 |  |
nineteenth chapter of Numbers gives a detailed statement of this institution. Let us
briefly analyze the record:--
1.
The red heifer had to be without spot or blemish, and one upon which had never
come a yoke.
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 that refused to be purified was cut off from the congregation; he
had defiled the sanctuary.
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
Numb. 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 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 sanctuary, and almost all things are by the law purged
with blood. . . ." (Heb. 9: 19-22).
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 Heb. 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" of
Numb. 19:; 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