“Whoever touches the dead body of anyone and fails to purify himself defiles the LORD’s tabernacle. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean: his uncleanness remains on him.”
~ Numbers 19:13
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you think that there should be rules? Do you think that you should be able to do whatever it is that you want to do? Do you think that you should be able to live your life however way that you want to live it? Do you think that you should be able to go to bed when you want to go to bed, eat what you want to eat, watch as much TV as you want to watch and play computer games as long as you want to play computer games? Do you think that your dad should be able to drive his car as fast as he wants to drive it, take from stores whatever he wants to take, yell at and beat up whoever he wants to yell at and beat up and come home whenever he wants to comes home? Life rules are good. Are you okay with the rules that your dad and ma have for you? Are some of the rules that your dad and ma have for you in your home hard to obey? Do you find that some of the rules that your dad and ma have for you in your home kind of dumb? God gave His specially chosen guys and gals – who are the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, life rules to obey within their camp community of twelve tribal clans. Why do you think that your dad and ma have house rules that they are expecting you to obey or else? Why do you think that God had camp rules for His specially chosen guys and gals that He was expecting them to obey or else? The camp rules God that gave to His specially chosen guys and gals – who were like kids to Him, were to help His specially chosen guys and gals live their lives in ways that would please Him. God wanted His specially chosen guys and gals to live badness free lives. The home rules that your dad and ma have for you are to help you learn how to be obedient to God. God’s camp rules for His specially chosen guys and gals were to help them learn how He expected them to be obedient to Him. Your dad and ma will always have a reason for a rule that they will make – which they will expect you to obey or else. God always had a reason for a rule that He made for His specially chosen guys and gals – which He expected them to obey or else. You may not like or understand a rule that your dad and ma have made but . . . you just must accept that your dad and ma know what is best for you. God’s specially chosen guys and gals may not have liked or understood God’s rules that He made but . . . they just needed to accept that God knew what was best for them.
Numbers 19 is about God – through Moses, telling His specially chosen guys and gals what they are to do if they were to become unclean. One of God’s specially chosen guys or gals – an Israelite guy or gal, could become unclean before God in different ways. One way that an Israelite guy or gal could become unclean before God was to be in the same room of a guy, gal or kid who died. Another way that an Israelite guy or gal could become unclean before God was to touch the body of a dead guy, gal or kid. Guys, gals and kids are always dying. There would be a time sooner or later when a guy or gal would find himself or herself in the same room of a guy, gal or kid who died. There would come a time sooner or later for most every guy and gal to have to touch the body of a dead guy, gal or kid. If a guy or gal has been in the same room as a guy, gal or kid who died or if a guy or gal touches the body of a dead guy, gal or kid, that guy or gal would be by God considered unclean for seven days. When one of God’s specially chosen guys or gals became unclean because he or she had been in the same room where a guy, gal or kid died or because he or she touched the body of a dead guy, gal or kid, God had a way for the guy or gal to become clean again. It all begins with a red heifer. Eleazar – a priest, was to have a red heifer that had nothing wrong with it and which had never been used for doing fieldwork taken outside the Israelite people group’s campsite to have it killed in front of him. Eleazar was then to sprinkle seven times the red heifer’s blood towards the Tent of Meetings. The red heifer was then to be entirely burned with Eleazar watching. While the red heifer was being burned, Eleazar was to throw some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool on the red heifer. Once the red heifer had been completely burned, a guy was tasked to gather up the red heifer’s ashes which he put in a container. The ashes of the red heifer were to be kept in a purified place outside the Israelite people group’s campsites.
Some of the rules that God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to obey – to your grandpaa, seem to have been really weird but . . . God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to obey them for His reasons. The red heifer was not a sacrifice to God; the red heifer was a type of Christ – a substitute for the sins of the guys and gals who God had specially chosen for Himself. Jesus became the red heifer for God’s specially elected guys, gals and kids. As a red heifer had to die, Jesus had to die. When some of the red heifer’s ashes were dipped in water and then sprinkled on both the third and seventh day over a guy or gal after he or she had been in a room where there was a body of a dead guy, gal or kid or after he or she touched the body of a dead guy, gal or kid, the red heifer’s ashes would purify the guy or gal. Jesus’s death on a crude cross purifies every guy, gal and kid who makes a decision of faith to believe in Him. God was very explicit about what would happen to a guy or gal who did not pursue being purified by the red heifer’s ashes. Verse 13 says, “Whoever touches the dead body of anyone and fails to purify himself defiles the LORD’s tabernacle. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean: his uncleanness remains on him.” God is also very explicit about what will happen to a guy, gal or kid who does not made a decision of faith to believe in what Jesus did when He suffered and died while being nailed to a cross to cleanse him or her of the uncleanliness that is in his or her life.
Numbers 19 (202)