Numbers 19:9–13

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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 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.

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 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.

In every case a person became defiled by contact with death, or with the result of death. No one who was unclean could claim ignorance as an excuse. No one could deny what death was. It was the clearest and most absolute proof of sin: "In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." "The wages of sin is death." Its consequences made sin plain. So the man who touched death had no excuse to offer.

The ordinance of the red heifer was not only for the priests or the Levites; it was for the whole congregation... The sprinkled blood, as on the Passover night, keeps us safe from judgment. The great day of atonement sets out the full answer of the cross — a perfect redemption. It meets the need of guilty sinners and establishes new relationships between God and the redeemed. In a word, both of these ordinances have the sinner in view. The red heifer is instead a provision for believers, to cleanse them from all defilement along the way. It is no less necessary for the saint than the shed blood is for the sinner.

He cannot tolerate any uncleanness on those with whom He stoops to walk, and in whom He dwells. He can pardon and blot out. He can heal, cleanse and restore. But He cannot approve unjudged evil, or allow it on His people... True, we are not defiled today by touching "a dead body, a human bone, or a grave." These things stood for moral and spiritual things. We are in danger of touching them every day and every hour.

It shows, too, that a saint may not always bring defilement on himself by his own act. He may come into touch with defilement, even without knowing it, and so be defiled and need the "water of purification." One may have to judge some sin in the assembly, and listening to the sordid story may defile the mind, so that he needs a purification.

But this act of restoration does not give us the idea of either a slight or a rapid process. We know that sometimes a long time passes before someone who has felt his uncleanness is fully restored. As we have seen, the man was unclean "seven days," during which the process of restoration was going on. Seven, in the language of types, means what is complete. So we learn that a fully adequate time must pass, in which he may know certain experiences, before he could be fully restored. In our case that time may be short or long.

First her blood was sprinkled seven times, in full, before the tent of meeting. On that basis the rest of the sacrifice was burned to ashes, as a standing purification for sin. Then, if an Israelite became defiled, the remedy was not to sprinkle the blood again. The unclean person was sprinkled instead with the water of separation — running water mixed with some of the ashes of the burnt heifer. The Spirit and the word of God make the defiled soul feel what his trifling with sin cost Christ, the Son of God. Christ bore the unsparing judgment of it all before God, when He was made sin for him.

It shows how small a matter is enough to check and hinder communion. Sometimes this comes from circumstances we had no control over, as a man dying in a tent made everyone in it unclean. And yet in every instance we find the exact way of restoration, provided in grace. It teaches lessons especially to us, who are travelling on to our rest through a region of sin and death.

If a man tampered with sin, God at least would not make light of his sin. He would let the soul gain by being troubled about it. It was useless for such a person to say: I am sprinkled with the blood. I am clean. Why should I trouble myself more about the sin? Such thoughts do not come from the Holy Spirit... The blood is not the appointed way for meeting sin afterwards. The flesh uses that to make light of sin. Here it was not the blood that purified, but the ashes of the heifer. What did they represent? The full proof of judgment.

The ashes are the death of Christ, and the running water is the energy of the Holy Spirit of God bringing to my soul what Christ passed through. He says: Christ has died for you. He has borne the judgment of God for you. And this very sin that you found pleasure in drew from His soul that agonising cry, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" And He works in my soul the deep sense of what a wretch I am, for I have been finding pleasure in what cost Him pain.

It was not permitted to purify oneself on the first day. Am I wrong in thinking that we might have assumed beforehand that this haste was much the best course? Why not at once? God ordered it not for the first day but the third. Defilement can settle on the spirit. When anything succeeds in interrupting communion with God, it is of deep moral importance that we fully realise our offence... The Israelite had to remain until the third day under a sense of his sin. A hasty expression of sorrow does not prove genuine repentance for sin.

The man who thinks he has done everything by confessing his sin the moment he was defiled is usually more or less superficial. The man who puts off humbling himself tends to let the delay deaden his conscience. Satan persuades him that the fault is not so serious, that many others have acted as badly; and so the soul gets sleepy, and forgets how grave the sin is.

The first application on the third day did not restore the Israelite. Nor does the believer's first grasp of the sacrifice of Christ, which the Holy Spirit presses home on his conscience, restore the soul to communion. That first grasp gives the sense that the sin has been put away by the sacrifice of Christ. The second application is the full restoration of the soul to God, with the sense of His grace triumphing over the sin.

The third day is emphasised as the resurrection day: "if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean." The "living water" pictures, as always, the Spirit of God. He brings the soul to understand its association with Christ in resurrection, and so makes the death of the cross effective in purifying us from the world. Still, the man is not clean until the evening of the seventh day — ready for the eighth, which begins a new week and the entrance into new creation.

Nothing of death could suit "the sanctuary of the LORD" — not even the touch of a "dead body," or of "a bone of a man." Death in man was a witness that sin was bound up with it. "By a man came death," as well as sin, for death is the wages of sin. We saw in Leviticus 11 that touching the carcass of an unclean animal left a man unclean only until evening. Here, touching the dead body of a man left him unclean for seven days. The reason for the difference is obvious; for man is connected with sin as well as death.

Though only an individual was defiled, the consequences of his act were not confined to himself. He lived outside the camp because of his defilement, yet he was still a member of the people God dwelt among. So if he despised, or even neglected, the cleansing God prescribed, God had to act, because he defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. There was only one alternative. Death had to come in either way. Either the man made use of the death of the heifer, or he suffered death himself under the judicial hand of God.

If I get into evil and do not judge it and get rid of it, I am hurting other people. A careless man then "defiled the tabernacle of the LORD," and if I go on with what is wrong I am contaminating my brothers and sisters. I am one of the congregation, do you not see? How careful our walk ought to be, for the sake of others. He died. For us it is not death, but the unclean believer is out of communion. He does not get the joy that belongs to the company. He is outside morally and practically. Why? Because there was a way of putting himself right, and he did not make use of it. He was careless.

The red heifer is a provision for believers, to cleanse them from all defilement along the way. It is no less necessary for the saint than the shed blood is for the sinner. The truth taught by the red heifer is different from the truth of the day of atonement, but people do not grasp it as readily.

It was in vain for such a man to say, I am sprinkled with the blood — I am clean: why should I trouble about the sin any more? Such thoughts do not come from the Holy Spirit. Being sprinkled with Christ's blood is no reason to take comfort in the presence of sin. It is the strongest motive for shame and humbling. It was not the blood that purified here, but the ashes of the heifer. What did they represent? The full proof of judgment. The Holy Spirit brings back to my memory what Christ suffered. The ashes were mixed with living water. That water is the power of the Holy Spirit — His present action in using the remembrance of the sufferings of Christ.

Beware of staying even one hour in contact with what soils your hands and wounds your conscience. It grieves the Holy Spirit and spoils your communion. Be decided. Be whole-hearted. Give up the unclean thing at once, whatever it is — habit, or association, or anything else. Whatever it costs, give it up. Whatever loss it brings, abandon it. No worldly gain, no earthly advantage, can replace a pure conscience, a heart that does not condemn you, and the light of your Father's face.