Bereans Corner
Bereans Corner
Thru the Bible - #134 -Numbers 19 - Ordinances of the Red Heifer
Welcome to Berean's Corner, the podcast where we go through books of the Bible chapter by chapter and verse by verse, wherever you are in the world. Thank you for joining. Grab a glass of water, a cup of coffee or tea and let's get into today's lesson. All right, welcome back and thank you for joining me. Open your bible to numbers, chapter 19. The title of today's lesson is ordinance of the red heifer Numbers, chapter 19,. And let's read.
Speaker 2:Numbers 19. 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 and that has never been under a yoke. 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 offal. The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them unto the burning heifer. After that the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening. The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening.
Speaker 2:A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They shall be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing. It is for purification from sin. The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes and he too will be unclean till evening. This will be a lasting ordinance, both for the Israelites and for the aliens living among them. Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. Whoever touches the dead body of anyone and fails to purify himself defiles the Lord's tabernacle. That person must be cut off from Israel because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean. His uncleanness remains on him.
Speaker 2:This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent. Anyone who enters the tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days, and every open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean. Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave will be unclean for seven days. For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them. Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there, the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave or someone who has been killed or someone who has died a natural death.
Speaker 2:The man who is clean is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify him. The person being cleansed must wash his clothes and bathe with water and that evening he will be clean. But if a person who is unclean does not purify himself, he must be cut off from the community because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him and he is unclean. This is a lasting ordinance for them. The man who sprinkles the water of cleansing must also wash his clothes and anyone who touches the water of cleansing will be unclean till evening. Anything that an unclean person touches becomes unclean and anyone who touches it becomes unclean till evening okay now.
Speaker 1:The last time we were together we looked at the duties of the levites and how serious they were to take the sanctuary. Today we are looking at the sacrifice of the red heifer, and I have broken this chapter down into two parts. The first part, the ritual of the red heifer. We see this in verses 1 through 10. Then the lord spoke to moses and aaron, saying this is the statute of the law, which the lord has commanded, saying, excuse me, speak to the sons of israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed, and you shall give it to eleazar the priest and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. Next, eleazar the priest shall take some of his blood with his finger and sprinkle some of his blood towards the front of the tent of meeting seven times. Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight. Its hide and its flesh and its blood and its refuse shall be burned and the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer. The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and afterward come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. Now a man who is clean should gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity. It is purification from sin, and the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening, and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of israel and to the alien who sojourns among them. In verse one we see who the lord is speaking to. Then the lord spoke to moses and aaron. Like always, I like to point out who the lord is speaking to. So when we see these verses, when we see things happening, we don't get confused on who this is talking about.
Speaker 1:In verse two, the word red Hebrew 122, adam or either Adam, not like, not like Adam, like Adam or man. But Adam means ruddy, so this red heifer was a ruddy complexion, meaning that it was. It didn't have red fur, but it really was more of a reddish brown. You know how it describes David as being a man who was ruddy. What it mean was is that David was a brown-skinned man who had red undertones. You know, you could kind of see the the you know the red under him, or maybe even see the red a little flush under his his, uh, slightly brown skin. Well, that's the same thing with this. You know, red heifer. This red heifer was a is more of a reddish brown color.
Speaker 1:In verse three, eliezer had to take the heifer outside the camp to do this red heifer cleansing. Now let's see how this connects to the Lord Jesus, because there is a connection there. Hold your finger right here and go to Hebrews, chapter nine. Hebrews, hebrews, chapter 9. Alright, I'm there. Hebrews, chapter 9, and look at verse 13, for if the blood of goats and bulls and ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctified for the cleansing of the flesh, kind of talking about this is talking about the old and the new covenant. So this is what they did then. Jesus was our sacrifice in the new covenant. This was the sacrifice in old covenant. Turn right there, still stay in hebrews and go to chapter 13, chapter 13, and notice verse 12. Therefore, jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his blood suffered outside the gate, did you? Did you remember how they had to take the red heifer outside of the gate? Then in hebrews, you see how jesus suffered outside the gate. I'm just showing you the correlation between the old covenant and the new covenant.
Speaker 1:Now we will move on to the second part, the water purification. Back in numbers 19, we are looking at verses 11 through 22. The one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days. Pretty straightforward, that one shall purify himself from uncleanness with the water on the third day the water we talked about earlier and on the seventh day, and then he shall be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and on the seventh day, he shall be unclean. These are the type of rituals that they had to go through.
Speaker 1:Verse 13 anyone who touches a corpse, the body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the lord and that person shall be cut off from israel because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him. He shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him. This is the law.
Speaker 1:When a man dies in a tent, everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days. And every open vessel which has no covering tied down on it shall be unclean, meaning that the things that they were using their paws, they had. They had to be tied down, not just left open or left loose. I'm sorry, verse 16. Also, anyone who is in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days. So this even goes when you're out in the field.
Speaker 1:When you're out in the field, then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt, purification from sin and flowing water shall be added to them in a vessel and a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally of the grave. Then the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day, and on the seventh day, he shall purify him from uncleanness and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening. This is the way that they had to do it in the old covenant, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening. This is the way that they had to do it in the old covenant. Now, thank you, we all thank the Lord Jesus that we don't have to go through the same rituals that Israel did, verse 20.
Speaker 1:But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean. So it shall be a perpetual statute for them, and he who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and thean person Touches shall be unclean, and the person who touches it shall be unclean Until evening. That's very self Inspiratory that this man Is unclean.
Speaker 1:He's walking through the camp he went to. You know where someone is, you know, you know roasting the meat and he touches, you know, the little, the little turning, the little turning roasting thing whatever you want to call it that they were using. Or he goes and you know, he picks up your vessel water and gets him a drink of water, or he goes your tent just to come by to say hey to you. All of those things are unclean because he's unclean. So that means you have to take the, you know the little, their little barbecue thing. You have to take that vessel water, you have to go to the tent and you would have to purify those things because the man who was unclean touched those things and he has made those things unclean now. This was the way that Israel had to do things in the old covenant to be clean, because this is what the Lord commanded and this is what had to be done. All right, people. That brings us to the end of numbers, chapter 19.
Speaker 1:As always, I hope that you got something out of this lesson. I hope that this lesson enriched you and I hope that you enjoyed and excuse me, enjoyed it as always. I'm asking you to pray for me, pray for your brother, pray that I stay strong in the faith. Pray that as long as the Lord tarries, we continue to go through these scriptures. My goal, as I've always said, is to get through every single one of the scriptures, from Genesis through Revelation, in chronological order, and I am doing the same for you as well. Listen, we have listeners on all six continents. I pray for you all. I pray that you are all doing well and I pray that you stay with me and that you share this with people as we go through every one of these scriptures verse by verse. All right, that's all I have for this one, until next time, god bless.
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