In our study on Friday and Saturday we learned that the water for ceremonial cleansing was to be made using the ashes of a red heifer mixed with the ashes of cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool. Today we'll begin our look at when and how this cleansing water is to be used.
"Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days. They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they will not be clean." (Numbers 19:11-12) Charles Spurgeon said of these two verses, "I wonder whether that is a revelation of our being justified through the resurrection of Christ, which took place on the third day after His death, and then our being brought into perfect rest, which represents the seventh day, through the wondrous purifying of our great Sacrifice, the Lamb of God." We can be certain there is significance to the person being commanded to purify themselves on both the third day and the seventh day, or else the Lord would not have commanded it, but we aren't provided with an explanation and can only speculate on the meaning of this.
Being ceremonially unclean meant a person could not join the body of believers in worship services. The person could not go up to the tabernacle with offerings or sacrifices during that time. It is important that their time of uncleanness not linger on, so if a person handles the matter as commanded by the Lord, they will not miss more than a week's worth of fellowship with other believers. They will also not miss more than one Sabbath. The person who does not obey the Lord's commands in this matter is displaying a lack of interest in or reverence for worshiping the Lord with their fellow believers. The person is not concerned that they are unable to go up to the tabernacle with offerings and sacrifices. If they don't take the proper steps to restore themselves to ceremonial cleanness in order to partake in normal religious life, they are showing contempt for the Lord. If they participate in religious customs without having purified themselves, they are defiling the Lord's house. Persons who do such a thing are to be excommunicated from the congregation of Israel. "If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse, they defile the Lord's tabernacle. They must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean; their uncleanness remains on them." (Numbers 19:13)
We can apply the last portion of verse 13 to ourselves. If we have not been sprinkled by the cleansing blood of Christ, we are unclean; our uncleanness remains on us. But thanks be to our precious Lord and Savior for making a way for us to be ceremonially clean---inside and out---by the sacrifice He made which is powerful enough once and for all to make us clean in the sight of a holy God!
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