Numbers 19: Red Heifer to Gospel Hope

​Key verses
2 “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come. 
 
Meditation
In Jay Stringer’s book Unwanted, he quotes “Shark Week” camera man for National Geographic, Andy Casagrande, in what to do if a great white shark swims at you. Specifically, Casagrande says you should swim directly back at the shark because it confuses the apex predator: “The shark is like, ‘Wait a second, everything in the ocean swims away from me.’ The reality is that if you don’t act like prey, they won’t treat you like prey.”
 
The gospel is more counterintuitive. Most people, as you instinctively would with a Great White shark, swim away from sin and shame by hiding, isolating, or coping. The finished work of Jesus empowers believers to swim directly at our sin and shame because, in Christ, we are cleansed from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). 
 
Today’s reading details the sacrifice of a red heifer and water purification, both anticipating the work of Jesus. In Christ, there is fullness of cleansing from sin- no condemnation in Him! 
 
The heifer was “without spot or blemish” (v. 2) and sacrificed outside the camp (vv. 1-10). The ashes were saved for future use, empowering the effects of the sacrifice to endure. The water purification was ritual cleansing to, uh, cleanse the people (vv. 11-22). The unclean person “must have the water of impurity thrown on him” to be clean. Both the heifer sacrifice and the water purification prefigure the work of Jesus. 
 
Jesus was the Lamb of God “without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:19), sacrificed outside the camp (Hebrews 13:12-13) as a “once and for all” sacrifice is effectual for eternity (Hebrews 10:10). Once the blood of Jesus covers us then we are cleansed! Free to expose our  shame and sin to welcome forgiveness that comes in Jesus' name..
 
Today’s Reading
Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come. 3 And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him.4 And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5 And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned.6 And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer. 7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8 The one who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. 9 And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering. 10 And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

11 “Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. 12 He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. 13 Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.

14 “This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. 15 And every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. 16 Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. 17 For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering, and fresh water shall be added in a vessel. 18 Then a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone, or the slain or the dead or the grave. 19 And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day. Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean.

20 “If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. Because the water for impurity has not been thrown on him, he is unclean. 21 And it shall be a statute forever for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. 22 And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening.”
 
Richly Dwelling
-What stands out to you from today’s reading, especially the heifer sacrifice and water cleansing?
 
-How is God’s grace displayed to the wilderness generation through offering cleansing sacrifices? How does this amplify the grace He offers us through Christ?
 
-Take a moment, with gratitude, to confess your sin and shame receive the cleansing Christ’s blood offers.
 
Key verses
2 “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come.