Uncleanness Matters (19:1-22)
Neal Pollard
The wanderers had to continue to address their sin problem. The Lord gives an elaborate ceremony involving a red heifer, slaughtered for impurity and uncleanness. It seems strange and maybe complicated to us, but it was a continual reminder to the people of their need to do what God said to be spiritually clean. These instructions definitely highlight that.
THE PROCEDURE WAS EXACT (1-6). What? An unblemished red heifer with no defect and having had no yoke on it. Who? Eleazar the priest. Where? Outside the camp. How? Take its blood and sprinkle toward the front of the tent seven times; Its hide, flesh, and blood, with its refuse burned; The priest takes cedar, hyssop, and scarlet and cast into its midst. God leaves nothing to chance or imagination. He spells out what He wants.
THE PURIFICATION PROCESS WAS EXTREME (7-17). The priest must wash his clothes and bathe, being unclean until evening. The one burning the animal had to do the same, being unclean. The gatherer of the ashes is the same as the one burning. Precise provisions for purification are made for one who touches a corse (11-13), whatever is uncovered in a room with corpse (14-15), and anyone touching a dead body in an open field (16-17). The clean must act on behalf of the unclean (18-19).
THE PENALTY WAS EXPLICIT (20-22). The unclean who did not purify himself was cut off from the assembly for defiling the sanctuary (20). What the unclean touched became unclean until dealt with (21-22). God wanted them focused on the cost of contamination.
What is God telling Israel? Uncleanness and defilement matters. There was God’s scientific foreknowledge, preventing the spread of disease involved in death. But there was also a spiritual picture being drawn of the distinction He draws between clean and unclean, pure and impure. That is helpful to us even today.
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