A specific formula must be followed for the water that is to be used for ceremonial cleansing. This formula must begin with sacrifice because the purpose of this water is "for purification from sin". (Numbers 19:9b)
"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 that has never been under the yoke.'" (Numbers 19:1-2) It will take some effort to select this animal due to the qualifications it must possess. It must be a female cow that has never been bred. It must be red in color. It must be as perfect of an example of its breed as possible. It must never have been put into a yoke to perform labor, such as pulling carts or plows. The people will have to put thought and care into selecting this animal, which is very important because thought and care must be put into ceremonial cleansing rituals as well. Sin is a big deal. Therefore the cleansing of sin is a big deal.
Sin is a detestable thing. It's no wonder that the cure for sin is disturbing in that it requires blood to be shed. I think if we could see our sin through God's eyes we'd understand how truly abhorrent it is and we'd wonder why the Lord bothers to offer us a means of redemption. In wondering why He even offers us redemption---considering how detestable our sins are---we would have to acknowledge a mercy that is as indescribable as it is unfathomable. We have no words to accurately describe such great mercy. We should be awestruck by such love. God didn't have to provide us with a means of forgiveness but He does because He loves us and His love compels Him to be merciful. We are far more likely to extend mercy to our closest loved ones, aren't we? If a dearly-loved sibling or close friend hurts our feelings, we find it easier to forgive them due to our great love for them. We have a tendency to feel less charitable when someone we don't feel a lot of affection for hurts our feelings. Well, the good news is, God loves every single one of us equally. We are all precious souls that He created and He places an enormous amount of value on every one of us. He offers mercy to each of us because He loves each of us. In Chapter 19, in spite of how many times the Israelites have already sinned against Him and in spite of how many more times they will sin against Him, He makes a way for them to be ceremonially clean from sin. He does the same for everyone in our own day: in spite of how many times we've already sinned against Him and in spite of how many more times we'll mess up in the future, He offers us salvation and cleansing.
When the people have selected the best heifer that meets the qualifications, they are to bring it to one of Aaron's sons. "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." (Numbers 19:3-5) Animals were sacrificed by one swift cut across the jugular with a sharp knife so that death was instantaneous. After performing this duty, Eleazar sprinkles blood toward the tabernacle seven times but the remainder of the blood is left in the body and burned with it. The resulting ashes are going to be used for the cleansing water and that is why the ashes must contain blood, for "the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness". (Hebrews 9:22)
We have all done the most atrocious thing that can possibly be done: we have sinned against our holy God and Creator. We deserve physical death for this and we deserve spiritual death: the eternal separation of our immortal souls from the presence of the living God. But the Lord loves us too much to provide no means of redemption, so in Old Testament times He accepted the substitutionary death of sacrificial animals in place of the physical and spiritual death of man. But these sacrifices were not able to permanently make man clean from sin. Though animals are essentially sinless because they are incapable of understanding God's laws and choosing to violate them, they are not perfect enough or holy enough that the shedding of their blood can make man clean for all time. As the Apostle Paul put it, "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming---not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." (Hebrews 10:1-4) The Lord always had a permanent, more perfect sacrifice in mind to make mankind clean from sins. He intended to accomplish this through the blood shed by His Son who took His atoning blood not into the Most Holy Place on earth to sprinkle it on the mercy seat of the ark, but who took His atoning blood into the "greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, not of this creation". (Hebrews 9:11b) He took His blood to the mercy seat of heaven, "thus obtaining eternal redemption" for those who place their faith in Him. (Hebrews 9:12)
Why did He do this? Because the ceremony we are studying in Numbers 19 was not able to eternally cleanse a person from his sins. It was not capable of making a person new from the inside out. "The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" (Hebrews 9:13-14) When we come to faith in Christ and accept Him as our Savior, it's as if His cleansing blood is sprinkled on our hearts. We are made new from the inside out. His blood does what no sacrifice of the Old Testament could do: it makes us ceremonially clean in the eyes of God forever. The sprinkling of the ashes of the heifer is a ritual that had to be repeated over and over and over again. Other types of sacrifices had to be made over and over and over again. Every year on the Day of Atonement the high priest had to enter the Most Holy Place to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. But the blood of Christ is so holy that He only had to shed it once. His blood is so redemptive that it only had to be sprinkled one time on the mercy seat of heaven. If this were not so, "Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But He has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself." (Hebrews 9:26)
Christ has done all that is necessary for our redemption. He only had to die once to save us from the penalties of our sins. We can't add to what He has done. We don't have to come to Him time and time again and ask Him to save us. If we have accepted Christ on faith as our Savior then our eternal destiny is secure because, "He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them." (Hebrews 7:25) The word translated into English as "completely" means "perfectly, to the uttermost". If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, you cannot be "more saved" than you already are because Christ cannot sacrifice more than He's already sacrificed. He gave His best. He gave His all. You are now His forever, clean in the eyes of a holy God, saved to the uttermost.
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