Numbers 19:11 - Meaning and Application

Directions are here given for how the ashes prepared for purification were to be used. They were stored so they could be brought out when needed. At first, while Israel camped closely together, one place may have been enough to keep them. But later, when they lived in Canaan, it is likely that some ashes were kept in every town, because there would be daily need for them.

Notice, first, the cases that required cleansing with these ashes. The only uncleanness mentioned here is the ceremonial uncleanness from touching a dead body, or even a dead bone or grave, or from being in the tent or house where a dead body lay (Numbers 19:11, Numbers 19:14-16). This seems to have been one of the heaviest burdens of the ceremonial law, and one of the hardest to explain. A person who touched the carcass of an unclean animal, or any living person under the greatest ceremonial uncleanness, was unclean only until evening and needed only ordinary water to wash. But anyone who came near the dead body of a man, woman, or child had to bear the shame of uncleanness for seven days, be purified twice with the water of separation, and could not receive that water without trouble and expense. Until purified, that person could not go near the sanctuary, on pain of death.

This was strange in several ways. First, whenever someone died, and “we are in deaths oft,” many people had to become ceremonially unclean. The body had to be stripped, washed, wrapped, carried out, and buried, and many hands were needed for that work. Yet all of them were defiled. This shows that in our fallen condition, no one lives without sin, and we cannot avoid the polluted world through which we pass. We offend daily, but our inability to be sinless does not make sin any less defiling.

Second, caring for the dead and burying them properly is necessary and good. It is an act of kindness, both honoring the dead and comforting the living. Yet uncleanness still came from it. This shows that the stains of sin mix with our best services and cling to them. There is no righteous person on earth who does good and does not sin. Even when we do good, we are likely to do something wrong in the process.

Third, this pollution could be contracted by what was done privately in the house. That reminds us that God sees what is done in secret, and nothing is hidden from him.

Fourth, a person might contract this uncleanness and never know it, as when touching a hidden grave. Jesus said, “Those who walk over it are not aware of it” (Luke 11:44). This points to the defilement of the conscience by sins done in ignorance. It also leads us to cry out, “Who can understand his errors?” and to pray, “Cleanse us from secret faults,” faults we do not even see in ourselves.

But why did the law treat a dead body as such a defiling thing? First, because death is the wages of sin. It came into the world through sin and rules because of sin. Death for mankind is different from death among other creatures. It is a curse and the carrying out of judgment, so the uncleanness of death points to the uncleanness of sin.

Second, the law could not conquer death, abolish it, or change its nature. The gospel does that by bringing life and immortality into clear view and opening a better hope. Since our Redeemer died and was buried, death is no longer destroying to the Israel of God, and dead bodies are no longer defiling in the same way. But while the church was under the law, this uncleanness reminded people that the law could not make those who came to it perfect. It also gave them a sad and heavy view of death. Believers now, through Christ, can triumph over it: “O grave! Where is your victory? Where is your pollution?”

Second, consider how the ashes were to be used in these cases. A small amount of the ashes had to be put into a cup of fresh water and mixed with it. This was called the water of separation, because it was sprinkled on those who had been separated from the sanctuary by uncleanness. As the ashes of the heifer pointed to the merit of Christ, so the living water pointed to the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, who is compared to rivers of living water. It is by the Spirit’s work that Christ’s righteousness is applied to us for cleansing. That is why Scripture says we are washed, meaning sanctified and justified, that is, made holy and declared right with God, not only in the name of the Lord Jesus, but also by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Peter 1:2). Anyone who expects to benefit from Christ’s righteousness while refusing the Spirit’s grace is deceiving himself. God has joined these together, and they cannot be separated. We are not purified by the ashes except in the running water.

This water had to be applied with a bunch of hyssop dipped into it, and the person or thing to be cleansed had to be sprinkled with it (Numbers 19:18). In that way David prayed, “Purge me with hyssop.” Faith is like that bunch of hyssop, by which the conscience is sprinkled and the heart is cleansed. Many could be sprinkled at once, and the mixed water could be used many times until it was all gone. A very little of it was enough to purify a person, if it was used properly and with the right purpose. In this same way, the blood of Christ is called “the blood of sprinkling” (Hebrews 12:24), and through it we are said to be sprinkled from an evil conscience (Hebrews 10:22), meaning freed from the distress that comes from guilt. It was also foretold that Christ, by his baptism, would sprinkle many nations (Isaiah 52:15).

The unclean person had to be sprinkled with this water on the third day after the pollution and again on the seventh day (Numbers 19:12-19). We may suppose the days were counted from the last time he touched or came near the dead body. He would not begin the days of cleansing while he was still likely to repeat the pollution. But once the dead body was buried, and there was no more reason to handle it, he could begin to count his days. In the same way, we can only apply Christ’s merit to our souls with comfort when we have left sin behind and stopped joining in the useless works of death and darkness. The repeated sprinkling also teaches us to renew repentance and faith again and again. Wash, like Naaman, seven times. What is so necessary must be done well, and often.

Though this pollution was only ceremonial, refusing the required cleansing became real moral guilt: “He that shall be unclean and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off” (Numbers 19:20). It is a dangerous thing to despise God’s commands, even when they seem small.

A small wound, if ignored, may become deadly. In the same way, a sin we call small, if we do not repent of it, will bring us to ruin, even though great sinners who turn back to God will find mercy. Our uncleanness separates us from God, but it is staying unclean and refusing to be cleansed that will separate us from him forever.

The wound is not the main danger, but the refusal of the remedy is. Even the one who sprinkled the water of cleansing, or touched it, or touched the unclean person, became unclean until evening. That meant he could not come near the sanctuary that day (Numbers 19:21, 22). By this God showed the weakness of those services and that they could not fully cleanse the conscience.

God intended them to look for the Messiah, the anointed Savior, who would come in God’s time. By the eternal Spirit, he would offer himself without spot to God and cleanse our consciences from dead works, meaning sins that defile like a dead body and are therefore called a body of death. Then we would have free access to the sanctuary and be able to serve the living God with living sacrifices.