The Soap of God: A Shadow of the Substance Text: Numbers 19:1-10
Introduction: The Logic of Uncleanness
We come now to one of those passages in the Old Testament that cause modern, sanitized Christians to fidget. We read about red heifers, and blood-sprinkling, and ashes, and being unclean until evening, and our first impulse is to think of it as primitive, bizarre, and frankly, irrelevant. We are tempted to skip over it to get to the more "spiritual" parts of the Bible. But to do this is to commit a grave error. It is to despise the picture book God gave to His children to teach them the grammar of redemption. To treat these ceremonies as disposable is like trying to understand calculus without first learning to count.
The ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, particularly the laws concerning cleanness and uncleanness, were a massive, divinely-orchestrated audio-visual aid. They were not arbitrary rules. They were designed to teach Israel, and us, a fundamental spiritual reality: holiness is about separation. God is holy, meaning He is utterly separate, distinct, in a category all by Himself. And to approach Him, we must also be separated. We must be clean.
But the problem is that we live in a world that is saturated with death. Ever since the fall of Adam, sin and death have seeped into the very fabric of creation. The central source of ceremonial uncleanness in the Mosaic law was contact with a dead body. Why? Because death is the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23). A dead body is the ultimate, visible sermon on the consequences of rebellion against a holy God. Therefore, to touch death was to be contaminated by this principle of sin and separation from the living God. It made you ceremonially unfit to enter His presence in the tabernacle.
This wasn't a moral failing. A man who buried his father was doing his duty, but he still became unclean. The laws were teaching an objective reality. Sin brings death, and death brings defilement, a defilement that renders you unable to fellowship with the God of life. So, what do you do? How does a nation of people, surrounded by death, ever stay clean enough to worship? God, in His mercy, provides a remedy. And this remedy, the statute of the red heifer, is one of the most striking and detailed pictures of the work of Jesus Christ to be found anywhere in the Old Testament.
The Text
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel that they take to you a red heifer without blemish, in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed. And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer. The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening. The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin. And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the sojourner who sojourns among them.'"
(Numbers 19:1-10 LSB)
The Perfect and Unburdened Sacrifice (vv. 1-2)
The instructions begin with the selection of a very specific animal.
"This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel that they take to you a red heifer without blemish, in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed.'" (Numbers 19:1-2 LSB)
First, notice that this is a "statute of the law." This is a permanent ordinance. Second, the animal must be a red heifer. The color red in Scripture is consistently associated with sin and blood. Isaiah says, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool" (Isaiah 1:18). This heifer is bearing the color of the sin it will cleanse.
But it must be "without blemish, in which is no defect." This points directly to the sinless perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the Lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:19). He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). In order to take away our sin, He had to have no sin of His own. A stained cloth cannot wash another stained cloth.
Furthermore, it was an animal "on which a yoke has never been placed." A yoke was a symbol of servitude and labor. This heifer had never been subjected to the common work of the world. This signifies the unique nature of Christ’s work. He was not under bondage to any man, or to sin, or to the law in the way that we are. His submission to the Father was entirely voluntary. "No one takes it from me," He said of His life, "but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:18). He was not compelled; He freely offered Himself.
Outside the Camp (vv. 3-4)
The location of the sacrifice is profoundly significant.
"And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times." (Numbers 19:3-4 LSB)
Unlike most sacrifices, which were performed at the altar of the tabernacle, this one takes place "outside the camp." The camp was the place of God's dwelling, the place of cleanness and order. To be sent outside the camp was to be sent to the place of refuse, shame, and curse. This is a direct and powerful foreshadowing of the cross. The writer to the Hebrews makes this connection explicit: "For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured" (Hebrews 13:11-13).
Jesus was crucified outside the holy city of Jerusalem, bearing our sin, our shame, and our curse. He was made sin for us, and was cast out, so that we, the unclean, could be brought in. Eleazar the priest oversees this, but he does not perform the slaughter himself. He then takes the blood and sprinkles it seven times "toward the front of the tent of meeting." The number seven signifies perfection or completion. Even though the sacrifice is happening at a distance, its efficacy is directed toward the presence of God. The blood satisfies God's holy requirements, making a way for the unclean to be restored.
The Paradox of Purification (vv. 5-10)
What follows is a series of beautiful paradoxes that get to the heart of the gospel.
"Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer." (Numbers 19:5-6 LSB)
The entire animal is consumed by fire. Nothing is held back. This represents the totality of the wrath of God against sin, which Christ endured in His whole person. Into this fire, three items are thrown: cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet material. Cedar wood was known for its resilience and was associated with strength and incorruptibility. Hyssop was a small plant used for purification, most notably for sprinkling the blood of the Passover lamb (Ex. 12:22). Scarlet material, again, points to the deep stain of sin. These three elements together were also used in the cleansing of a leper (Lev. 14:4), another picture of sin's defiling power. Here, they are consumed with the sacrifice, signifying that our sin, our need for cleansing, and even our best attempts at strength are all consumed and dealt with in the fire of Christ's sacrifice.
Now, notice the strange effect this has on the participants.
"The priest shall then wash his clothes... but the priest shall be unclean until evening. The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes... and shall be unclean until evening. Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes... and the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening..." (Numbers 19:7-10 LSB)
Everyone who participates in the preparation of this remedy for uncleanness becomes unclean themselves. The priest, the burner, the gatherer of ashes, they all have to wash and are considered ceremonially defiled until evening. This is a stunning picture of imputation. In the very act of creating the cleansing agent, the sin and defilement being dealt with is transferred to them. How much more did Christ, who knew no sin, become sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21)? He took our filth upon Himself, and in doing so, He became unclean in the eyes of the law, bearing the curse for us.
And what is the result of this process? A pile of ashes. These ashes are gathered and stored in a clean place outside the camp. These ashes, the residue of a perfect sacrifice consumed by fire, are the essential ingredient for the "water to remove impurity." It is called "purification from sin." The Hebrew is literally "water of niddah," or water for impurity. These ashes were to be mixed with living water (v. 17) and sprinkled on the one who was defiled. The very thing that made the preparers unclean is the only thing that can make the unclean clean. This is the logic of the gospel. The cross of Christ, an object of shame and defilement to the world, the event where our sin was imputed to Him, is the only source of our cleansing.
I have argued before that this process is essentially the divine manufacture of soap. Soap is made from animal fat (tallow) and wood ash. The manufacture of this spiritual soap made the participants unclean, but the application of it made the unclean clean. This is a perpetual statute. It's not a one-off. It was a standing provision for the constant problem of defilement in a world full of death.
The Substance of the Shadow
This entire, intricate ceremony is a magnificent failure. Not because it was poorly designed, but because it was never intended to be the final solution. The author of Hebrews tells us plainly: "For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Hebrews 9:13-14).
The water of purification could only cleanse the flesh. It could make you ceremonially fit to go to the tabernacle. It could not cleanse your conscience. It could not remove the internal stain of sin. It was a shadow, a type, a pointer. All these details, the redness, the perfection, the freedom from the yoke, the suffering outside the camp, the imputation of uncleanness, all of it was a divinely drawn portrait of the coming Messiah.
When Jesus hung on the cross, He was the true Red Heifer. He was perfect, unblemished. He was cast outside the city, bearing our reproach. He was consumed by the fire of God's wrath. His blood was presented before the Father, not sprinkled toward a tent, but brought into the heavenly sanctuary itself. And from His finished work, a perpetual cleansing is made available to all who are defiled by sin and death.
The ashes of the heifer had to be applied. A person defiled by a corpse had to be sprinkled on the third day and the seventh day (v. 12). So also with us. We are not cleansed by the mere historical fact of the crucifixion. The benefits of Christ's death must be applied to us personally by faith, through the work of the Holy Spirit. When we confess our sins, we are asking for the cleansing power of Christ's blood to be applied to our guilty consciences. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This statute was given because Israel was surrounded by death. We too live in a world saturated with sin and death. We are constantly being defiled by it, in thought, word, and deed. But we do not have to remain unclean. God has not left us without a remedy. He has provided something infinitely better than the ashes of a heifer. He has provided the precious blood of His own Son, a fountain of perpetual cleansing for all who will come to Him in faith.