Numbers

Numbers 19:1-10

The law was to create a means of purification.  The unblemished red heifer is further defined by rabbis as being ‘unblemished red’.  Therefore, they decided it could not have two white or black hairs.  It was also never to have been under the yoke.  The unblemished red heifer was removed from the camp and slaughtered.  Some of the blood was then sprinkled directly in front of the tabernacle of meeting.   Milgrom reinforces that it was to be done in sight of the entrance.  If the tent flap at the entrance was closed, blocking sight, it was no longer valid.  In the second temple era, this was done on the mount of olives.  This allowed for it to be outside the camp and in sight of the entrance which faced east.  This is a place where Jesus prayed on the night of His betrayal – it was where the first blood was shed under the weight of the work He was about to perform.

Every part of this heifer was burned up in the fire with cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet material.  These are the same materials used in the cleansing rituals of the leper (Lev 14:4, 6, 49, 51-52).  There is much speculation and thought about these materials and they become a study all their own.  The ashes were mixed with water to form a water of purification. 

Numbers 19:11-13

Ritual defilement, specifically corpse contamination, from contact with a dead body required purification.  The dead body is direct exposure to the effects of sin and a sin-fallen world.  It is the contrast to purity and holiness.  This exposure required a seven day process.  The person was to be sprinkled the third and seventh days with the purification water. 

If a person is exposed to a dead body and does not purify himself comes near the tabernacle, they defile the tabernacle.  This person would then be ‘cut off’ from the camp. 

Numbers 19:14-19

The impurity of corpse contamination was thought to be a physical substance that could be contained by a tent or in an enclosed area.  Therefore, a dead body inside a home or tent caused contamination of nearly everything in the home – almost like contamination had settled on everything like a dust.  The contents of open vessels were contaminated.  In the open field, contamination happened by touching a person, bone or grave would be unclean.

The unclean person was to take some of the ashes of the heifer (whole burnt offering) and mix with running water in a vessel.  Then a clean person dipped hyssop in the water and sprinkled it on the person or on the vessels in the tent in which one died.  Hyssop branches would pick up some of the water and hold it for sprinkling.  The unclean was to be sprinkled on the third and seventh days.  On the seventh day, then the unclean could wash their clothes and bathe and be clean in the evening.

Numbers 19:20-22

The unclean that ignores his state is to be cut off from the assembly of people.  His presence in the community would defile the sanctuary.  Maintaining the purity of the tabernacle was one of the primary functions of the priests and was taken very seriously.  This person who threatened the sanctuary with ritual defilement was no longer worthy to be part of God’s community.

The one sprinkling the ash/water mixture on the unclean was to wash his clothes after he was done.  It appears the water took on some contamination in the process of dipping the hyssop, so anyone touching the water of purification was unclean until evening. 

For 38 years these 1.5 million people would die off in the wilderness.  Dealing with corpse contamination would have been important to everyone in the community.

© 2023 Doug Ford, Calvary Chapel Sweetwater