Another Ritual Law

Numbers Chapter 19

Another ritual law was given to Moses and Aaron by the Lord. He said the people must bring them a red heifer with no defects and one never used with a plow. Give it to Eleazar the priest and it will be slaughtered outside camp in his presence. He will take some blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tabernacle, then the heifer must be totally burned. Then Eleazar must take a hyssop branch and scarlet thread and throw them into the fire where the heifer is burning.

The priest must then wash his clothes and bathe and return to camp, but he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening. The person who burns the animal must also wash his clothes and bath and he is unceremonially unclean until evening too. Then someone who is already ceremonially clean will gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a purified place outside the camp, to be kept there for the Israelites to use in the water for purification ceremony. This ceremony is for the removal of sin. The person who gathers the ashes must wash his clothes and bathe and be unclean until evening. This is a permanent law for the Israelites and any foreigners who live among them.

Anyone who touches a dead body will be unclean for seven days. They must purify themselves on the third and seventh days with the water of purification. If they do not do this on the proper day, they will remain unclean. Anyone who does not purify themselves is cut off from the community of Israel.

The ritual law when someone dies inside a tent is that those who enter the tent and those who were inside when the death occurred, will be unclean for seven days. Any container in the tent without a lid is also defiled. And if someone outdoors touches the corpse of one who was killed with a sword or died a natural death or touches a human bone or a grave, that person is unclean for seven days.

To remove defilement, put some ashes from the burnt purification offering in a jar and pour fresh water over them, then a clean person must take a hyssop branch and dip it into the water and sprinkle the water on the tent, the furnishings within, and on anyone who was in the tent or touched a bone or the dead, or a grave. On the third and seventh days, the clean person must sprinkle water on those who were unclean and their clothes must be washed and they must bathe and in the evening they will be clean.

BIBLE NOTES SHOW the significance of the red heifer’s ashes was that the heifer was a special sacrifice. Death was the strongest of defilements because it was often a result of sin. The purifying was not to be taken literally, but symbolically. All the acts, like bathing, washing of the clothes etc. were symbolical.

How does this chapter relate to us today? This one is difficult to tie into. But perhaps God wants us to know the significance of rituals and how important they remain even in these times.

Water was a cleanser and a holy instrument. It is used in baptism even today. It is part of a ritual of baptism. Some churches use holy water as part of their liturgy. Look around, look in your own church and you will see many rituals and many “items of ritual” that are being used by Christians in their worship service such as your altar, your altar cover, the clothing worn by your ministers, the body and blood in your communion service. Can you think of more? Also remember in the times of the Old Testament,that God was concerned with the spread of disease among his people and was trying to teach them the basics of cleansing each other in addition to a ritual.

Yours in Christ,
Mary