Numbers 19 - Introduction

Chapter 19 The Water or Uncleanness.

In this chapter the problem of dealing with the defilement of death is dealt with on behalf of the community whose prospect is now life.

4). The Water of Uncleanness - Provision for Israel's Dealings With Yahweh Enabling The Removal Of Uncleanness Resulting From Contact With Death (chapter 19).

The placing of this chapter is important. It closes the period of wilderness wandering with the promise of life to God's people. It is central to the structure of the book. For this section, 15-19 parallels Numbers 20:1 to Numbers 21:20 which opens the new period and also ends with the promise of life, in the latter case through abundance of water. Furthermore in 15-19 the ministry of the priesthood is emphasised. In Numbers 20:1 to Numbers 21:20 the renewal of the priesthood, through the death of Aaron and the appointment of Eleazar, is stressed, both resulting in life for Israel.

In this chapter we have described ‘the water for uncleanness' (or more correctly the water for removal of uncleanness), the water containing the ashes of a heifer used for sprinkling by a clean person for the removal of uncleanness. This was the means of freeing any in Israel from all taint of death so as once again to be able to have dealings with Yahweh. It concluded the series of: the provision for dedication and purification and giving of tribute through offerings and sacrifices (Numbers 15), the certifying of the priesthood for the making of atonement and intercession before Yahweh (Numbers 16-17), and the confirming of levitical service with regard to the maintenance of the holiness of the Dwellingplace, in preparation for entry into the land (Numbers 18). Once this completed the picture all provision was now made for the new Israel's future.

It may be that the placing of this provision here as opposed to in Numbers 5 may be in order to stress that death was the lot of the first generation of the people as a result of their failure to enter the land. While there was cleansing from the taint of death, in the final analysis they could not be purified from it. It hung over them all their lives. Nevertheless that they did have available the water of purification is probable from its probable mention in Numbers 7:9.

This subject brings out the great contrast between the Dwellingplace and outside the camp. In the Dwellingplace was the living God, the Lord of life, the One Who Is. Death could neither reach Him nor touch Him. He was the opposite of all that death was. To be in a right relationship with Him was to enjoy life. Death was an enemy. It resulted from sin and led to corruption, and darkness, and the world of the grave. But Yahweh was totally pure, totally free from sin and corruption, dwelling in unapproachable light, and ruling the heavens brighter than the sun. He was the source of life, the living God. No taint of death must therefore enter the Dwellingplace, apart from atoning death, which represented life given in death in order to make atonement for one whose sin had made him as good as dead. Such a death, the death of an animal substitute and representative, was acceptable to Yahweh, for it was His provision for purification and atonement.

In contrast outside the camp was the world of death and corruption. There death occurred freely, but it was not to be brought into the camp, and was wholly barred from the Dwellingplace. The camp itself was a mid-way zone. Death occurred there, but it was to be separated and isolated, and its taint had to be removed through the ritual about to be described, or in mild cases by waiting on God.

Death was thus something to be feared and avoided. Even contact with death was to be shunned. Thus to come into contact with death was to be rendered unclean. To touch or come into contact with a dead animal was to require a period of waiting before Yahweh until the evening, having first made preparation by washing the body with water to remove earthiness. But to come into contact with the dead body of a man or woman, or to be in a tent where there was death, was to be rendered so deeply unclean that the cleansing process lasted seven days and required the application of sacrificial blood and an indication of the restoration of life.

So was made clear that Yahweh is the living God, the source and giver of life, and that death is foreign to His being and His whole purposes. Death was the great enemy to be shunned and rejected. And it was made clear that His people could come from the sphere of death to the sphere of life through the sprinkling of the blood of a substitute and representative, slain in their place through God's good provision. Thus could death be put behind them.

But while it was an enemy from which they needed to be delivered, death was common. Contact with death was so common, and so had to be dealt with, that only the High Priest could be kept from it by his deliberate abstention from anything that could bring him into contact with death (Leviticus 21:10). While by some unfortunate accident it could happen even to him, if it was possible it was to be avoided at all costs, for it defiled him and made him unfit for seven days to fulfil his ministry. It was the opposite of all he stood for, and prevented him from entry into the Holy Place.

Indeed when he himself died it was so momentous an event that a new era was seen to begin (Numbers 35:25; Numbers 35:28). With the rise of a new high priest a new life began for all, and the past was dead and gone. Even the manslayer could return home. While therefore a time of grief it was also a time of celebration. A new future was secured. It was as though a new creation had begun. This will shortly be illustrated in the death of Aaron and the rise of Eleazar.

Such was the importance of the High Priest's ministry that the unbroken maintenance of his ministry as far as possible was seen as vital for Israel. He must thus avoid all contact with death, which would render him unfit to approach the living God, the Lord of life. The priests also were to seek to avoid contact with death, but in their case were permitted such contact for close relatives (Leviticus 21:1). Otherwise all regularly came into contact with death, and this would be more so in the wilderness wandering when the whole of a generation would be wiped out. So if sacrifices had been necessary each time someone came into contact with death the herds and flocks would have proved insufficient and have been sadly depleted. Yet at the same time the obnoxious nature of death had to be brought out. And so an alternative to sacrifice was provided in the water of uncleanness, which had the efficacy of the blood of sacrifice in regard to ritual uncleanness through contact with the dead, but did not require constant deaths. It provided ‘one death for all', a suitable picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the one sacrifice could deal with the many occasions. In some ways it can be compared with the offerings on the Day of Atonement. But even those had to be repeated yearly, and even the ashes had to be renewed eventually. It was only the death of Jesus, Who is also our permanently continuing High Priest (Hebrews 7:25), that could really be once for all (Hebrews 10:14).

This chapter may be analysed as follows:

a The perpetual statute of the slaughter of the red heifer and storing of the ashes (Numbers 19:1).

b The application of the ashes on those who have touched the dead (Numbers 19:11).

c Judgment on those who refuse the use of the ashes (Numbers 19:13).

d The description of what is unclean (Numbers 19:14).

d The application of the ashes to the unclean through the ‘water of uncleanness' (Numbers 19:17).

c Judgment on the one who refuses to be cleansed (Numbers 19:20 a).

b Those who have not had the ashes applied to them and on whom the water of uncleanness has not been sprinkled so that they are unclean (Numbers 19:20 b).

a This is stated to be a perpetual statute. Those who touch the water of uncleanness, containing the ashes applied to the one who has touched the dead, are to purify themselves and all who have touched the unclean person to be unclean until the evening num (19:21-22).

These will now be dealt with under their separate headings, and further analysed.