(2) It was slain `without the camp' (see Heb. 13:12).

(3) The whole heifer, together with cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet, was burned to ashes; these ashes were used

for the purpose of purification.

(4) Uncleanness was contracted by touching a dead body, or by being in a tent wherein a man died, or by

touching a bone, or a grave.

(5) Purification was effected by mixing the ashes with living water and by sprinkling with a bunch of hyssop on

the third and seventh days.

(6) An unclean person who refused to be purified was cut off from the congregation; he had defiled the

It will be noticed that the whole question is one of defilement and its resulting exclusion from the service of the

Lord. Some of the causes of uncleanness were quite outside the volition of the person involved, the touching of one

slain in the field, or the death occurring in one's own home were shadows of the defiling contact of the world. Had

the water of purifying not been at hand, many would perforce have been absent from the Lord's house. The great

Antitype of the ashes of the heifer is `the blood of Christ'; this `purges the conscience from `DEAD works'. The

reference to the defilement of Numbers 19 is obvious; the dead man, the bone, and the grave are here exchanged for

`dead works'; the privilege of access to the Tabernacle being exchanged for `service to the living God'. The running

water was a type of the `aionian Spirit'.

The next passage refers to the fact that almost all things by the law are purified with blood, and that the

Tabernacle, the book and the people were thus purified.

`For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves

and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying,

This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the

tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood' (Heb.

Here we have the other type of purifying, not the ashes of an heifer this time, but the blood of calves and goats.

The effect, however, is the same; the result is purifying, and also a solemn dedication; the covenant, the Tabernacle,

and all the vessels of the ministry, all had to be CLEAN. The parallelism of Hebrews 10:22 will perhaps now be more

obvious, as also the way in which the type merges into the antitype, `hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience' is the

New Covenant equivalent of `bodies washed with pure water', as also the words, `let us draw near', which is

impossible without purifying. It will be evident that we must include `the blood of sprinkling' (Heb. 12:24), and

indeed all the references to blood in Hebrews.

Speaking without the book, and from a superficial acquaintance with its theme, one would feel certain that in the

epistle to the Hebrews a full statement concerning redemption by the blood of Christ would be found. Redemption

is not conspicuous in the first reference (Heb. 1:3) to the work of Christ, the whole imagery and teaching has to do

with a people already saved, who have access to God, who are pressing on to Canaan, and who need the continual

ministrations of the priest and offering for their sanctification. But let us see for ourselves; here are the references to

blood in this epistle:

`The children are partakers of flesh and blood' (2:14).

`Into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and

for the errors of the people' (9:7).

`Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having

obtained aionian redemption for us'. (9:12).

`For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the

purifying of the flesh' (9:13).

`How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the aionian Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,

purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?' (9:14).

`Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood' (9:18).

`He took the blood ... and sprinkled both the book, and all the people' (9:19).