“Be ye holy,” saith the Lord, “for I am holy” ; “but who can bring a clean thing out from an unclean ?” Uncleanness is common to man, and the Book of Numbers chapter 19 reveals the Law of Moses as to uncleanness caused by death, bringing with it defilement and therefore exclusion from the Tabernacle of God.
Moreover, the defilement extended to a remarkable degree, from a human point of view, to the person who had touched a dead body, a bone or any other human remains, or had come in contact with death in any form ; and all this defilement excluded the person concerned from the camp of Israel.1 This was a serious thing, for to be “cut off” meant being outside all for which Israel stood, as the chosen people of God.
By the token of the Covenant made in their flesh, the Israelites were in covenant relation to the Divine promises and all their attendant blessings. 2 This covenant God had made with them and all Israelites stood within its bonds except when some uncleanness came upon them or when they had sinned.
Provision was made by God for restoring this communion when they sinned. Sacrifices were appointed, which, when offered through the mediating priest, would restore the individual to his position as a worshipper and enable him once more to draw near to God ; but when uncleanness was upon him, it necessitated his being put “without the camp.” No unclean person could dwell in the camp where God dwelt ; and the ceremony attached to the ashes of the red heifer was God’s provision for restoring the individual to his privileged position within the camp of Israel where God dwelt.
By such a general defilement the Israelites were made to look beyond the defilement to the cause, which obviously was sin ; for had there been no sin, there would have been no death. It was sin and death that alienated man from God. What, then, is the teaching of the red heifer ? Let us go over the details of the Divine requirements.
The whole people of Israel—not merely any one of Israel, but the entire nation—were to bring the red heifer to Eleazar—not to Aaron, but to Eleazar the high priest elect. The heifer was to be red and a female without spot or blemish and upon which had never come any yoke. It was to be brought without the camp and another (not Eleazar) was to slay it before his face and then Eleazar was to take of the blood and sprinkle it seven times before or towards the Tabernacle of the Congregation.
Afterwards the whole of it, skin, flesh, blood and dung, was to be burned in fire, into which the priest was to cast cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool. The ashes were then gathered together by a clean man and carried to a clean place and kept for the use of any one of all Israel who perchance became unclean by contamination with death. In such a case, he was to take running water in a vessel, and putting some of the ashes into the water, was to sprinkle the contents with hyssop upon that which was unclean.
Twice this was to be done, on the third day and upon the seventh, and then the individual was to wash himself in water and be clean at even ; but it had to be done both the third and the seventh day, and anyone failing to do this was to be cut off from Israel, and therefore from God and all His blessings. By this means all were to recognise that death, though imposed by God as a penalty for sin, marred the handiwork of God ; and therefore in whatsoever way any one of Israel, the sons of Ail, was contaminated, the people were to remember that death came by sin. For sin estranged man from God and was abhorrent in the sight of God.
Let us now consider the details more particularly. First, it was to be a red heifer and the Hebrew word for “red” is related to the name Adam (“red earth”), our first parent. He was made of the dust of Adamah and afterwards because of sin, unto dust he was returned ; there is therefore no mistaking the reference.
Secondly, it was to be a female offering—in almost all offerings it was to be a male, but here is a deviation—why ? When Divine wisdom makes any deviation, there is a reason. We shall find that where actual sin took place a male sacrifice was necessary, but where it was a matter of passive or unintended defilement a female victim was stipulated.
For example, if a man stumbled across a bone or entered a tent to help another man in need and the man died, surely he had done no wrong, but in a passive way he had been contaminated by death. Surely here was one of those instances to show unto all that in the beginning one of the causes of death coming into the world was through a female. Another example of passive defilement was the trespass offering, where a female offering was allowed for sins of ignorance and inadvertence.
The heifer was to be without blemish and without spot—this principle is oft repeated and necessarily so, for unless a sacrifice was perfect it was not efficacious or acceptable in the sight of God. The animal was to be one upon which a yoke had never come. The Israelites, as an agricultural people, would realise the importance of this figure.
A yoke and work were almost synonymous and, figuratively speaking, when applied to man, it meant they were slaves, either of men or of habit. 3 The heifer was to be slain, not by Eleazar, but by some other person unnamed, but it was Eleazar who was to sprinkle her blood, not in the Tabernacle but towards the Tabernacle seven times. Then the whole carcase was to be burnt in fire until it was wholly consumed, and into the fire were to be cast cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool, the significance of which we will see later, but all who participated in the killing or the burning were regarded as unclean.
That the red heifer refers to the Lord Jesus Christ is made quite clear in the Epistle to the Hebrews 9 : 13, 14. Now Jesus came with a definite mission, “to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself,” or we might put it another way, to take away death by his own death.4 Who did the work in connection with the red heifer ? It was Eleazar, whose name means “God is my helper,” and Jesus always recognised that with him, as an active co-operating agent, was God Himself. The apostle Paul puts the matter, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” 5
Further, the reason Eleazar performed the rites and not Aaron is that Jesus did his redemptive work in the days of his flesh and not afterwards when he was made God’s High Priest, as was Aaron. of what nature was Jesus, and whose son was he ? Paul gives us the significant phrase “he was born of a woman, made under the law.” How well, therefore, the type fits the case, a female representing the passive instead of active defilement for Jesus did no sin ; nevertheless he was subject to death for he who knew no sin was made sin for us. Again, the heifer had to be one upon whom had never come a yoke, and Jesus fits the type perfectly.
Never did Jesus wear the yoke of bondage either to man or to sin ; he yoked not himself to unbelievers and the “prince of this world had nothing in him”. He was always free to do the will of his Father Who had sent him. “He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” therefore, he was without blemish and without spot, and like the red heifer, was sacrificed without the camp.6
There were added to the heifer, cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool. What is their significance in relation to Jesus ? The first two are from the vegetable kingdom and represent the highest and the lowest of that order respectively. The vegetable kingdom is frequently taken as a figure to represent human nature, especially its mortality. This is especially so in the Law of Moses and in the Tabernacle in particular.
The wood of the Ark, the boards of the Tabernacle, the pillars thereof and of the court, all speak of Jesus and the saints and the human nature they bear. But the cedar wood speaks of another attribute, for it was the glory and strength of the forest. Solomon, speaking of the cedar, gives it pride of place amongst the trees,7 a fitting type of the Lord Jesus for in the work God gave him to do he gave the glory and strength of his manhood, and he thus stands out amongst men.
The hyssop was the humblest of the vegetable kingdom, but use was found for it. Gathered together into a bunch, it was used by the Israelites to dip into the blood when they were commanded to sprinkle blood upon the doorposts in Egypt. The priests also used it when they sprinkled blood before the Tabernacle in the process of purifying the children of Israel from sin or uncleanness. Therefore hyssop typified those acts of service of the Lord Jesus who showed his disciples that nothing was too small to be used, if offered in the right spirit—a cup of cold water, washing another’s feet, or the caring of little ones.
In the scarlet wool, surely we see the wisdom of God displayed in the details of the type and a golden thread which runs right through His purpose. The heifer slain was to be for purification from contact with death, the grim reminder of sin and disobedience to the law of God. When we come to the anti-type, the Lord Jesus, we see a body prepared truly, made like unto his brethren, tempted and tried in all points, subject to the frailties of our nature which would terminate in death ; but he was without sin, yet “he was made sin for us who knew no sin.” He was “hung upon a tree” and was by that means “made a curse” for us. The scarlet wool was added of necessity, for in him was no sin.8
“The Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith,” What lessons there are for us in the red heifer !
Death for us is a great enemy and the motions of sin work in our members and the apostle describes our condition quite frankly when he says we are naturally dead in trespasses and sins. Sin puts us outside the camp, for in the presence of God no sinner can stand ; but for us, as for the Israelites of old, there has been opened a fountain for sin and uncleanness, in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But let us get the proper perspective : the cleansing nature of the water and the ashes of the heifer was not to effect redemption, for that was typified by the Great Day of Atonement. The water and the ashes were for use during Israel’s pilgrimage day by day ; so it is with us who have been baptised.
We have come to Jesus and by faith and in faith have entered the waters of baptism and have been washed ; by faith in the blood of the Lamb, we have received the atonement ; but we in our pilgrimage day by day are figuratively contaminated by the cause of death, which is sin.9 “The fountain of living water” and the Christ ashes—sacrifice have made it possible for us to be cleansed. Jesus said, “Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,” and Paul says, “Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might cleanse it and sanctify it with the washing of water by the word.”
Let us go back to the type for a moment ; the one who gathered the ashes was to be unclean until the even. In our daily life we are constantly obliged to come into contact with spiritual death and we cannot fail to contract defilement, for there is an affinity between the sin that dwelleth in us and the sin which is abroad in the world. But if our minds are exercised and our hearts attuned in meekness, we shall wash and be cleansed.
Then there is the chance defilement, like the stumbling across a grave or a bone ; when we would do good, evil is present with us, and sometimes the idle word and the hasty word gives us much heart-searching and again we feel the need of cleansing. But the spirit of Heb. 9 : 13, 14 goes even further. “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.”
Conscience is a powerful thing and needs to be properly built up, and only a knowledge and true appreciation of Christ’s sacrifice can produce a pure conscience. The conscience is thus edified in all that the blood of Christ has effectively done, the motions of sin are purged, and we are conscious that “the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin.”
In the type the individual was to purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day and at even be clean ; surely we see here the connection between the burning of the heifer and the gathering of the ashes on the one hand and the crucifixion and burial of our Lord on the other. Paul says, “He was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification”10—raised the third day, thereby making our initial cleansing possible.
The Apostle Paul gives us this emphatically in Rom. 6 : 8-11. “Death hath no more power over him”—nor over us finally if we are in him truly, if we have purified ourselves. Then will come our final purification on the seventh day, when “death is swallowed up in victory” ; and they who have been purified from all uncleanness, in that glad seventh day of God’s creation will then be made free from all death’s defilement, no more to be defiled again. They will have been made free from sin perfectly and have put on immortality, where sin cannot intrude nor put its defiling hand.
References
- Num. 5 : 2, 9 : 6-10, Lev. 21: 1,
- Deut. 7 ; 6-8,
- Gen. 27 : 40, Deut. 28 : 48, Gal. 5 : 1.
- Heb. 2 : 13, 14
- 2 Cor. 5 : 19
- Heb. 13 : 11, 12.
- 1 Kings 4:33
- Heb. 2:14.
- Rom. 7 : 24.
- Rom. 4 : 25.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One