Números 19

Números 19

Spurgeon - Under the old law men might be unclean who did not know it. A man might have touched a bone and not be aware of it, yet the law operated just as much: he might walk across a grave and not know it, but he was unclean. I fear that our proud sense of what we think to be our inward cleanness is simply the stupidity of our conscience. If our conscience were more sensitive and tender, it would perceive sin where now we congratulate ourselves that everything is pure. This teaching puts us into a very lowly place, but the lowlier our position the better and the safer for us, and the more shall we be able to prize the expiation by which we draw near to God. The defilement was frequent, but the cleansing was always ready. At a certain time all the people of Israel brought a red heifer to be used in the expiation. It was not at the expense of one person, or tribe, but the whole congregation brought the red cow to be slain. It was to be their sacrifice, and it was brought for them all. It was not led, however, up to the holy place for sacrifice, but it was brought forth without the camp, and there it was slaughtered in the presence of the priest, and wholly burnt with fire, not as a sacrifice upon the altar, but as a polluted thing that was to be made an end of outside the camp. It was not a regular sacrifice, or we should have found it described in Leviticus. It was an ordinance entirely by itself, as setting forth quite another side of truth. The red heifer was killed before the uncleanness was committed, just as our Lord Jesus Christ was made a curse for sin long, long ago. Before you and I had lived to commit the uncleanness, there was a sacrifice provided for us. For the easing of our conscience we shall be wise to view this sacrifice as that of a substitute for sin, and consider the results of that expiation. Sin on the conscience needs for its remedy the result of the Redeemer’s substitution. But while this red cow was slaughtered for all, and the blood was sprinkled toward the holy place for all, no one derived any personal benefit from it in reference to his own uncleanness unless he made a personal use of it. When a man became unclean, he procured a clean person to go on his behalf to take a little of the ashes, and to put them in a cup with running water, and then to sprinkle this water of purification upon him, upon his tent, and all the vessels in it. By that sprinkling, at the end of seven days, the unclean person was purified. There was no other method of purification from his uncleanness but this. It is so with us. Today the living water of the divine Spirit’s sacred influences must take up the result of our Lord’s substitution, and this must be applied to our consciences. That which remains of Christ after the fire has passed upon Him, even the eternal merits, the enduring virtue of our great sacrifice, must be sprinkled upon us through the Spirit of our God. Then are we clean in conscience, but not until then. Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain, Could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain. Christ the heavenly Lamb takes all our sins away, A sacrifice of nobler name and richer big than they. -- Isaac Watts (Play entire hymn) Here is an excerpt from an ISBE Article giving more background on the practice of sprinkling in the OT… Sprinkling (blood, water, oil) formed an important--if not the essential--part of the act of sacrifice. A consideration of the chief passages in the Old Testament will reveal the prominence and the significance of sprinkling as a feature of the sacrificial act. The significance of the sprinkling of blood is seen in the account of the establishment of the covenant between Yahweh and Israel (Ex 24:6-8). Half the blood was sprinkled on the altar as representing the Deity, while the remainder was put into a basin and then sprinkled on the people. This ceremony is a survival in a modified form of the communal meal in which the tribal god and his worshippers sat together and participated in the same food, and in this way came to possess the same life. The two-fold sprinkling of blood resulted in the establishment of an inviolable bond (Nu 18:17; 2 Ki 16:15). In the account of the consecration of Aaron and his sons (Ex 29:16,20,21) the blood of the ram of the burnt offering was sprinkled on the altar, while the blood of the ram of consecration was put on the altar and sprinkled on Aaron and his sons and on their garments. Water of purifying was sprinkled on the Levites at their ordination (Nu 8:7). Leviticus gives detailed information in regard to sacrificial sprinkling. In the case of burnt offering the blood was sprinkled round about upon the altar (Lev 1:5,11). The same practice obtained in the case of peace offerings, whether ox, lamb or goat (Lev 3:2,8,13). When a sin offering for sins inadvertently committed was made, the priest dipped his fingers in the blood and sprinkled it seven times before Yahweh, before the veil of the Holy Place (Lev 4:6). Elsewhere (Lev 16:11,15) we read that Aaron took the blood of the sin offering and sprinkled it with his finger upon the mercy-seat, eastward, 7 times (see also Nu 19:4). Sprinkling constituted part of the process of purification. But it is obvious that the sprinkling, even in this case, was a religious act, and not part of the actual physical cleaning. A simple kind of sprinkler was made by fastening a bunch of hyssop to a cedar rod by a piece of scarlet thread or wool and then the patient was besprinkled 7 times (Lev 14:7), while oil was sprinkled with the finger, also 7 times, before Yahweh (Lev 14:16; see also Ex 12:22; Nu 19:18; Ps 51:7). The house in which the leper lived was disinfected in the same thorough manner (Lev 16:51). In the case of persons who had contracted uncleanness through contact with a corpse, sprinkling with the "water of separation" was part of the process of cleansing. The water of separation consisted of the ashes of a red heifer (slain for the purpose) mixed with running water (Nu 19). A sprinkler was used as in the case of the leper (Nu 19:18). The final sprinkling--on the 7th day--was followed by a bath (Nu 19:19). The "tent" in which the corpse lay, together with all the contents, were thoroughly disinfected. David Brooks on some of its blood (middadamah)—Blood sustains life (Gen. 9:4-5; Lev. 17:11), excess blood loss defiled a person (Lev 12:4), and human blood shed by murder polluted a land (Num. 35:33). God pro­vided for prevention of accidental shed­ding of blood (Deut. 19:10) and for cleansing from innocent bloodshed (Deut. 21:9), divinely avenged the outright mur­der of his servants (Deut. 32:43), and ordered that humans exact capital pun­ishment for murder (Gen. 9:5-6). Shedding animal blood might prevent divine execution (Exod. 12:13) and was used as a sign of a covenant with God (Exod. 24:8; Zech. 9:11). Perhaps it is because sin was punishable by death (Ezek. 18:4, 20) and a blood sacrifice "puts back into the hands of God a life con­tained in the blood" (B. Kedar-Kopfstein, TDOT, 3:248) that blood symbolizes a sin­ner's reconciliation to God. It also cleansed a leper who had been removed from the community of God (Lev. 14:6-7) and a polluted house that had been con­demned (Lev. 14:51), consecrated the priest and his garments (Exod. 29:20; Lev. 8:30), atoned for, purified, and conse­crated the altars (sacrificial: Exod. 30:10; Lev. 16:19; incense: Lev. 4:7; 8:15), and atoned for the Holiest Place (Lev. 16:16) and the temple of the future (Ezek. 45:19- 20). This is the only place where blood is specifically burned. Whether its residue survived in the ashes, this water mixed with ashes had the same property as blood: it both defiled and cleansed (Num. 19:19, 21). Blood was sprinkled on the bronze altar for burnt (Lev. 1:5), fellow­ship (Lev. 3:2), and guilt offerings (Lev. 7:2). Except for on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:19), the blood of the sin offering was not sprinkled on the altar, but poured out at the base (sin offerings of fowl were an exception [Lev. 5:9]). [dam] (Bible Knowledge Key Word Study) Brooks on Sprinkle (hizza)—Two words are used in Hebrew for sprinkling, nazah and zaraq. Water (Nu 8:7), blood (Lev. 14:6-7), anointing oil (Lev. 8:11), other oil (Lev. 14:10, 16), and a mixture of blood and anointing oil (Ex 29:20) were sprinkled in rituals. In the Law, the word nzh is used for sprinkling blood of the sin (Lev. 4:6, 17; 5:9; 16:14-15), ordination (Exod. 29:19-22), and leper's purification offerings (Lev. 14:7). The word zaraq describes the sprinkling of the blood of burnt (Exod. 29:16-18; Lev. 1:5), fellowship (Lev. 3:1-2, 8), ordination (Lev. 8:24), guilt (Lev. 7:2), and firstborn animal offerings (Num. 18:17), but not of sin offerings. Sprinkling cleansed (lepers by blood [Lev. 14:7]), purified (Levites by water [Num. 8:7]), consecrated (priests by blood [Ex 29:21] and altar by oil [Lev. 8:11]), and atoned (for the Most Holy Place by blood [Lev. 16:15-16]). The sacrificial altar was routinely sprinkled with the blood of the burnt (Lev. 1:5), fellowship (Lev. 3:2), and guilt offerings (Lev. 7:2). It was sprinkled with blood of the sin offering only on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:19) and on behalf of the very poor Israelite who offered birds for a sin offering (Lev. 5:9). Milgrom and Wright suggest that smearing blood on the altar purified it, but sprinkling blood consecrated it; however, sprinkling appears to do both in Lev. 16:19. They seem to be right that sprinkling the oil in Lev. 14:15-18, 26-29 consecrated the oil so that it could be used for purification, but this was for oil, not blood (J. Milgrom and D. Wright, TDOT, 9:301). [nazah] (Ibid) Question - What was the significance of the sprinkling of blood? Answer - In Exodus 24 we read of Moses sprinkling blood as an important part of a ceremony commanded by God. The context shares part of the reason for this ritual: [Moses] got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.” Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (Ex 24:4–8) The twelve stone pillars represented the twelve tribes of Israel. Animal sacrifices were made to the Lord, with half the blood thrown on the altar and half kept in bowls. Moses then read the Book of the Covenant to the people, and the people pledged their obedience. After these actions, Moses sprinkled the blood from the bowls on or toward the congregation of people. This blood represented the sealing of a covenant or promise to the people of Israel. Because blood represents life (see Leviticus 17:14), its sprinkling on the congregation represented a vital commitment between God and His people. This act would have connected with other uses of blood in Scripture as well. Abraham, the father of the people of Israel, used animal sacrifice. He also was the first to begin the covenant of circumcision, which was used as a sign of the covenant with the Lord (Genesis 15:11). In the New Testament, Jesus Christ spoke of blood during the Last Supper. In sharing a final meal with His followers, He said the wine represented His blood that would be poured out for us (Luke 22:20). His blood was the seal of the new covenant of grace (1 Corinthians 11:25). His death on the cross was the perfect sacrifice on behalf of the sins of humanity and served as a fulfillment of the ritual sacrifices of the Old Testament. Today, Christians no longer offer animal sacrifices involving blood, but instead have atonement through faith in Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6) and the source of salvation (Acts 4:12). Through faith in Jesus Christ, any person can have everlasting life (John 3:16). “Jesus [is] the mediator of a new covenant, and . . . the sprinkled blood” (Hebrews 12:24). GotQuestions.org Related Resources: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Sprinkle; Sprinkling - see excerpt above Fausset Bible Dictionary Sprinkle King James Dictionary Sprinkle Sprinkled Sprinkling Morrish Bible Dictionary Sprinkling Hawker's Poor Man's Dictionary Sprinkle Sprinkling Vines' Expository Dictionary Sprinkle, Sprinkling Wilson's Bible Types Sprinkle International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Sprinkle; Sprinkling McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia Sprinkling Numbers 19:5 'Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. Ex 29:14 Lev 4:11,12,21 Ps 22:14 Isa 53:10 Numbers 19 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passage: Leviticus 4:11-12 ‘But the hide of the bull and all its flesh with its head and its legs and its entrails and its refuse, 12 that is, all the rest of the bull, he is to bring out to a clean place outside the camp where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire; where the ashes are poured out it shall be burned. RED HEIFER BURNED Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned - This burning took place outside the camp (compare statement in Nu 19:7 "afterward come into the camp") and Eleazar had to personally witness the conflagration of the carcass. This strongly suggest Eleazar had someone (or more than one) assisting in the burning. Wenham - Burning the blood, which was “the most potent cleansing and sanctifying agent,” is unique here to the Old Testament