Numbers 19:1-22

👉 Recipe for Cleansing Ash

• red heifer without defect
• given to Eleazar the priest
• slaughtered outside camp
• Eleazar would sprinkle some of the blood toward the tent of meeting seven times
• heifer shall be burned
• cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn added to the fire
• the priest (Eleazar) is unclean until evening
• a man who is clean then gathers the ashes of the heifer and deposits them outside the camp in a clean place
• the ashes are kept to be mixed with the water for impurity
• this will be a sin offering
• the one who gathered the ashes is unclean until evening

It’s a messy, multi person job – the dealing with sin thing.

👉 Dealing with Dead Bodies

• whoever touches a dead body is unclean for seven days
• shall cleanse with the ash/water on the third and seventh day
• whoever does not cleanse himself is cut off from Israel
• anyone who enters a tent where someone has died is unclean for seven days
• anyone who touches a dead body in an open field is unclean for seven days

👉 The Use of the Ash Water

• someone who is clean must sprinkle the water on the one who is unclean
• the person who sprinkles the water will be unclean until evening

The sacrifice of all the “clean” people on behalf of the unclean – it’s such a beautiful picture of the sacrifice Christ made – the clean for the unclean.

You are loved.