2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES
Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
January 22, 2020
Numbers 19:1-11
Introduction. This short chapter deals entirely with the ceremonial sprinkling of the ashes of a red heifer/cow for the cleansing of defilement derived from touching corpses and things related to them. When we recall from the 17th chapter, the community had just seen God judge the 14,000 who rebelled against God. God gives Moses and Aaron a way to deal with the dead that would limit the spread of disease. This sacrifice also foreshadows Christ, as Paul points out in Hebrews 9:13, but it also is a practical way to protect the community. When the scriptures says someone is ritually unclean, it does not mean they have sinned. We don’t want to connect being ritually unclean with sin. Being ritually unclean meant one was to stay away from the rest of the community. Being ritually unclean is symbolic of how we need to cleanse our minds as we walk in the sinful world. We have previously spoken about how being ritually unclean was often a way to limit disease and the spread of germs in the community.
Verses 1-2. God tells Moses and Aaron to get a red cow. A heifer is a cow which has never been pregnant, and thus cannot yet give milk. This is the only sacrifice that was done with a female; all others were done with a par bull. They had to find one with a red color. The red heifer was to be "without spot" and without a yoke typifying Christ’s voluntary coming to redeem us and His sinless character even though He took our sins as His own. These are the specifications or qualifications of a priest.
Verses 3-5 -The phrase “give her unto Eleazar” meant that the actual killing of the heifer was carried out by Priests of the second order. Eleazar was the son of Aaron, who was then the high priest. Just as the red heifer was sacrificed "outside the camp,” in contrast to all other sacrifices that took place in the Tabernacle or Temple, Jesus was sacrificed outside the city of Jerusalem. Eleazar was to take a small amount of the blood with his fingers and sprinkle it toward the tent of meeting, the holy place. Seven times; this is God’s perfect number and is Gods seal. Anything that is done seven times is a permanently fixed thing that cannot be broken. It speaks of finality. Think of Joshua and the seven days of marching around Jericho, and the seven blasts on the trumpet, in Revelation the seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls. So here the priest makes the binding connection to the place of God’s presence, the tent of meeting. After the blood was sprinkled, the whole cow was burned. The red heifer would be sacrificed in the customary fashion. Yet, the complete carcass of the animal was burned and the ashes gathered by one observing the cleansing ceremonies before and after the gathering of ashes. The heifer itself will be burned in its entirety. It will not be separated out or the hide removed, or the fat separated or anything like this. Its bones are not broken; it is burned all at once. Unlike every other sacrifice in the Old Testament, the blood of the red heifer is burnt along with the sacrifice. Blood was to be part of the ashes that would come forth from the burning of the carcass of the red heifer. It’s the blood that gives remission of sin. Jesus went as he was, having been inspected by the priests and the teachers of the law, and they could find no flaw in Him, yet they killed Him. It was like those that inspected the red cow for any sign of defect. And like the Heifer, he became a cleansing for us all. The slaughter of the cow and its burning are a picture of the death and burial of Jesus.
Verse 6. When the heifer was burnt, the priest would also put cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet into the fire. In Leviticus 14:4-6, each of these three items are used in the cleansing ceremony for a leper. Each of these items has a special significance. Cedar is extremely resistant to disease and rot and is well known for its quality and preciousness. These properties may be the reason for including it here - as well as a symbolic reference to the wood of the cross. Some even think the cross Jesus was crucified on was made of cedar. Hyssop was used not only with the cleansing ceremony for lepers, but also Jesus was offered drink from a hyssop branch on the cross (Matthew 27:48), and when David said purge me with hyssop in Psalm 51:7, he had admitted he was a bad as a leper. Scarlet, the color of blood, pictures the cleansing blood of Jesus on the cross. Scarlet was used in the veil and curtains of the tabernacle (Exodus 26:31), in the garments of the high priest (Exodus 28:5-6), the covering for the table of showbread (Numbers 4:8), and the sign of Rahab’s salvation (Joshua 2:21).
Verses 7-11. The priest and the worker who burn the heifer are considered unclean. They must wash themselves and their cloths in water, and they still remain ceremonially unclean until the end of the day. Yet those who are sprinkled with this same ash will be considered clean. What do you get when you mix animal and wood ashes, water, and rendered fat? Lye Soap. What about adding Cedar Wood ashes? Good smelling Lye Soap. Also, Cedar Wood Oil is used as an anti-bacterial fungicide. From a Wikipedia article on Cedar Wood Oil, "Cedar-wood oil is a mixture of organic compounds considered generally safe by the FDA as a food additive preservative. The oil has healing and antibacterial effects." The byproduct of wood ashes when mixed with water is potassium carbonate. From a Wikipedia on potassium carbonate; "Wood ashes produce Potash (especially potassium carbonate) that has been used from the dawn of history in bleaching textiles, making glass, and, from about A.D. 500, in making soap." What about burning Hyssop too? Extremely fine aroma also used in modern colognes. What about adding Scarlet? In the tradition of Maimonides, he said that he Cedar wood was wrapped in the Hyssop and then bound with a scarlet yarn made of wool. A package that could be easily deposited into a raging fire on top of the heifer. The collected ash combination when mixed with water would be a very strong Lye Soap; anti-fungal, anti-bacterial anti-microbial sanitizer/cleanser with a pleasant fragrance of Cedar and Hyssop. The Cedar and Hyssop would act to preserve the ashes stored in a clean place from decomposition with these natural preservatives. The Ancient Egyptians used Cedar Oil in embalming due to its powerful preserving properties. Something the Ancient Israelites would have been quite familiar with on a firsthand basis at this particular time in their history having just left Egypt in the exodus. The original writer of the book of Numbers tells us this was actually a cleansing solution to be used to cleanse and purify.
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