And the priest shall wash his garments, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterwards he shall come into the camp; and the priest shall be unclean until the even;
The red heifer has just been burned outside the camp, and its ashes will be kept to cleanse others. Now comes the surprise: the priest who carried out God's own command walks away unclean, shut out of the camp until he has washed.
The priest was not singled out.
Once the red heifer was burned in this way, its ashes were kept in a clean place. This stresses the holiness of God. The priest supervised the burning. Another man did the actual burning. A third gathered up the ashes. All of them had to wash their clothes and be unclean till evening. In this way God would impress His holiness on everyone who had anything to do with Him through sacrifice.
Notice who is told to wash. Eleazar served at the tabernacle, as near to God as a man could be.
Eleazar's normal service was in the tabernacle. He brought the heifer outside the camp to be killed and burned. After he was cleansed, he was to come into the camp. God's holiness demands that those nearest to Him take the greatest care to keep pure. The camp of Israel could not tolerate the slightest defilement on a priest. The more deeply we are engaged in the work of restoring others, the more we need to feel the cleansing and refreshing influence of the word of God in our own souls.
The priest did nothing wrong. The defilement came from obeying, not from failing.
The sacrifice was holy, or it could not have been a sacrifice fit for His acceptance. The ashes were clean, and they were to be kept in a clean place. Both the heifer and the ashes spoke of One in whom is no sin: the heifer, of Him who offered up Himself; the ashes, of the fiery judgment of God that He endured. But because sin was involved, God would mark by the words "outside the camp" what sin really is in the eyes of the High and Holy One. Those who prepared the ashes had to acknowledge this themselves. They were ceremonially clean when they began their work, and ceremonially unclean when they had done it right.
The chapter does not treat every helper the same way.
Everyone engaged in this work of purification needed cleansing. We cannot have to do with sin in any way without feeling how it defiles the spirit. Even those who were least engaged had to wash their clothes and were unclean until the evening. That was true of the man who gathered the ashes and the man who sprinkled the ashes (verses 10, 21)... The priest and the man who burned the heifer were involved most deeply in preparing the water of separation. So they had to wash their clothes and bathe their bodies in water as well.
Commentators read this verse as a warning for anyone who sets out to put someone else right.
Those who set others right need to be spiritual themselves, watchful, and ready to judge themselves. They also need a spirit of meekness and fear, in case they become defiled. So we do well to heed the apostle's instruction: "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." (Gal. 6:1.)
Another writer explains why the priest of all people came away unclean.
Even a priest, when he made the offering of the red heifer, was affected in some measure by his identification with the defilement he was making the offering for. This is a strong warning to us. Even when we deal with defilement in a right way, we are bound to be affected for the worse. If we wrestled with a coal miner just out of the mine, we would get just as dirty as if we had hugged him. So, in judging sin in others we face the stern necessity of judging ourselves.
Every human hand in the chapter comes away soiled.
If anyone had anything to do with the heifer, that person became unclean. The priest and the man who burnt it were unclean... All this was to mark God's exactness, this deep feeling about anything that had to do with our defilement. In Christ, where this deep feeling is found, there is of course no uncleanness at all, but the very opposite. Christ was the only one who could touch the leper without being defiled.
- Touch — The heifer defiled everyone who handled it: the priest, the burner, the ash-gatherer, and later the sprinkler. Contact with sin leaves a mark, even when you handle it for God.
- Degree — The nearer you stood to the work, the deeper the cleansing. All washed their clothes. The priest and the man who burned the heifer also bathed.
- Duty — The priest was not punished for disobedience. He was clean when he started and unclean when he had done the job right.
- Caution — So anyone restoring a fallen person must first watch himself. Judging sin in others forces us to judge ourselves.
- Exception — Only Christ touched uncleanness without catching it. The ashes speak of the fiery judgment of God that He endured.
and he that hath burned it shall wash his garments in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even.
Israel burned the red heifer outside the camp, and its ashes made the water that cleansed defilement. The man who did the burning obeyed God — and came away unclean himself.
Verse 7 says the same of the priest who made the offering. One writer draws out the lesson with a homely picture.
Even the priest who offered the red heifer was in some measure affected, because he identified himself with the defilement he was offering for. He had to wash his clothes, and he was still unclean until the evening (v.7). Also, the one who burned the animal was affected in the same way (v.8). This is a strong warning to us. Even when we deal rightly with defilement, it is bound to affect us for the worse. If we wrestled with a coal miner just out of the mine we would become just as dirty as if we embraced him. So in judging sin in others we face the stern necessity of judging ourselves.
The chapter does not ask the same washing from everyone. Some only wash their clothes.
Everyone who shared in this work of purification needed cleansing. We cannot have to do with sin in any way without feeling how it defiles our spirit. Even those with the smallest part had to wash their clothes and were unclean until the evening — the man who gathered the ashes, and the man who sprinkled them (verses 10, 21). We must be free from every trace of contact with sin, even in others. Only then can we have communion with God or serve in His holy things. The priest and the man who burned the heifer had the largest part in preparing the water of separation. So they had to wash their clothes and bathe their bodies in water as well.
The place chosen for this work carries its own message. So does the state the workers ended in.
To mark what sin is in God's sight, they killed the heifer outside the camp, and they kept the ashes outside the camp. The sacrifice was holy; otherwise it could not have been a sacrifice fit for His acceptance. The ashes were clean, and they had to be kept in a clean place. Both the heifer and the ashes spoke of One in whom there is no sin: the heifer, of Him who offered up Himself; the ashes, of the fiery judgment of God He has endured. Yet because the work touched sin, those who prepared the ashes had to own for themselves what sin is in the eyes of the High and Holy One. They were ceremonially clean when they began their work, and ceremonially unclean when they had finished it properly.
This washing was not new. One writer sets it beside the day of atonement.
On the day of atonement, the man who burned the sin offering and the man who led the goat away had to wash their clothes, bathe themselves, and then return to the camp. The priest who sprinkled the blood of the red heifer and the man who burned her body had to do the same. But unlike the rules for the day of atonement, everyone concerned with preparing the ashes was unclean until the evening.
Run through the chapter and nearly everyone who comes near the heifer catches uncleanness. One thing never does.
Everyone in the chapter who had to do with the ashes was defiled. The priest who carried out the ceremony was unclean. So was the person who burned the heifer, the man who gathered the ashes, and the one who sprinkled the water of separation or touched the ashes. Even whatever that man touched afterwards was unclean. There was only one thing that could not be defiled, and that was the "ashes of the heifer." Yes, reader, what a lesson is here. No one can have to do with sin, even in another, and remain undefiled, but God alone! When He touches sin, He withers it. When man touches it, he either sympathizes with it or is defiled.
One writer turns this on anyone who sets out to put a failing believer right.
Nothing shows more clearly how serious it is to have to do with evil in others. Those who set others right need to be spiritual themselves, watchful, self-judging, and in a spirit of gentleness and fear, in case they become defiled. It is hard to have to do with uncleanness in anyone without becoming defiled ourselves. So we do well to heed the apostle's instruction on this subject: "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." (Gal. 6:1.)
- Contact defiles. The man burning the heifer obeyed God and still ended the day unclean. Handling sin marks the one who handles it.
- Contact measured. The washing matched the closeness. Those least involved washed their clothes. The priest and the burner also bathed their bodies.
- Contact bounded. Every rite happened outside the camp, to mark what sin is in God's sight. The uncleanness itself ran only until evening.
- Contact-proof. Only the ashes could not be defiled. God alone can touch sin and not be stained.
- Contact a warning. Restore a failing believer gently. Watch yourself while you do it, because no one handles another's sin untouched.
And a clean man shall gather the ashes of the heifer, and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the assembly of the children of Israel for a water of separation it is a purification for sin.
A red heifer has just been burned outside Israel's camp, and a clean man now gathers its ashes and stores them in a clean place. Mixed later with running water, those ashes became the nation's standing remedy for defilement picked up on the road.
Leviticus sets out the sacrifices in their broad meaning. This offering meets a problem that arises on the road:
In Numbers 19 we have a special case of a sin offering. Leviticus and Numbers differ here. Leviticus gives us the sacrifices in their great distinguishing characters. Numbers gives us how they apply in the trials of a walk of faith. It meets the case of people falling into evil, or picking up defilement... This shows the power of the sin offering, as the Spirit brings it to the conscience. It is not a fresh sacrifice. There is no shedding of blood. Only the ashes are sprinkled.
The stored ashes are the last trace of the animal.
The ashes of the heifer bring back to your memory, plainly and surely, what has taken place. They are all that is left of that wonderful victim. Nothing is left but the ashes. The fire of judgment consumed everything else. By these ashes, as a picture, the Spirit of God brings to the memory of the soul, in certain circumstances, what it cost Christ to make us clean. Without that, we will not know, after failure, what purification really is.
The word "kept" carries weight in this verse.
The ordinance of the red heifer stands alone. Other sacrifices come before us again and again, but Scripture records this one nowhere else in Israel's history. There is no account of anyone repeating it. The ashes of the burnt heifer were kept, or should have been kept, all along the journey. It all pictured the sacrifice of Christ, offered once and never to be repeated. His sacrifice never loses its power, so there was no need to repeat it. It perfected for ever.
What survives the fire is also evidence about guilt itself:
Ashes were all that remained: unanswerable proof that our sins could never be charged to us again. They had been charged once — to Christ. The judgment that fell on Him consumed Him, and blood could not blot out again what blood had already wiped out.
Three things stand together here: the ashes go outside the camp, the place chosen for them must be clean, and the men who handle them do not stay clean.
So here, to mark what sin is in God's sight, they killed the heifer outside the camp, and outside the camp they kept the ashes. The sacrifice was holy, or it could not have been a sacrifice fit for His acceptance. The ashes were clean, and they were to be kept in a clean place. Both the heifer and the ashes spoke of One in whom is no sin: the heifer, of Him who offered up Himself; the ashes, of the fiery judgment of God He has endured... Those who prepared the ashes had to acknowledge what sin is. They were ceremonially clean when they began their work, and ceremonially unclean when they had properly finished it.
This purification does not create the bond between God and the Israelite. It repairs something else.
In what sense? With a view to communion, and nothing else — restoring it when broken. It is not a question at all of establishing the relationship; that was already done. On the ground of the relationship that already exists, the Israelite must allow nothing along the way that would spoil the holiness that suits the sanctuary of Jehovah.
The ashes were never sprinkled dry. The ESV calls the mixture "the water for impurity"; older translations call it "the water of separation." Each part of it pictures something.
From the ashes of a red heifer they were to make "a water of separation," and they were to sprinkle that water on people and things that were defiled. The "water of separation" that purified was made from "the ashes of the burnt heifer" — a picture of the death of Christ — and "running [or, living] water" — a picture of the Spirit.
The name given to this mixture points to what it is for. And the defilement it deals with is not always deliberate.
It shows, too, that a believer does not always pick up defilement by his own act. He may come into contact with defilement, even without knowing it, and so he is defiled and needs the "water of purification." Someone may have to judge a sin in the assembly, and his mind is defiled as he listens to the sordid story, so a purification is needed. The text calls the ashes mixed with running water "a water of separation." How necessary separation from evil is! And how necessary it is to be kept in the happy enjoyment of communion with God.
- Cost. The ashes are all that survived the fire — the reminder of what it cost Christ to make us clean.
- Kept. The offering was never repeated. One sacrifice lasted the whole journey, because its value never runs out.
- Proof. The judgment already fell on Christ, so sin can never be charged to us again. Ashes, not fresh blood, are the remedy.
- Applied. Ashes mixed with running water picture the death of Christ brought home by the Spirit. They meet defilement picked up on the road, even without our knowing.
- Communion. The aim is not to start the relationship but to restore fellowship inside it, and to keep the traveller clear of evil.
And he that hath gathered the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even. And it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, an everlasting statute.
This verse ends the list of men who worked at the red heifer ritual. The last of them only gathered up the ashes, yet he too must wash his clothes and stay unclean until evening. Two questions follow. Why does a work of cleansing leave the worker unclean? And why does God fix this as a lasting rule for Israelite and foreigner alike?
This ordinance is not among the offerings of Leviticus. It stands in the book of the desert march, and one writer links that placement to the trouble it treats.
So in Numbers we get the red heifer, the provision for the wilderness, which is not among the sacrifices in Leviticus. If you touch death, you need your feet washed. The ashes of the heifer were there to restore communion, when the people had lost it on the way through the wilderness.
The man gathers a heap of ashes, not a fresh victim. That difference is the point.
Here the remedy for defilement is put before us in picture form. It is not in a new sacrifice, nor in the shedding of that blood without which there is no forgiveness. It is in applying what speaks of a sacrifice once for all completed, of wrath exhausted and gone. The ashes alone remain, to testify that the fire consumed the victim completely. Other sacrifices were offered again and again. The red heifer is not like them. Alone among legal ordinances, it stands for the lasting power of what has been offered "once for all."
A clean man gathered the ashes, and the work itself left him unclean. That reversal was no accident.
The sacrifice was holy; otherwise it could not have been a sacrifice fit for His acceptance. The ashes were clean, and they had to be kept in a clean place. Both the heifer and the ashes spoke of One in whom is no sin: the heifer, of Him who offered up Himself; the ashes, of the fiery judgment of God He has endured. But because it was connected with sin in any way, God would mark by the words "outside the camp" what sin really is in the eyes of the High and Holy One. Those who prepared the ashes had to acknowledge it themselves. They began their work ritually clean, and they ended it ritually unclean, though they had done it properly.
The chapter repeats the same requirement for each man who touched the work, and the repetition is the lesson.
The priest who sprinkled the blood, and cast the things into the burning of the heifer, was unclean until the evening... The man who had burnt the heifer had to wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water... The clean man who gathered up the ashes had also to wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening (v. 10)... Nothing could show us more sharply how serious it is to deal with evil in others. Those who are busy setting others right need to be spiritual themselves, watchful and ready to judge themselves. They need a spirit of gentleness and fear too, in case they become defiled.
"A perpetual statute" means the ashes were meant to last as long as the journey did.
The ordinance of the red heifer stands alone. Scripture brings other sacrifices before us again and again. No other part of Israel's history records this one, and no account says it was ever repeated. The ashes of the burnt heifer were kept, or should have been kept, all along the journey. All of it was meant to point forward to the sacrifice of Christ, offered once and never repeated.
The statute binds "the people of Israel" as a whole, not one special class of men:
The ordinance of the red heifer was not limited to the priests or the Levites; it was for the congregation... The red heifer is a provision for believers, so that they may be cleansed from all defilement along the way. It is no less necessary for the saint than the shed blood is for the sinner.
The verse then reaches wider still, to the foreigner living among them.
- Provision. The red heifer belongs to Numbers, the book of the desert march. It meets defilement picked up on the road, not guilt settled at the start.
- Memorial. He gathers ashes, not a new victim. They prove the judgment is already borne, and they stay ready for the next need.
- Cost. Every hand that touched the work came away unclean. Sin marks even the man who is clearing it away.
- Caution. Even the ash-gatherer had to wash and wait. Anyone who helps to set another right must stay watchful and judge himself, or he will be defiled too.
- Reach. The statute is permanent, and the sacrifice was never repeated. It was given to the whole congregation, and to the foreigner living among them too.