Schoolmaster to Christ
NUMBERS CHAPTER 19

Scripture Reading: Numbers 19 (KJV)

One of the most important sections of the Book of Numbers is now before us, presenting the deeply interesting and instructive ordinance of "The red Heifer." A thoughtful student of Scripture would naturally feel disposed to inquire why we get this type in Numbers instead of in Leviticus. In the first seven chapters of Leviticus, we have a elaborate statement of the teaching of sacrifice; and yet there is no allusion whatsoever to the red heifer. Why is this? What are we to learn from the fact that this beautiful ordinance is presented in the Book of Numbers and nowhere else? No doubt, it furnishes another striking illustration of its distinctive character. The red heifer is pre-eminently a wilderness type. It was God's provision for defilements, prefiguring the death of Christ as purification for sin to meet our need while passing through a defiling world, on the way home to our eternal rest. It is an instructive figure, unfolding precious and needed truth. May the Holy Spirit be graciously pleased to expound and apply it to our souls.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, Saying, This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke" (vv. 1, 2).

When we gaze on the Lord Jesus with the eye of faith we see not only Him to be the spotless One in His own holy Person, but also One Who never bore the yoke of sin. The Holy Spirit is always the jealous guardian of the person of Christ, and He delights to present Him to the soul in all His excellence and preciousness. That is why every type and every shadow designed to set Him forth, exhibits the same careful guardianship. Thus, regarding His human nature, we are taught in the red heifer that not only was our blessed Savior intrinsically and inherently pure and spotless, but regarding His birth and relationships, He stood completely clear from every mark and trace of sin. No yoke of sin ever came on His sacred neck. When He speaks of "my yoke" (Matt. 11:29), it was the yoke of implicit subjection to the Father's will in all things. This was the only yoke He ever wore; and this yoke was never off – not for one moment during His spotless and perfect career – from the manger where He lay a helpless babe, to the cross where He expired as a victim.

But He wore no yoke of sin. Let this be distinctly understood. He went to the cross to expiate our sins, to lay the groundwork for our purification from all sin; but this He did as One Who had never worn the yoke of sin at any time during His blessed life. He was "without sin;" and as such, was perfectly fitted to do the great and glorious work of expiation. To think of Him as bearing the yoke of sin in His life, would be to think of Him as unfit to atone for it in His death – "wherein is no blemish, and whereon never came yoke." It is also needful to remember and weigh the force of the word, "whereon," as well as the word, "wherein." Both expressions are designed to bring forth the perfection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who was not only internally spotless, but also externally free from every trace of sin. Neither in His Person nor His relationships was He in anywise obnoxious to the claims of sin or death. Adored forever be His holy name – He entered into all the reality of our circumstances and condition; but in Him was no sin, and on Him no yoke of sin.

Touched with a Sympathy within,
He knows our feeble frame;
He knows what sore temptations mean,
For He has felt the same.
But spotless, undefiled, and pure,
The great Redeemer stood,
While Satan's fiery darts He bore,
And did resist to blood.

"And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face" (v 3).

The thoughtful student of Scripture will not pass over any expression, no matter how trivial it may seem. Such a one will always bear in mind that the Book of Numbers is from God, and therefore every little word is filled with meaning. Each little point, feature, and circumstance contains some spiritual teaching for the soul. No doubt, infidels and rationalists fail in seizing this weighty fact, and as a consequence, when they approach the divine volume, they make the saddest havoc. They see flaws where the spiritual student sees only gems. They see incongruities and contradictions where the devout, self-distrusting, Spirit-taught disciple beholds divine harmonies and moral glories.

This is only what we might expect; and it is well to remember it in this age. "God is His own interpreter," in Scripture, as well as in providence; and if we wait on Him, He will make it plain. But, as in providence, "Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan His ways in vain;" so in Scripture, it is sure to err, and scan His lines in vain. And the devout poet might have gone farther; for unbelief will not only scan God's ways and God's Word in vain, but turn both one and the other into an occasion of making a blasphemous attack on God Himself, on His nature, and on His character, as well as on the revelation He has been pleased to give us. The infidel would rudely smash the lamp of inspiration, quench its heavenly light, and involve us all in the deep gloom and moral darkness entrapping His own misguided mind.

We have been led into the foregoing train of thought while meditating on the third verse of this chapter. We are exceedingly desirous to cultivate the habit of profound and careful study of Holy Scripture. It is of immense importance. To say or think that there is a single clause or expression, from cover to cover of the inspired volume, unworthy of our prayerful meditation, is to imply that God the Holy Spirit has thought it worth His while to write what we do not think it worth our while to study. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Tim. 3:16). This commands our reverence. "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning" (Rom 15:4). This awakens our personal interest. The former of these quotations proves that Scripture comes from God; the latter proves that it comes to us. Taken together, they both bind us to God by the divine link of Holy Scripture – a link that the devil in this age is doing his utmost to snap by means of agents of acknowledged moral worth and intellectual power. The devil does not select an ignorant or immoral man to make his grand and special attacks on the Bible, for he knows full well that the former could not speak, and the latter would not get a hearing. But he craftily takes up some amiable, benevolent, and popular person, someone of blameless morals, a laborious student, a profound scholar, a deep and original thinker. Thus he throws dust in the eyes of the simple, unlearned, and unwary.

May God help each of us to remember this. If we can deepen in our souls the sense of the unspeakable value of the Bible; if we can be warned off from the dangerous rocks and quicksand of rationalism and infidelity; if we can be the means of stabilizing and strengthening others in the assurance that when we are hanging over the sacred page of Scripture, we are drinking from a fountain of which every drop has flowed into it from the bosom of God Himself; if from any of these thoughts one can reach all or any of these results, then we should not regret the digression from the study of this chapter, to which we now return.

"And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face." In the priest and the victim, we have a joint type of the Person of Christ. He was the Victim and the Priest. But He did not enter on His priestly functions until His work as a victim was accomplished. This will explain the expression in the last clause of the third verse, "one shall slay her before his face." The death of Christ was accomplished on earth, and, therefore, could not be represented as the act of priesthood. Heaven is the sphere of His priestly service, not earth. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the inspired writer expressly declares, as the sum of an elaborate and amazing argument, that "We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every High priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law" (Heb. 8:1-4).

"But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption."

"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, the figures of the true But into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Heb. 9:11, 12, 24). "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb. 10:12).

From all these passages, taken in connection with Numbers 19:3, we learn two things: that the death of Christ is not presented as the proper, ordinary act of priesthood; and, further, that heaven, not earth, is the sphere of His priestly ministry. There is nothing new in these statements; others have advanced them repeatedly; but it is important to notice everything tending to illustrate the divine perfection and precision of Holy Scripture. It is deeply interesting to find a truth shining brightly in the pages of the New Testament that is wrapped up in some ordinance or ceremony of Old Testament times. To the intelligent, serious student of the Word of God, such discoveries are always welcome. No doubt, God's truth is the same wherever it is found; but when it bursts on us with brightness in the New Testament Scriptures, and is divinely shadowed in the Old, we not only have the truth established, but the unity of the volume illustrated and enforced.

But we must not pass over, unnoticed, the place where the death of the victim was accomplished. "That he may bring her forth without the camp." The priest and the victim are identified, forming a joint type of Christ; but it is added, "one shall slay her before his face," simply because the death of Christ could not be represented as the act of priesthood. What marvelous accuracy; and yet what else should we look for in a book in which every line is from God Himself? Had it been said, "He shall slay her," then Numbers 19 would be at variance with the Epistle to the Hebrews. But no; the harmonies of the volume shine forth among its brightest glories. May we have grace to discern and appreciate them.

Jesus suffered without the gate – "wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate" (Heb. 13:12). He took the outside place, and from there His voice falls on the ear. Do we listen to it? Do we understand it? Should we not consider more seriously the place where Jesus died? Are we to rest satisfied with reaping the benefits of Christ's death, without seeking fellowship with Him in His rejection? God forbid. "Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach."¹ There is immense power in these words. They should rouse our whole moral being to seek more complete identification with a rejected Savior. Shall we see Him die outside, while reaping the benefits of His death and remaining within? Shall we seek a home, a place, a name, and a portion, in that world from which our Lord and Master is an outcast? Shall we aim at getting on in a world that could not tolerate that blessed One to Whom we owe our present and everlasting felicity? Shall we aspire after honor, position, and wealth, where our Master found only a manger, a cross, and a borrowed grave? May the language of our hearts be, "Far be the thought,” and may the language of our lives be, "Far be the thing." By the grace of God, may we yield a more hearty response to the Spirit's call to "Go forth."

Let us never forget that when we look at the death of Christ we see two things: the death of a victim, and the death of a martyr – a victim for sin, a martyr for righteousness – a victim under the hand of God, a martyr under the hand of man. He suffered for sin, so that we might never suffer. Blessed be His name for evermore. But then, His martyr sufferings, His sufferings for righteousness under the hand of man, these we may come to know. "For unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake" (Phil. 1:29). It is a positive gift to be allowed to suffer with Christ. Do we esteem it?

In contemplating the death of Christ, as typified by the ordinance of the red heifer, we see not only the complete putting away of sin, but also the judgment of this present evil world. "He gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father" (Gal. 1:4). Here the two things are put together by God, and should never be separated by us. We have the judgment of sin, root and branch; and the judgment of this world. The former should give repose to the exercised conscience; while the latter should deliver the heart from the ensnaring influence of the world, in all its multiplied forms. That purges the conscience from all sense of guilt; this snaps the link binding the heart and world together.

It is most needful for us to understand and enter into the connection existing between these two things. It is possible to miss this grand link, even while holding and contending for a vast amount of evangelical truth. Also, it may be confidently affirmed that where this link is missing, there must be a serious defect in Christian character. We frequently meet with earnest souls who have been brought under the convicting and awakening power of the Holy Spirit, but who have not yet come to understand the full value of the atoning death of Christ. In other words, their conscience remains troubled because they do not understand the meaning of the atoning death; that it is forever a putting away of all their sins, bringing them close to God without a stain on the soul or a sting in the conscience. If this be our present condition, we would need to consider the first clause of the verse just quoted, "He gave himself for our sins." This is a blessed statement for a troubled soul. It settles the whole question of sin. If it is true that Christ gave Himself for our sins, what remains for us but to rejoice in the precious fact that all our sins are gone The One Who took our place, Who stood charged with our sins, Who suffered in our stead, is now at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honor. This is enough. All our sins are gone forever. If they were not, He could not be where He now is. The crown of glory that wreathes His blessed brow is proof that our sins are perfectly atoned for, and therefore perfect peace is our portion – a peace as perfect as the work of Christ can make it.

Let us never forget that the very same work that forever put away our sins has delivered us from this present evil world. The two things go together. Christ has not only delivered us from the consequences of our sins, but also from the present power of sin – from the claims and influences of that thing which Scripture calls "the world." However, all this will come out more fully as we proceed with this chapter.

"And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with His finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times." Here we have the solid groundwork of all real purification. In the type before us we know that, as the inspired apostle tells us, it is only a question of "sanctifying to me purifying of the flesh" (Heb. 9:13). But we have to look beyond the type to the antitype – beyond the shadow to the substance. In the sevenfold sprinkling of the blood of the red heifer before the tabernacle of the congregation, we have a figure of the presentation of the blood of Christ to God as the only ground of the meeting-place between God and the conscience. As has frequently been observed, the number "seven" is expressive of perfection; and in the figure before us, we see the perfection attaching to the death of Christ as atonement for sin – presented to, and accepted by God. All rests on this divine ground. The blood has been shed and presented to a holy God as a perfect atonement for sin. When received by faith, this must relieve the conscience from all sense of guilt and fear of condemnation. There is nothing before God except the perfection of the atoning work of Christ. Sin has been judged and our sins put away. They have been completely obliterated by the precious blood of Christ. To believe this is to enter into perfect repose of conscience.

Let us carefully note that throughout this singularly interesting chapter, there is no further allusion to the sprinkling of blood. This is precisely in keeping with the teaching of Hebrews 9 and 10. It is yet another illustration of the divine harmony of the Bible. Being divinely perfect, the sacrifice of Christ need never be repeated. Its efficacy is divine and eternal. "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb. 9:11-14).

Observe the force of the two words, "once" and "eternal." See how they set forth the completeness and divine efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ. The blood was shed once and forever. To think of a repetition of that great work would be to deny its everlasting and all-sufficient value, reducing it to the level of the blood of bulls and goats.

But, further, "It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now, once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

Therefore, sin has been put away. It cannot be put away, and, at the same time, be on the Christian's conscience. This is plain. It must be one or the other – either it is admitted that the true believer's sins are blotted out and his conscience perfectly purged, or that Christ must die over again. The latter is not only needless, but completely out of the question; for, as the apostle goes on to say, "As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation."

There is something marvelous in the patient elaborateness with which the Holy Spirit argues out this entire subject. He expounds, illustrates, and enforces the great teaching of the completeness of the sacrifice in such a way that brings conviction to the soul, relieving the conscience of its heavy burden. Such is the exceeding grace of God – not only has He accomplished the work of eternal redemption for us, but, He has argued, reasoned and proved the whole point in question, leaving not one hair's breadth of ground on which to base an objection. Let us hearken to His further powerful reasoning, and may the Spirit apply them to the heart of the anxious student.

"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in these sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins."

But that which the blood of bulls could never do, the blood of Jesus has forever done. This makes all the difference. All the blood that ever flowed around Israel's altars – the millions of sacrifices offered according to the requirements of the Mosaic ritual – could not blot out one stain from the conscience, or justify a sin-hating God in receiving a sinner to Himself. "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins."

"Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God . . . By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once."

Mark the contrast. God had no pleasure in the endless round of sacrifices under the law. They did not please Him. They left wholly unaccomplished that which He had in His loving heart to do for His people – to rid them completely of sin's heavy load, and bring them unto Himself in perfect peace of conscience and liberty of heart. This Jesus did by the one offering of His blessed body. He did the will of God; and, blessed forever be His name, He never has to do His work again. We may refuse to believe that the work is done; refuse to commit our souls to its efficacy; to enter into the rest it is calculated to impart; to enjoy the holy liberty of spirit it is fitted to yield – but there stands the work in its own imperishable virtue; and there, too, stand the Spirit's arguments respecting that work in their own unanswerable force and clearness; and neither Satan's dark suggestions, nor our own unbelieving reasoning can ever touch either one. They may, and they do, most sadly interfere with our soul's enjoyment of the truth; but the truth itself always remains the same.

"And every priest standeth daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."

Due to the blood of Christ, eternal perfection is imparted; and, likewise, due to it our souls can taste that perfection. No one need ever imagine that he is doing honor to the work of Christ, or to the Spirit's testimony respecting that work, when he refuses to accept that perfect remission of sins proclaimed to him through the blood of the cross. It is not a sign of true piety or pure religion to deny what the grace of God has done for us in Christ, and what the record of the eternal Spirit has presented to our souls on the pages of inspiration.

Does it not seem strange that when the Word of God presents Christ seated at the right hand of God, redemption accomplished, that we should be no better off than those who had merely a human priest standing daily ministering and offering the same round of sacrifices? We have a divine Priest Who has sat down forever. They only had a mere human priest who in his official capacity could never sit down at all; and yet are we in the state of the mind, in the apprehension of the soul, in the actual condition of the conscience, in no respect better off than they? Can it be possible that, with a perfect work to rest on, our souls should never know perfect rest? As we have seen in these various quotations taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Holy Spirit has left nothing unsaid to satisfy our souls regarding the question of the complete putting away of sin by the precious blood of Christ. Why then should we not enjoy full, settled peace of conscience? Has the blood of Jesus done nothing more for us than the blood of a bullock did for a Jewish worshipper?

However, it may be that we are ready to say, "I do not, in the least, doubt the efficacy of the blood of Jesus. I believe it cleanseth from all sin. I believe, most thoroughly, that all who simply put their trust in that blood are perfectly safe, and will be eternally happy. My difficulty does not lie here at all. What troubles me is, not the efficacy of the blood, in which I fully believe, but my own personal interest in that blood, of which I have no satisfactory evidence. This is the secret of all my trouble. The doctrine of the blood is as clear as a sunbeam; but the question of my interest therein is involved in hopeless obscurity."

If this is the embodiment of our feelings on this momentous subject, it only proves the necessity of us deeply pondering the fourth verse of this chapter. There we see the true basis of all purification, i.e., that the blood of atonement has been presented to and accepted by God. This is a precious truth, but one little understood. It is important that the anxious soul have a clear view of the subject of atonement. It is natural for us to be occupied with thoughts and feelings about the blood of Christ, rather than with the blood itself and God's thoughts regarding it. If the blood has been perfectly presented to God, if He has accepted it, if He has glorified Himself in the putting away of sin, then what remains for the divinely exercised conscience except to find repose in that which has met all the claims of God, harmonized His attributes, and laid the foundations of that marvelous platform whereon a sin-hating God and a sin-destroyed sinner can meet? Why introduce the question of our interest in the blood of Christ, as though that work is not complete without something of ours, call it what we will, our interest, our feelings, our experience, our appreciation, our appropriation, our anything? Why not rest in Christ alone? This would be truly having an interest in Him. But the moment the heart becomes occupied with the question of its own interest – the moment the eye is withdrawn from that divine object which the Word of God and the Holy Spirit present – then spiritual darkness and perplexity must ensue; and instead of the soul rejoicing in the perfection of the work of Christ, it is tormented by looking at its own poor, imperfect feelings.

The atoning work is done,
The Victim's blood is shed;
And Jesus now is gone,
His people's cause to plead;
He stands in heaven their Great High Priest,
And bears their names upon His breast.

Here we have the groundwork of "purification for sin," and of perfect peace for the conscience. "The atoning work is done." All is finished. The great Antitype of the red heifer has been slain. Under the wrath and judgment of a righteous God, He gave Himself up to death, that all who put their trust in Him might know divine purification and perfect Peace in the deep secret of their own souls. Our conscience is purified, not by our thoughts about the blood, but by the blood itself. We must always insist on this. God Himself has made out our title, and that title is found only in the blood – that most precious blood of Jesus that speaks profound peace to every troubled soul who will lean on its eternal efficacy. We may ask, "Why is it that the blessed teaching of the blood is so little understood and appreciated? Why do some people persist in looking to anything else, or in mingling anything else with it?" May the Holy Spirit lead the anxious student to stay his heart and conscience on the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

Having endeavored to briefly present the precious truth unfolded in the death of the red heifer, we now consider for a moment the burning of the heifer. We have looked at the blood; let us now gaze on the ashes. In the former, we have the sacrificial death of Christ as the only purification for sin. In the latter, we have the remembrance of that death applied by the Spirit to the heart through the Word in order to remove any defilement contracted in our walk from day to day. This gives great completeness and beauty to this most interesting type. God has not only made provision for past sins, but also for present defilement, so that we may be always before Him in all the value and merit of the perfect work of Christ. He would have us treading the courts of His sanctuary, the holy precincts of His presence, "Clean every whit." And not only does He Himself see it this way; but, blessed forever be His name, He would have us see it this way, too, in our own inward self-consciousness. By His Spirit, through the Word, and the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, He wants to give us the deep inward sense of cleanness, so that the current of our communion with Him may flow without a ripple and without a curve. "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 Jn. 1). But if we fail to walk in the light – if we forget, and in our forgetfulness touch the unclean thing, how is our communion to be restored? Only by the removal of the defilement. But how is this to be effected? By the application to Our hearts and consciences of the precious truth of the death of Christ. The Holy Spirit produces self-judgment, and brings to our remembrance the precious truth that Christ suffered death for that defilement which we so lightly and indifferently contract. It is not a fresh sprinkling of the blood of Christ – a thing unknown in Scripture; but the remembrance of His death brought home in fresh power to the contrite heart by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

"And one shall burn the heifer in his sight . . . And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer . . . And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin."

It is the purpose of God that His children should be purified from all iniquity, and that they should walk in separation from this present evil world where all is death and defilement. This separation is effected by the action of the Word on the heart, by the power of the Holy Spirit. "Grace to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that he might deliver as from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father" (Gal. 1:4). And again, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good work" (Titus 2:13, 14).

It is remarkable how constantly the Spirit of God presents the full relief of the conscience from all sense of guilt, and the deliverance of the heart from the moral influence of this present evil world. It should be our care to maintain the integrity of this connection. Of course, it is only by the gracious energy of the Holy Spirit that we can do so; but we ought to earnestly seek to understand and practically carry out the blessed link of connection between the death of Christ as atonement for sin, and as the moral power of separation from this world. Many of the people of God never get beyond the former, if they even get that far. Many seem to be satisfied with knowledge of the forgiveness of sins through the atoning work of Christ, while, at the same time, failing to realize their deadness to the world in virtue of the death of Christ.

When gazing on the burning of the red heifer in the 19th chapter of Numbers – when examining the mystic heap of ashes, what do we find? One might say, "We find our sins there." True, indeed we do find our sins, iniquities, trespasses, and deep crimson guilt – all reduced to ashes. But is there more? By careful analysis, can we discover more? Unquestionably. We find there every stage of nature – from the highest to the lowest point in its history. Also, we find there all the glory of this world. The cedar and hyssop represent nature in its widest extremes, and all that lies between. "Solomon spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall."

Those who have carefully examined Scripture on the point, view "scarlet" as the type or expression of human splendor, worldly grandeur, the glory of this world, and the glory of man. Therefore, in the burning of the heifer we see the end of all worldly greatness, human glory, and completely setting aside the flesh with all its belongings. This renders the burning of the heifer deeply significant. It shadows a truth too little known, and, when known, too readily forgotten – a truth embodied in these memorable words of the apostle, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, Whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

In this age, too many of us are prone to accept the cross as the ground of escape from the consequences of sin and of full acceptance with God, while, at the same time refusing it as the ground of complete separation from the world. True, it is the solid ground of our deliverance from guilt and condemnation; but it is more than this. It has forever severed us from all that pertains to this world. Are my sins put away? Yes. According to what? According to the perfection of Christ's atoning sacrifice as estimated by God Himself. This is precisely the measure of our deliverance from this present evil world – from its fashions, its maxims, its habits, and its principles. The true believer has absolutely nothing in common with this world. The more one enters into the spirit and power of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, the less value is placed on the world. That cross dislodges us from everything here below, making us pilgrims and strangers in this world. The truly devoted heart sees the dark shadow of the cross looming over all the glitter and glare, the pomp and fashion of this world. Paul saw this, and the sight of it caused him to esteem its highest aspects, its most attractive forms, and its brightest glories, as dross.

Such was the estimate of this world formed by one who had been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. "The world is crucified unto me," he said, "and I unto the world." Such was Paul, and every Christian should be a stranger on earth and a citizen of heaven – not merely in sentiment or theory, but in fact and reality. As surely as our deliverance from hell is more than a mere sentiment or theory, so surely is our separation from this present evil age. The one is as positive and as real as the other.

But here let us ask, "Why is this great practical truth not pressed home more on the hearts of evangelical Christians in our age? Why are we so slow to urge on one another the separating power of the cross of Christ? After all, if one whose heart loves Jesus, will not seek a place, a portion, or a name where Jesus found only a malefactor's cross." This is the simple way to look at the matter. Do we really love Christ? Has the heart been touched and attracted by the Lord Jesus' wondrous love? If so, remember that Jesus Christ was cast out by this world. Yes, Jesus was, and still is, an outcast from this world. There has been no change throughout the ages – there is no change today. The world is still the world; and let us never forget that one of Satan's special devices is to lead people to accept salvation from Christ, while, at the same time, getting them to refuse identification with His rejection – while abiding comfortably in the world that is stained with the guilt of nailing Christ to the tree. In other words, Satan leads people to think and say that the offence of the cross has ceased; that the world of the twenty-first century is totally different from the world of the first; that if the Lord Jesus were on earth now He would meet with different treatment from that which He received then; that it is not now a pagan world, but a Christian one, and this makes a material and fundamental difference; that now it is right for a Christian to accept citizenship in this world, to have a name, a place, and a portion here, seeing it is not the same world as that which nailed the Son of God to Calvary's cursed tree.

However, it is incumbent on us to press on all who will listen that such is a lie of the archenemy of souls. The world has not changed. It may have changed its dress, but it has not changed its nature, its spirit, or its principles. It hates Jesus as cordially as when the cry went forth, "Away with him! Crucify him!" If we try the world by the same grand test, we will find it to be the same evil, God-hating, Christ-rejecting world as ever. And what is that test? Christ crucified. May this solemn truth be engraved on our hearts. May we realize and manifest its formative power. May it completely detach us from all that belongs to the world. May we be enabled to understand more fully the truth presented in the ashes of the red heifer. Then, and only then, our separation from the world and our dedication to Christ will be more intense and real. May the exceedingly gracious Lord grant that it may be so with all His people in this day of hollow, worldly, half-and-half profession.

Let us now briefly consider how the ashes were to be applied: "He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify Himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him."

Having to do with God is a solemn thing – to walk with Him from day to day in the midst of a defiled and defiling scene. God cannot tolerate uncleanness on those with whom He deigns to walk, and in whom He dwells. He can pardon and blot out; He can heal, cleanse, and restore; but He cannot sanction unjudged evil, or allow it on His people. It would be a denial of His name and nature were He to do so. While deeply solemn, this is truly blessed. It is our joy to have to do with One whose presence demands and secures holiness. We are passing through a world in which we are surrounded with defiling influences. True, defilement is not now contracted by touching "a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave." As we know, these things were types of moral and spiritual things with which we are in danger of coming in contact with every day and every hour. We do not doubt that those who have much to do with worldly things are painfully sensible of the immense difficulty of escaping with unsoiled hands – thus, the need of holy diligence in all our habits and associations, lest we contract defilement and interrupt our communion with God. God must have us in a condition worthy of Himself. "Be ye holy, for I am holy."

But the anxious student, whose soul breathes after holiness, may eagerly inquire, "If it is true that we are surrounded with defiling influences and prone to contract that defilement, then what are we to do? Also, if it is impossible for unclean hands and a condemning conscience to have fellowship with God, then what are we to do?" First of all, be watchful. Earnestly wait on God. He is faithful and gracious – a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God; a liberal and unupbraiding Giver. "He giveth more grace." Here is a blank check that faith can write, up to any amount. Is it our real purpose to get on, to advance in the divine life, to grow in personal holiness? Then we must beware how we continue in contact with that which soils our hands and wounds our conscience; grieving the Holy Spirit and marring our communion. Be decided. Be whole-hearted. Give up at once the unclean thing, whatever it may be – habit, association or anything else. Forget the cost, give it up. Consider not what loss it may bring, abandon it. No worldly gain, no earthly advantage, can compensate for the loss of a pure conscience, an uncondemning heart, and the light of our Father's countenance. If we are not yet wholly convinced, then may God help us seek grace to carry out our conviction.

But it may be further asked, "What is to be done when defilement is actually contracted? How is the defilement to be removed?" Hear the reply in the figurative language of Numbers 19. "And for an unclean person, they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel. And a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave. And the clean person shall sprinkle upon 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 even."

The serious student may observe that in the twelfth and eighteenth verses, a double action is set forth – action of the third day, and the seventh day. Both were necessary to remove the ceremonial defilement caused by contact with the varied forms of death above specified. What did this double action typify? What in our spiritual history answers the question? We believe it to be this: When, through lack of watchfulness and spiritual energy, we touch the unclean thing and become defiled, we may be ignorant of it; but God knows all about it. He cares for us, and is looking after us; not as an angry judge or stern censor, but as a loving father, who will never impute anything to us, because long ago it was all imputed to the One Who died in our stead. But, though He will never impute it to us, He will make us feel it deeply and keenly. He is a faithful reprover of unclean things; and He His reprove is complete because He will never reckon it against us. The Holy Spirit brings our sin to remembrance, and this causes unutterable anguish of heart. This anguish may continue for some time – for moments, days, months, or years. The Holy Spirit first brings our sin to remembrance; and then, through the written Word, He graciously brings to our remembrance the value of the death of Christ – that which has already met the defilement we so easily contracted. This answers to the action of the seventh day – removes the defilement and restores our communion.

Remember that we can never get rid of defilement in any other way. We may seek to forget, to slur over, to slightly heal the wound, to make little of the matter, to let time obliterate it from the tablet of memory. It will never do. No, it is dangerous work. There are few things more disastrous than trifling with conscience or the claims of holiness – it is as foolish as it is dangerous; for God has made full provision for the removal of the uncleanness His holiness detects and condemns. If uncleanness is not removed, communion is impossible. "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." Suspension of a believer's communion is the shadow, or answers to the cutting off of a member from the congregation of Israel. The Christian's communion can be interrupted by a single sinful thought that must be judged and confessed and its soil removed before communion can be restored. It is well to remember this. It is a serious thing to trifle with sin. We may rest assured, it is impossible to have fellowship with God while walking in defilement. To think so, is to blaspheme the name, nature, throne, and majesty of God. No, we must keep a clean conscience and maintain the holiness of God, or else we will in time make shipwreck our faith and break down altogether. May the Lord keep us walking softly and tenderly, watchfully and prayerfully, until we have laid aside our bodies of sin and death and have entered into that bright and eternal place above, where sin, death, and defilement are unknown.

In studying the ordinances and ceremonies of the Levitical economy, nothing is more striking than the jealous care with which the God of Israel watched over His people, in order that they might be preserved from defiling influences. By day and night, awake and asleep, at home and abroad, in the bosom of the family and in the solitary walk, His eyes were on them. He looked after their food, raiment, domestic habits and arrangements. He carefully instructed them regarding what they might and might not eat; what they might and might not wear. He even distinctly set forth His mind regarding the touching and handling of things. In short, He surrounded them with amply sufficient barriers to resist the whole tide of defilement to which they were exposed on every side, had they only attended to them.

In all this, we see the holiness, as well as the grace of God. If divine holiness could not allow defilement on the people, divine grace made ample provision for its removal. This provision is before us under two forms: the blood of atonement and the water of separation. It is a precious provision illustrating the holiness and the grace of God. We knew the provisions of divine grace, the lofty claims of divine holiness, would be overwhelming – being assured of the former, we can heartily rejoice in the latter. Could we desire to see the standard of divine holiness lowered a single hair's breadth? How could we; why should we, seeing that divine grace has fully provided what divine holiness demands? An Israelite of old might shudder as he hearkened to such words as: "He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days." and again, "Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel." Such words might terrify his heart. He might feel led to exclaim, "What am I to do? How can I ever get on? It seems perfectly impossible for me to escape defilement." What about the ashes of the burnt heifer? What about the water of separation? What could these mean? They set forth the memorial of the sacrificial death of Christ, applied to the heart by the power of the Spirit of God. "He shall purify himself with it the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean." If we contract defilement, even though it is through negligence, that defilement must be removed before our communion can be restored. But we cannot get rid of the soil by any effort of our own. It can only be by the use of God's gracious provision, even the water of purification. An Israelite could no more remove by his own efforts the defilement caused by the touch of a dead body, than he could have broken Pharaoh's yoke, or delivered himself from the lash of Pharaoh's taskmasters.

Observe that it was not a question of offering a fresh sacrifice, or a fresh application of the blood. It is of special importance that this be distinctly seen and understood. The death of Christ cannot be repeated. "Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him, For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, He liveth unto God." By the grace of God, we stand in the full credit and value of the death of Christ; but, because we are surrounded on all sides by temptations and snares; and since we have within us such capabilities and tendencies; and, further, seeing we have a powerful adversary who is always on the watch to ensnare and lead us off the path of truth and purity, we could not get on were it not for the gracious way in which our God has provided for all our exigencies, in the precious death and all-prevailing advocacy of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not merely that the blood of Jesus Christ has washed away all our sins, reconciling us to a Holy God, but "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." "He ever liveth to make intercession for us," and "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him." He is always in the presence of God for us. He represents us there, maintaining us in the divine integrity of the place and relationship His atoning death has set us. In the hands of such an Advocate, our case can never fall through. Before the feeblest of His saints can perish, He must cease to live. Praise God, we are eternally identified with Him and He with us.

What should be the practical effect of all this grace on our hearts and lives? When we think of the death and the burning, of the blood and the ashes, of the atoning sacrifice and the interceding Priest and Advocate, what influence should it exert on our souls? How should it act on our consciences? Should it lead us to think little of sin? Should it cause us to walk carelessly and indifferently? Should it have the effect of making our ways light and frivolous? We may rest assured that the man who, from the rich provisions of divine grace, can draw a plea for lightness of conduct or levity of spirit, knows very little if anything at all of the true nature or proper influence of grace and its provisions. Could we imagine for a moment that the ashes of the heifer or the water of separation would have had the effect of making an Israelite careless regarding his walk? No; on the contrary, the very fact of such careful provision being made against defilement by the goodness of God, would make him feel what a serious thing it was to contract it. At least, such would be the proper effect of the provisions of God's grace. Laid up in a clean place, the heap of ashes presented a double testimony – it testified of the goodness of God; and of the hatefulness of sin. It declared that God could not allow uncleanness on His people; but it also declared that He had provided the means of removing it. It is utterly impossible that the blessed teaching of the sprinkled blood, the ashes, and the water of separation, can be understood and enjoyed without producing a holy horror of sin in all its defiling forms. And we may further assert that no one who has ever felt the anguish of a defiled conscience could lightly contract defilement. A pure conscience is too precious a treasure to be lightly parted with; and a defiled conscience is too heavy a burden to be lightly taken up. But, in His own perfect way, He has met our need; and, He did not meet it to make us careless, but to make us watchful. "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not." But then he adds, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the whole world" (1 Jn.).

But we must draw the brief study of this chapter to a close, and will merely add a word on its closing verses. "And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until even. and whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean, and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even" (Num. 19:21, 22).

In verse 18, we are taught that a clean person was needed to sprinkle the unclean; and in verse 21, we are taught that the act of sprinkling another defiled oneself.

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