Numbers 19:1-22 (NLT)
1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
2 “Here is another legal requirement commanded by the LORD: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer, a perfect animal that has no defects and has never been yoked to a plow.
3 Give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.
4 Eleazar will take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tabernacle.
5 As Eleazar watches, the heifer must be burned—its hide, meat, blood, and dung.
6 Eleazar the priest must then take a stick of cedar, a hyssop branch, and some scarlet yarn and throw them into the fire where the heifer is burning.
7 “Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water. Afterward he may return to the camp, though he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening.
8 The man who burns the animal must also wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he, too, will remain unclean until evening.
9 Then someone who is ceremonially clean will gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them in a purified place outside the camp. They will be kept there for the community of Israel to use in the water for the purification ceremony. This ceremony is performed for the removal of sin.
10 The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening. This is a permanent law for the people of Israel and any foreigners who live among them.
11 “All those who touch a dead human body will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.
12 They must purify themselves on the third and seventh days with the water of purification; then they will be purified. But if they do not do this on the third and seventh days, they will continue to be unclean even after the seventh day.
13 All those who touch a dead body and do not purify themselves in the proper way defile the LORD’s Tabernacle, and they will be cut off from the community of Israel. Since the water of purification was not sprinkled on them, their defilement continues.
14 “This is the ritual law that applies when someone dies inside a tent: All those who enter that tent and those who were inside when the death occurred will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.
15 Any open container in the tent that was not covered with a lid is also defiled.
16 And if someone in an open field touches the corpse of someone who was killed with a sword or who died a natural death, or if someone touches a human bone or a grave, that person will be defiled for seven days.
17 “To remove the defilement, put some of the ashes from the burnt purification offering in a jar, and pour fresh water over them.
18 Then someone who is ceremonially clean must take a hyssop branch and dip it into the water. That person must sprinkle the water on the tent, on all the furnishings in the tent, and on the people who were in the tent; also on the person who touched a human bone, or touched someone who was killed or who died naturally, or touched a grave.
19 On the third and seventh days the person who is ceremonially clean must sprinkle the water on those who are defiled. Then on the seventh day the people being cleansed must wash their clothes and bathe themselves, and that evening they will be cleansed of their defilement.
20 “But those who become defiled and do not purify themselves will be cut off from the community, for they have defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. Since the water of purification has not been sprinkled on them, they remain defiled.
21 This is a permanent law for the people. Those who sprinkle the water of purification must afterward wash their clothes, and anyone who then touches the water used for purification will remain defiled until evening.
22 Anything and anyone that a defiled person touches will be ceremonially unclean until evening.”
In the care and service of the sanctuary, there was no compromise with regard to purification. Separation from sin and death was essential for the continuance of the people under the hand of God. Becoming unclean through any touching of the dead or even the purification water required quarantining outside the camp. Personal contamination could not be tolerated for the nation to be cleansed and preserved as a whole. The water for this cleansing could not just be any blessed water, but it had to have been poured over the ashes of a sacrificed red heifer (from every part of the red heifer – even excrement). Purification required sacrifice, not just physical washing.
There is yet a necessity for the gravity of holiness and purification in the body of Christ. His blood was poured out once and for all and His body went to hell and the grave to provide completely for our cleansing. As great a price as this was, though, its purpose cannot be assumed apart from its application. There must be attention given in detail to the blood’s purification from any touching of the dead things in the world that would drift the heart to sin. A complete quarantine may not be necessary, but a very serious and intentional submission to the washing of the Word (from Jesus’ sacrifice) and heart-felt separation from the identity of sin is required for the flourishing and progress of the church as a whole. Private retention of sin without cleansing is not just a personal issue. It will contaminate and disable the body as a whole from entertaining and glorifying the Most Holy One. There will always be a requirement of hearts that are perfect towards God in their passions, motives, and purification for His hand to be dealt in its power and glory.