken specifically to Eleazar the priest to deal with. To put Eleazar in context, we note that he has a son of Aaron and he succeeded his father as the second High Priest of the Israelites. He was also a nephew to Moses.
This animal was to be taken “outside the camp” and slaughtered in the presence of Eleazar. He was to take some of the blood from the slaughtered animal with his finger and sprinkle it “toward the front of the tent of meeting”. And he was to do this seven times.
The heifer was then to be burned. Eleazar was to add cedar wood, hyssop, and some scarlet material into that fire which was consuming the heifer. Guzik says the following about these three items:
i. In Leviticus 14:4-6, each of these three items are used in the cleansing ceremony for a leper. Each of these items has a special significance.
ii. Cedar is extremely resistant to disease and rot, and is well known for its quality and preciousness. These properties may be the reason for including it here - as well as a symbolic reference to the wood of the cross. Some even think the cross Jesus was crucified on was made of cedar.
iii. Hyssop was used not only with the cleansing ceremony for lepers, but also Jesus was offered drink from a hyssop branch on the cross (Matthew 27:48), and when David said purge me with hyssop in Psalm 51:7, he was admitting he was as bad as a leper.
iv. Scarlet, the color of blood, pictures the cleansing blood of Jesus on the cross. Scarlet was used in the veil and curtains of the tabernacle (Exodus 26:31), in the garments of the high priest (Exodus 28:5-6), the covering for the table of showbread (Numbers 4:8), the sign of Rahab's salvation (Joshua 2:21), and the color of the mocking "king's robe" put on Jesus at His torture by the soldiers (Matthew 27:28).
Now the meaning of the ‘red heifer’ is starting to be understood.
Eleazar was then to wash his clothes, bathe his body, and then enter the camp, remaining ‘unclean’ until evening.
The person who was helping in the burning of the heifer had to do the same thing and he was unclean until evening.
Another person who was clean was to gather up all the ashes and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. He too would be required to wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. And the next part is a little difficult – the text says the congregation was to keep ‘it’ (one assumes the ashes just mentioned) as ‘water’ to remove impurity; impurity from sin. Guzik explains this as follows:
The residue from the burning of the carcass, the cedar, the hyssop, and the scarlet fabric together would produce a lot of ash, and the ash was to be gathered and sprinkled in water bit by bit to make water fit for purification.
So the ashes of the red heifer, stirred in with water became a source of purification or purifying water.
Matthew Henry puts it this way:
This burning of the heifer, though it was not properly a sacrifice of expiation, being not performed at the altar, yet was typical of the death and sufferings of Christ, by which he intended, not only to satisfy God's justice, but to purify and pacify our consciences, that we may have peace with God and also peace in our own bosoms, to prepare for which Christ died, not only like the bulls and goats at the altar, but like the heifer without the camp.
This whole exercise was to be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and any alien who sojourned among them. Chuck Smith says, “Now there are those who see in this red heifer analogies to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the washing that we have through His Word and the through the Spirit.” I can see that.
We end this study by tying in the meaning of the red heifer today for orthodox Jews. Back in 2015, the Guardian had a most interesting article on this very topic. You may remember hearing about it. It ties together the Red Heifer, the Temple to be built, and the end days. Anyway, here is the article – just click Looking for a Red Heifer. I’d appreciate and value your thoughts. And by the way, if you have been able to breed one, keep it a secret and make sure it is well insured. You may be playing a bigger part in God’s plan for mankind than you think.
It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.
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