Torah: Numbers 19:1-2 “2 “This is the regulation from the Torah which Adonai has commanded. Tell the people of Isra’el to bring you a young red female cow without fault or defect and which has never borne a yoke.” CJB
When we turn to Numbers 19 which is talking about the ashes of the red heifer and spring water, we can sometimes be at a loss for an explanation
Numbers 19:3,5-6,9 “3You are to give it to El‘azar the cohen; it is to be brought outside the camp and slaughtered in front of him. 5 The heifer is to be burned to ashes before his eyes — its skin, meat, blood and dung is to be burned to ashes. 6 The cohen is to take cedar-wood, hyssop and scarlet yarn and throw them onto the heifer as it is burning up. …They are to be kept for the community of the people of Isra’el to prepare water for purification from sin.”
So, the water was mix with the ashes and then sprinkled. It goes on to say that anyone who has been exposed to a dead body in any form is unclean,
Numbers 19:12 “12 He must purify himself with [these ashes] on the third and seventh days; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself the third and seventh days, he will not be clean.” CJB
When people are walking in impurity and uncleanness; the scriptures tell us that it is sin. Sin leads to death; sin is being dead.
Numbers 19 is a simile or an example that when we handle things that are dead; they are without profit. When we handle things that are without profit, it defiles us to the point of uncleanness beyond repair.
Numbers 19 is a symbol and an image that when we are doing works that lead to death, our actions and thoughts are saturated with impure thoughts and behaviors. Yeshua came to purge out our consciousness from dead works so that we can serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:11-15).
When we are continuously working, doing our own works, without purification; we just working out our life in death. We are alive but we are dead. We are living our lives in a state of uncleanness.
Numbers 19 said that they had to purify themselves on the third day and the seventh day.
Think about God He created everything in six days and on the seventh day He rested. Think about Yeshua, He died and resurrected on the third day. On the third day, He brought life, He conquered death. When one continues to work out their lives without knowing Yeshua is like working continuously for six days over and over again without reaching the seventh day of rest.
In numbers 19, they had to sprinkle the uncleaned on the third day, meaning receiving the gift of life from Yeshua and they had to sprinkle again on the seventh day which is a complete Shabbat Rest of eternity.
Matthew 5 tells us that Yeshua said that he did not come to abolish the Torah and the prophets, but He came to fulfill them or make them true, enforced them. His sacrifice of death and resurrection became the fulfillment of all the sacrifices that were done in the Torah. He rose to the occasion of purification, atonement, and redemption.
When we read Matthew 5 there is a very interesting part:
5:17 “19 So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” CJB
We are all guilty because not one of us can do it, none of us can obey the least of the commandments.
Yeshua took the place of the sacrifices once and for all. The word which came from inside of God became flesh, in other words, the words of the Torah became flesh and manifested all of Torah in Yeshua. He fulfills every word of the Torah.
Hebrews 9:12-15 “12 he entered the Holiest Place once and for all. And he entered not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus setting people free forever. 13 For if sprinkling ceremonially unclean persons with the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer restores their outward purity; 14 then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to God as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God” CJB
Mixing the water with the ashes of the red heifer is just a symbolism that without purification there is death. Yeshua said to the woman, “whoever drinks of the water I give will never thirst,” John 4:14 and Revelation 22:1-3 says that the river of life was flowing from the throne of God and in the middle was the tree of life.
Yeshua by shedding His blood puts away all sin. He took the place of the unblemished red heifer and by mixing his purity with our sins; he put sin to death.
Numbers 19 say that they threw in hyssop, scarlet yarn, and cedarwood while the heifer was burning. All these items represent purification and healing. It also says that Elezar and the others who dealt with this sacrifice became uncleaned until evening. Yeshua became unclean with our sin so we can be clean.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “21 God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God’s righteousness.” CJB
His purity superseded sin. His holiness destroyed sin. Praise be God.
