Water of purification for uncleanness
19
And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 📚“This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, Tell the children of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which is no blemish, and on which a yoke never came. 3 📚You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, so that he can take it outside the camp; and there someone is to kill it in his presence. 4 📚And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood on his finger, and sprinkle its blood seven times directly in front of the tabernacle of the congregation. 5 📚And someone is to burn the heifer in his presence. He shall burn its skin and its flesh and its blood, with its dung. 6 📚And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet and throw it into the middle of the burning of the heifer. 7 📚Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterwards come into the camp; and the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8 And the one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until evening. 9 📚“And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and store them up outside the camp in a clean place; and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel as a water to remove uncleanness. It is a purification for sin. 10 📚And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until evening. This shall be a statute forever for the children of Israel, and for the foreigner who is staying among them.
11 📚“Anyone who touches the dead body of any person will be unclean for seven days.
12 📚He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he will not be clean. 13 📚Whoever touches the dead body of any dead person and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD. And that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water to remove uncleanness was not sprinkled on him, he will be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.
19:12-13 The defilement of death must be cleansed away by the water of purification, part of which came from a sacrifice. If a person brought his defilement into the camp he must be cut off (Lev 15:31; 20:3). The sin offering signifies Christ (Lev 4:3), the water signifies the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. That which spoke of the defilement of sin had to be cleansed with animal sacrifices. Sin itself, and death the fruit of sin, defile the heart and soul and life of man. They must be cleansed away by the sacrifice of Christ Himself and by the Spirit and Word of God.⚜
14 “This is the law, when a person dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent, will be unclean for seven days. 15 📚And every open utensil that has no cover fastened on it will be unclean.
16 📚“And whoever touches someone who has been killed by a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
17 📚“And as to the unclean person, they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and put running water with it in a container. 18 📚And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, and on all the furnishings, and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched a bone, or one killed, or a dead person, or a grave. 19 📚And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening.
19:19 This ordinance of the ashes of the heifer is referred to in Heb 9:13-14 and compared with Christ’s sacrifice of Himself which cleanses the conscience. The way the spiritual meaning is fulfilled appears in Heb 10:22.⚜
20 📚But as for the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the congregation, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water that removes uncleanness has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.
21 📚“And it is to be a permanent statute to them, that the one who sprinkles the water that removes uncleanness shall wash his clothes; and the one who touches the water that removes uncleanness will be unclean until evening. 22 📚And whatever the unclean person touches will be unclean; and the person who touches it will be unclean until evening”.