Numbers 19:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we have God’s command about the solemn burning of a red heifer to ashes, and the keeping of those ashes so they could be mixed with water for purification. The law did not provide a way to beautify people, as the gospel does, but only to cleanse them. Though this burning was not, strictly speaking, a sacrifice for sin, because it was not done at the altar, it still pointed to the death and suffering of Christ. Through his death, he meant not only to satisfy God’s justice, but also to cleanse and quiet our consciences, so we may have peace with God and peace within ourselves. He died, not only like the bulls and goats at the altar, but also like the heifer outside the camp.

Great care was taken in choosing the heifer that was to be burned, more care than for any other offering (Numbers 19:2). It had to be without blemish, showing the spotless purity and sinless perfection of the Lord Jesus. It also had to be red, a rare color, so it would stand out more clearly. The Jews said that if even two hairs were black or white, it was not allowed. Christ, as man, was the Son of Adam, formed from red earth, and he is seen red in his clothing, red with his own blood, and red with the blood of his enemies. The heifer also had to be one that had never been under a yoke, which was not required in other sacrifices. This pointed to the willing offering of the Lord Jesus when he said, “I am coming.” He was held by no cords except those of his own love. The heifer was supplied at the expense of the whole congregation, because all were to share in it, and so all believers share in Christ.

There was also much ceremony in the burning of the heifer. The work was given to Eleazar, Aaron’s son, not to Aaron himself, because Aaron should not do anything that would make him ceremonially unclean, not even until evening (Numbers 19:8). Yet since this was an important matter, especially in what it meant, it was done by the one next to Aaron in honor. In that way, the chief priests of that time had the main part in Christ’s death.

The heifer was to be killed outside the camp, as something unclean. This showed how unable the ceremonial law was to truly remove sin. Those rites were so far from fully cleansing people that they themselves became unclean, as if the impurity placed on them kept clinging to them. Even so, to fulfill this type, our Lord Jesus, made sin and a curse for us, suffered outside the gate (Hebrews 13:12).

Eleazar was to sprinkle the blood directly in front of the tabernacle door, looking steadily toward it (Numbers 19:4). This gave the act some meaning as an atonement, because the sprinkling of blood before the Lord was the chief part of all sacrifices for sin. So even though this was not done at the altar, doing it toward the sanctuary showed that its value depended on the sanctuary and came from it. This pointed to the satisfaction made to God by the death of Christ, our great high priest, who through the eternal Spirit, the Spirit being called the finger of God (Luke 11:20), offered himself without spot to God. It also shows how necessary it was for our hearts to be cleansed that divine justice should first be satisfied. The sprinkled blood gave power to the ashes.

The heifer was then to be burned completely (Numbers 19:5). This pictured the deep sufferings of our Lord Jesus in soul and body, as a sacrifice consumed by fire. While it burned, the priest was to throw cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet into the fire. These were the same things used in cleansing lepers (Leviticus 14:6-7), so that the ashes of those things might mix with the ashes of the heifer, since they were meant for purification.

The ashes of the heifer, kept separate as well as possible from the ashes of the wood, were to be carefully gathered by a clean person, and, as the Jews say, crushed and sifted, then stored for the congregation to use when needed (Numbers 19:9). They were for that generation and for later ones too. The ashes from one heifer were enough to prepare as much water as Israel would need for many ages. The Jews said this one lasted until the captivity, almost 1,000 years, and that no other heifer was burned until Ezra’s time after the return. I see no reason to trust that tradition, since it seems to rest only on silence in their old records. Their later records, which are fuller, say that eight were burned between Ezra’s time and the destruction of the second temple, about 500 years later. These ashes are called a purification for sin because, although they only cleansed ceremonial uncleanness, they still pointed to the purification from sin that our Lord Jesus made by his death. Ashes mixed with water can be used for cleansing, but these had their power only from God’s command, and their full meaning and perfection in Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness.

Notice these things. First, the water of purification was made pure by the ashes of a heifer whose blood had been sprinkled before the sanctuary. In the same way, what cleanses our consciences is the continuing power of Christ’s death. It is his blood that cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). Second, the ashes were enough for all the people. No fresh heifer had to be killed for each person or family who needed cleansing. This one was enough for all, even for the foreigners living among them (Numbers 19:10). So there is enough power in the blood of Christ for all who repent and believe the gospel, for every Israelite, and not for their sins only, but for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Third, these ashes could be preserved for many ages without wasting away. No bodily substance lasts so well as ashes, and that made them a very fitting picture of the lasting power of Christ’s sacrifice. He is able to save, and therefore able to cleanse, completely, for every person and every time. Fourth, these ashes were kept like a storehouse for Israel’s regular cleansing from defilement. In the same way, the blood of Christ is set before us in the word and sacraments as an endless source of merit, to which we may come by faith each day for the cleansing of our consciences (Zechariah 13:1).

All who took part in this service became ceremonially unclean through it, even Eleazar himself, though he only sprinkled the blood (Numbers 19:7).

The man who burned the red heifer was unclean (Numbers 19:8), and so was the one who gathered up its ashes (Numbers 19:10). In the same way, all who had a part in putting Christ to death became guilty through it: his betrayer, his accusers, his judge, and his executioner all acted with wicked hands, though it was still by God’s settled plan and foreknowledge (Acts 2:23). Yet some of them were, and all of them could have been, cleansed by the power of that same blood that they had helped bring guilt upon themselves through.

Some understand this as showing the weakness of the Old Testament ceremonial law, that it could not truly take away sin. Those who prepared the way for the cleansing of others were themselves made unclean by the very work they did. The Jews say this is a mystery that even Solomon did not understand, that the same thing should make the clean unclean and make the unclean clean. But, as Bishop Patrick says, this is not hard to understand if we remember that all sacrifices for sin were counted unclean because the sins of the people were placed on them, just as all our sins were placed on Christ. That is why he is said to have been made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).