Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Numbers 19:1-2
The Slaughter of the Red Heifer and Storing of the Ashes (Numbers 19:1).
In this we may reverently suggest that we have a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ Whose sacrifice through His death for us is in one sense ‘stored up' that we might draw on it in time of need (1 John 1:7). Through His sacrifice we can be freed from the grip and taint of death, so that it cease to be an enemy but becomes powerless (Hebrews 2:14).
Firstly the procedures for the slaughter of the red heifer and the preparation of the ashes from which the water of uncleanness could be made, are described.
Analysis.
a A permanent statute. The red heifer to be selected, free from blemish and never yoked (Numbers 19:1).
b The red heifer to be brought outside the camp by Eleazar and slain before him (Numbers 19:3).
c Eleazar to apply the blood of the red heifer by sprinkling towards the front of the Tent of meeting seven times (Numbers 19:4).
d The remains of the heifer to be totally burnt before his eyes (Numbers 19:5).
c Eleazar to cast the cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet into the burning remains of the heifer (Numbers 19:6).
b Eleazar to wash his clothes and bathe and return to camp and to be unclean until the evening (Numbers 19:7).
a The one who burns the heifer to wash his clothes and bathe and to be unclean until the evening, and the one who gathers the purifying ashes to store them outside the camp and then cleanse himself. A statute for ever (Numbers 19:8)
It should be noted that all who come in contact with this procedure are rendered mildly unclean. It is to enter into the domain of death. Thus the High Priest himself could not be involved. Furthermore the ashes themselves had to remain outside the camp. Anything connected with death had no right inside the camp.
The Red Heifer to be Selected, Free from Blemish and Never Under the Yoke (Numbers 19:1).
‘And Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,'
Once more it is stressed that these were the words of Yahweh to Moses and Aaron.
“ This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no blemish, and on which never came yoke.”
Note the solemn stress laid on the importance of this issue. ‘This is the statute (what is prescribed) of the Instruction which Yahweh has commanded'. It was something especially to be taken notice of (compare Numbers 31:21 which also referred to purification).
The children of Israel were to ‘bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no blemish, and on which never came yoke.' The heifer (literally ‘cow', but one that had not worked) was to be reddish in colour, without any defacing marks, without blemish, and never having been used for work. It was necessarily to be female, as the producer of life (Genesis 3:20). It was to be young and innocent and free and full of life. The ‘reddish' colour may signify wellbeing and good health, the unblemished state signified its perfection, and its not having yet worked signified its exuberance of life. It epitomised the life of the ideal clean man or woman in innocence.
It was to be brought by the children of Israel. By this they were acknowledging it as their representative, slaughtered on their behalf.