Ceremonies

Studies in Numbers

II Failure

B the Confirmation

3 Ceremonies, Text: Numbers 19:1-22

Title: Washed and Renewed

Introduction

In Israel there were no undertakers. There also was no World Health Organization to advise on the spread of contagion. One might think therefore that this chapter is giving public health advice. One cannot question that the laws had that effect, but there is a deeper spiritual significance to their existence. It’s not a sin to die, but God hates death. God is a God of life. He Creates it. He loves it. He nourishes it. He detests death’s existence and he does not want it in His kingdom. However, man’s rebellion in Adam necessitated the penalty and the effects of it endure through every generation. It is a pollution in creation and a blight upon the holiness that God originally designed in Eden. We have recorded here the way with which this blight is to be treated:do not touch it. Thus here we see in this text the pollution the provision and the purity.

I THE POLLUTION

The pollution death brings is made clear in God’s verdict in verses 11 through 16, “Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days. They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they will not be clean. If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse, they defile the Lord’s tabernacle. They must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean; their uncleanness remains on them. “This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent: Anyone who enters the tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days, and every open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean. “Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days. The scientific definition of death is the termination of all biological functions that sustain a living organism, and the bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death. This however is not the pollution of which we speak. The causes of death are too numerous to list, but they include disease, suicide, homicide, starvation, dehydration, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury. These bad things are not the pollution either. Neither is the pollution all our reactions to death which include fear, anxiety, sorrow, grief, emotional pain, depression and a variety of other emotions. The pollution is death itself, that is, the penalty which is offensive to a holy God. How offensive is conveyed clearly in our text. It is so offensive to God that it must be eliminated from the life of God’s people lest it defile His holy places. This brings us to the provision.

II THE PROVISION

In verses 1-10 we have the procedures God provided for Israel to cleanse itself of this pollution of death.The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: “This is a requirement of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. While he watches, the heifer is to be burned—its hide, flesh, blood and intestines. The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer. After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening. The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening. “A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They are to be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin. The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he too will be unclean till evening. This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the foreigners residing among them. It hardly requires mentioning that so much washing and purging away the contact of even remote elements of death is indicative of the extreme pollution that it brought upon the scene in God’s holy world. In this Scripture death appears to be equated with sin. We know that it is not a sin to die, but we die because of sin. God hates death but we treat it with delicacy using numerous socially acceptable euphemisms for death such as passed away, passed on, expired, gone and deceased or decedent. From one perspective death can be viewed as a blessing because it delivers the Christian from this vale of tears into the presence of his Savior. It takes him from sin to freedom, and from shame to glory. but all too often in the case of unbelievers it leads to wishful thinking. Sufferers, they say, are always better off, and people who have no idea what is required for entrance into heaven insist that their loved ones are there whatever their concept of heaven is, which is usually no more than life after death. As you know the Bible, God’s word. does not teach that “life after death” is good. There are two destinations for the departed and one is very good and the other is very bad. When the thief on the cross next to Jesus repented, Christ said to him that he would be in paradise that very day. Where do you suppose the other thief, the one who didn’t repent, would be? As swiftly as the penitent went to paradise, the unrepentant went to hell. What should the effect of this Scripture be on our lives today? It should make us realize the awful judgment of death for what it is and flee to Christ who saves. In John 11: 25,26 Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

III PURITY

The provisions in this chapter are not just for priests and Levites. They cover all the people of Israel. This is so all the people can learn the awfulness of death and how the Lord feels about it. The objective is that they and we might choose life and in the words of the psalmist worship the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart. It is a mercy from the Lord. And so we read in verses 17-22, “For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them. Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave or anyone who has been killed or anyone who has died a natural death. 1he man who is clean is to sprinkle those who are unclean on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify them. Those who are being cleansed must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and that evening they will be clean. But if those who are unclean do not purify themselves, they must be cut off from the community, because they have defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, and they are unclean. This is a lasting ordinance for them.“The man who sprinkles the water of cleansing must also wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water of cleansing will be unclean till evening. Anything that an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and anyone who touches it becomes unclean till evening.” The whole nation is to be cleansed of defilement. The exceedingly precise care that is to be taken reminds us again of the hatred God bears for death, but this process also reminds us of God’s exceeding great mercies. He is not going to leave one person without an opportunity to be in His fellowship. The preoccupation with defilement in this text should also remind us of a multitude of sources of defilement in our daily lives. All of this serves to disrupt our worship of the Lord. We are also reminded here that there is no cleansing apart from sacrifice. This ritual extends the efficacy of the sacrifice to others so that they can be clean. It effectively gives the people the same thing that we have to worship the Lord which is secured for us by the blood of Christ, namely clean hands and a pure heart.