Still on the Numbers kick . . .
Ever read a passage that is just . . . strange?
Jewish tradition holds that there are four laws in the Torah that do not make much sense and Numbers 19 describes one of those. First find an incredibly rare red cow, kill it, sprinkle people with it’s ashes to make them clean . . .
Moo! Moo!!
Jewish Heritage Online Magazine does an exposition on this chapter which makes some interesting points and adds some interesting cultural context about the Israelite tribe moving about in the desert. Things like this: dead things can curse (or even possess someone) was common belief in the pagan world–and we know how much the Israelites like to graft pagan religions, the red cow was a mechanism to address and adapt these belief patterns. That’s an interesting statement about God using the current cultural for his own means (like the NT using Tartarus as a synonym for hell). The article says the red cow may be for penitence for their earlier sin of the golden calf or that the story is “reflection of the tension between body and soul.”
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled consecrated them and provided ritual purity, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.
There’s our cow in the new testament, by golly, so there is yet more to this. Matthew Henry (c. 1700) wrote the following notes on this chapter that do well to help understand the spiritual significance of the chapter including the rite and rules around using the ashes to clean people contaminated by death.
Verses 1-10 The heifer was to be wholly burned. This typified the painful sufferings of our Lord Jesus, both in soul and body, as a sacrifice made by fire, to satisfy God's justice for man's sin. These ashes are said to be laid up as a purification for sin, because, though they were only to purify from ceremonial uncleanness, yet they were a type of that purification for sin which our Lord Jesus made by his death. The blood of Christ is laid up for us in the word and sacraments, as a fountain of merit, to which by faith we may have constant recourse, for cleansing our consciences.
Verses 11-22 Why did the law make a corpse a defiling thing? Because death is the wages of sin, which entered into the world by it, and reigns by the power of it. The law could not conquer death, nor abolish it, as the gospel does, by bringing life and immortality to light, and so introducing a better hope. As the ashes of the heifer signified the merit of Christ, so the running water signified the power and grace of the blessed Spirit, who is compared to rivers of living water; and it is by his work that the righteousness of Christ is applied to us for our cleansing. Those who promise themselves benefit by the righteousness of Christ, while they submit not to the grace and influence of the Holy Spirit, do but deceive themselves; we cannot be purified by the ashes, otherwise than in the running water. What use could there be in these appointments, if they do not refer to the doctrines concerning the sacrifice of Christ? But comparing them with the New Testament, the knowledge to be got from them is evident. The true state of fallen man is shown in these institutions. Here we learn the defiling nature of sin, and are warned to avoid evil communications.
What is Hebrews teaching?
One of the most important points in Hebrews is that Jesus is the superior priest and superior atonement for our sin. “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our18 consciences from dead works to worship the living God” it proclaims.
Isn’t is amazing that something so long ago before finds it’s meaning fulfilled in Christ? The insufficiency of the Levitical priesthood (remember the priest would become ceremonially unclean) and the inadequacy of the ritual cleaning (Christ’s sacrifice is final) is found here.
Other interesting notes:
• Only sacrifice where the blood is also burnt in the sacrifice.
• The priest gets transfered uncleanliness from the sacrifice for an evening–Wesley notes that this shows the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood and why the high priest, Aaron, does not perform this ritual.
• Cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet are used in cleansing ceremony of a leper all which have significance.
Boring Commentaries:
• http://eword.gospelcom.net/comments/
• http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/0419.htm
• http://www.godrules.net/library/clarke/clarkenum19.htm
Also interesting Jewish takes:
• http://www.templeinstitute.org/red_heifer/introduction.htm
• http://www.templeinstitute.org/red_heifer/red_heifer_contents.htm
• http://www.jhom.com/topics/color/heifer.htm
(Wiki-pedia notes the tradition that “only nine red heifers were actually slaughtered in the period extending from Moses to the destruction of the Second Temple” due it it’s “absolute rarity.”)
By the bye, the four traditional paradoxes are:
• The ritual of the red heifer (Numbers 19)
• The requirement of a man to marry the widow of his childless brother (Deut. 25:5-10)
• The injunction against wearing garments woven of different threads (Deut. 22:11)
• The sending of the goat into the wilderness to Azazel (Lev. 16).
(grafted from the JHOM article)
moo! Moo!! Hebrews 9:13-14
Jewish tradition holds that there are four laws in the Torah that do not make much sense and Numbers 19 describes one of those. First find an incredibly rare red cow, kill it, sprinkle people with it’s ashes to make them clean . . .
Moo! Moo!!Jewish Heritage Online Magazine does an exposition on this chapter which makes some interesting points and adds some interesting cultural context about the Israelite tribe moving about in the desert. Things like this: dead things can curse (or even possess someone) was common belief in the pagan world–and we know how much the Israelites like to graft pagan religions, the red cow was a mechanism to address and adapt these belief patterns. That’s an interesting statement about God using the current cultural for his own means (like the NT using Tartarus as a synonym for hell). The article says the red cow may be for penitence for their earlier sin of the golden calf or that the story is “reflection of the tension between body and soul.”
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled consecrated them and provided ritual purity, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.
There’s our cow in the new testament, by golly, so there is yet more to this. Matthew Henry (c. 1700) wrote the following notes on this chapter that do well to help understand the spiritual significance of the chapter including the rite and rules around using the ashes to clean people contaminated by death.
Verses 1-10 The heifer was to be wholly burned. This typified the painful sufferings of our Lord Jesus, both in soul and body, as a sacrifice made by fire, to satisfy God's justice for man's sin. These ashes are said to be laid up as a purification for sin, because, though they were only to purify from ceremonial uncleanness, yet they were a type of that purification for sin which our Lord Jesus made by his death. The blood of Christ is laid up for us in the word and sacraments, as a fountain of merit, to which by faith we may have constant recourse, for cleansing our consciences.
Verses 11-22 Why did the law make a corpse a defiling thing? Because death is the wages of sin, which entered into the world by it, and reigns by the power of it. The law could not conquer death, nor abolish it, as the gospel does, by bringing life and immortality to light, and so introducing a better hope. As the ashes of the heifer signified the merit of Christ, so the running water signified the power and grace of the blessed Spirit, who is compared to rivers of living water; and it is by his work that the righteousness of Christ is applied to us for our cleansing. Those who promise themselves benefit by the righteousness of Christ, while they submit not to the grace and influence of the Holy Spirit, do but deceive themselves; we cannot be purified by the ashes, otherwise than in the running water. What use could there be in these appointments, if they do not refer to the doctrines concerning the sacrifice of Christ? But comparing them with the New Testament, the knowledge to be got from them is evident. The true state of fallen man is shown in these institutions. Here we learn the defiling nature of sin, and are warned to avoid evil communications.
What is Hebrews teaching?
One of the most important points in Hebrews is that Jesus is the superior priest and superior atonement for our sin. “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our18 consciences from dead works to worship the living God” it proclaims.
Isn’t is amazing that something so long ago before finds it’s meaning fulfilled in Christ? The insufficiency of the Levitical priesthood (remember the priest would become ceremonially unclean) and the inadequacy of the ritual cleaning (Christ’s sacrifice is final) is found here.
Other interesting notes:
• Only sacrifice where the blood is also burnt in the sacrifice.
• The priest gets transfered uncleanliness from the sacrifice for an evening–Wesley notes that this shows the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood and why the high priest, Aaron, does not perform this ritual.
• Cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet are used in cleansing ceremony of a leper all which have significance.
Boring Commentaries:
• http://eword.gospelcom.net/comments/
• http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/0419.htm
• http://www.godrules.net/library/clarke/clarkenum19.htm
Also interesting Jewish takes:
• http://www.templeinstitute.org/red_heifer/introduction.htm
• http://www.templeinstitute.org/red_heifer/red_heifer_contents.htm
• http://www.jhom.com/topics/color/heifer.htm
(Wiki-pedia notes the tradition that “only nine red heifers were actually slaughtered in the period extending from Moses to the destruction of the Second Temple” due it it’s “absolute rarity.”)
By the bye, the four traditional paradoxes are:
• The ritual of the red heifer (Numbers 19)
• The requirement of a man to marry the widow of his childless brother (Deut. 25:5-10)
• The injunction against wearing garments woven of different threads (Deut. 22:11)
• The sending of the goat into the wilderness to Azazel (Lev. 16).
(grafted from the JHOM article)
moo! Moo!! Hebrews 9:13-14 posted by B. | 7:59 PM
1 Comments:
Somehow I missed this when your dream posts came out.
This is good rich heady stuff. Like a good beer!
~ cob
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