And the bullock of the sin-offering, and the goat of the sin-offering whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the sanctuary, shall one carry forth outside the camp; and they shall burn with fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And he that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water; and afterwards he may come into the camp.
The Day of Atonement ends with a detail that is easy to miss: the man who burned the sin offerings outside the camp had to wash his clothes and bathe before he could come back in. Why did obeying God's own command leave him unclean, and what does that say about the sin the fire had just destroyed?
The place of the burning carried a message of its own.
The rest of the bullock — his flesh, his skin, his dung — was burned outside the camp. It was a sin offering, which was always burned outside the camp. Outside the camp was a place of reproach... The camp was a large place. Some three million souls surrounded the tabernacle. According to the Jewish historian, the camp had a circuit of twelve miles. It must have been a solemn and awe-inspiring sight to see the sin offering carried outside the camp and burned there. It stood for God's utter hatred of sin, and for the death of our Lord as the only thing that met the judgment of God.
The New Testament names what this burning pointed to.
The law lays it down that the bullock and the goat, whose blood had been brought into the sanctuary for atonement, were to be carried out and burned outside the camp (v. 27). The one who burned them must wash his clothes and bathe before coming into the camp (v. 28). Here we are not left to our own guesses about the meaning. In the letter to the Hebrews 13:11–13 the apostle gives us invaluable light... "So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured." The application is as sure as the duty. There is no call so near the Christian's heart as practical identification with Christ.
The blood went inside the veil; the body went outside the camp. One sacrifice reached both extremes.
It does not become us to take only the comfort that flows from knowing Christ is within the veil — the comfort His sacrifice gives us. I must seek practical identification with Him outside the camp. Christ within the veil calms my conscience. Christ outside the camp stirs and energizes my soul to run the race set before me more devotedly... Nothing could be morally further apart than inside the veil and outside the camp. Yet here they meet. Inside the veil was the place where the glory of God dwelt. Outside the camp was the place where they burned the sin offering. No place gives such an idea of distance from God as that.
The man was not punished. He did what God told him to do, and still came away needing water.
Notice, too, that the high priest bathed when he had finished with sins. Dealing with them defiled him, however right the dealing was. The man chosen to lead the scapegoat away washed his clothes and bathed himself. He had become defiled, though his work was right in itself. The one who burned the sin offering bodies also had to wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. He had been in contact with the evil thing, though he was only doing his duty.
The same principle holds when we deal with someone else's sin.
Anyone who has to do with the sin of another is defiled, even when duty calls him to cleanse it. Not in the way the guilty person is, it is true, but we cannot touch sin without being defiled... And to lead another into the enjoyment of the cleansing power of Christ's work, I must be enjoying that cleansing work myself.
The defilement had a limit.
The one who burned the animals was to wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. This shows that only contact with what God had put under judgment had a defiling influence. Yet once the burning took place, no more defilement would spread.
That leaves us with two problems, not one.
See how different guilt and defilement are. Yet neither can be allowed to go on unjudged and unremoved.
- Outside. They burned the sin offering beyond the camp, in the place of reproach. It showed God's utter hatred of sin, and the death that alone met His judgment.
- Explained. We are not left guessing. Hebrews 13 reads these verses for us: Jesus suffered outside the gate, and we are called out to Him.
- Costly. The man who burned the bodies obeyed God, yet handling the evil thing defiled him. No one touches sin, even in duty, and walks away untouched.
- Cleansed. Water, not punishment, was the remedy. Once the fire had done its work, the defilement spread no further.
- Restored. Washed, he came back into the camp. Guilt and defilement are different things, and neither may be left unjudged or unremoved.