The Book of Numbers

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The ordinance is unusual from the start. The animal was to be "a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke," flawless and never broken to labor. It was given to Eleazar and slain "without the camp," outside the community, and its blood sprinkled "before the tabernacle... seven times." Then the whole heifer was burned, "her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung," and into the fire were cast "cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet." The ashes were gathered by "a man that is clean" and laid up "in a clean place... for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin." Everyone who handled the process became unclean until evening. It was a sacrifice unlike the others: burned entirely to ash, and the ash preserved, so that a single heifer could provide cleansing again and again for the whole nation over many years.

Gospel Focus

Every detail of the red heifer whispers of Christ. It was "without spot... no blemish," like the Lamb "without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:19). It had "never came yoke," never bound to the yoke of sin or forced labor, as Christ was free from sin's dominion. It was slain "without the camp," and Hebrews notes that Jesus too "suffered without the gate," where "the bodies of those beasts... are burned without the camp" (Hebrews 13:11-12). The cedar, hyssop, and scarlet cast into the fire are the very elements used to cleanse the leper, all pointing to the blood that cleanses. And most strikingly, the ashes were kept and reused, so that one sacrifice sufficed for countless cleansings, a shadow of the one offering of Christ that avails for all time. Hebrews makes the connection explicit: "if... the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ... purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Hebrews 9:13-14). The strange red heifer was a preaching of the cross before the cross.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The reason the ashes were needed becomes clear: the defilement of death. "He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days." The uncleanness was pervasive. If a man died in a tent, "all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean," and even "every open vessel, which hath no covering." To touch "one slain with a sword," "a bone of a man, or a grave," was to be defiled. Death spread its uncleanness widely and clung tenaciously. And the danger was serious: whoever was defiled and "purifieth not himself" defiled the very tabernacle of the LORD and would be "cut off." Death, the wages of sin, could not be treated as nothing; its contamination had to be dealt with before one could come near the holy God who is the living God.

Gospel Focus

Death defiles because death is the fruit of sin, "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). This law taught Israel, in the strongest terms, that death and the God of life do not mix, that the touch of the grave separates from His holy presence. We live in a world full of death, and we cannot pass through it untouched; we are defiled by contact with a fallen, dying world in a thousand ways. The pervasiveness of the uncleanness, spreading to tents and vessels and all who entered, pictures how sin and death contaminate everything they touch. But the very seriousness of the defilement magnifies the wonder of the remedy. For the God who declared death unclean sent His Son to enter death itself and conquer it, "that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death" (Hebrews 2:14). What defiled us, Christ has overcome. The dread of the grave, which this chapter takes with such seriousness, is answered in the One who is "the resurrection, and the life." Death still touches us, but in Christ it no longer has the last word, and its defilement can be cleansed.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Now the cleansing is applied. For a defiled person, they took "of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel." Then "a clean person" took "hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon" the defiled tent, vessels, and persons, "on the third day, and on the seventh day." Having been sprinkled and washed, the unclean "shall be clean at even." But the cleansing had to be received: "the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off... the water of separation hath not been sprinkled upon him; he is unclean." The remedy was full and free, the ashes of a sacrifice already made, joined to living water, but it did no good unapplied. The defiled had to be sprinkled, or the uncleanness remained. Provision and application both were needed.

Gospel Focus

Here the gospel picture is complete. The ashes of the once-slain heifer, joined to "running water," literally living water, are a beautiful shadow of the finished work of Christ applied to us by the Spirit. The sacrifice was made long before; its virtue, kept in the ashes, is applied whenever a defiled soul is sprinkled. So the one offering of Christ, made once for all, is applied to us today, cleansing us afresh from the defilement we contract in this dying world. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Hyssop, the same that David pleaded, "purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean" (Psalm 51:7), speaks of the personal application of the blood. And the sober warning stands: the provision must be received. The one who would not be sprinkled remained unclean; a cleansing not applied does not cleanse. So it is not enough that Christ has died; His blood must be applied to us by faith. There is a strange grace, too, in that those who prepared and sprinkled the cleansing became unclean themselves, a faint shadow of the One who, to cleanse us, was "made... to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The remedy is ready; be sprinkled, and be clean.