Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read Numbers 19, Isaiah 8, 1-9, 7, and Psalm 124 to keep up with the Old Testament reading schedule for the year. This devotional is about Numbers 19. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded. Instruct the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red heifer that has no defect and has never been placed under a yoke. Give it to Eleazar the priest and he will have it brought outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. Eleazar the priest is to take some of the blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. Then the heifer must be burned in his sight. Its hide, its flesh, and its blood are to be burned along with its dung. The priest is to take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool, and throw them onto the burning heifer. Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. After that, he may enter the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean until evening. The one who burned the heifer must also wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he, too, will be ceremonially unclean until evening. Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to gather up the ashes of the heifer and store them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They must be kept by the congregation of Israel for preparing the water of purification. This is for purification from sin. The man who has gathered up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he will be ceremonially unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner residing among them. Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day. then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. Anyone who touches a human corpse and fails to purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person must be cut off from Israel. He remains unclean because the water of purification has not been sprinkled on him, and his uncleanness is still on him. This is the law when a person dies in a tent. Everyone who enters the tent, and everyone already in the tent, will be unclean for seven days. And any open container without a lid fastened on it is unclean. Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword, or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or grave will be unclean for seven days. For the purification of the unclean person, take some of the ashes of the burnt sin-offering, put them in a jar, and pour fresh water over them. Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the tent, all the furnishings, and the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle the one who touched a bone, a grave, or a person who has died or been slain. The man who is ceremonially clean is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. After he purifies the unclean person on the seventh day, the one being cleansed must wash his clothes and bathe in water, and that evening he will be clean. But if a person who is unclean does not purify himself, he will be cut off from the assembly because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. the water of purification has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean. This is a permanent statute for the people. The one who sprinkles the water of purification must wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water of purification will be unclean until evening. Anything the unclean person touches will become unclean, and anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening. This is God's word. Some of God's commands in the Old Testament law are easy to understand. Do not make any graven images, do not kill, and do not covet are a few examples of the easy to understand one. But some others make sense if you understand their purpose. The sin offering, for example, taught people that, one, every sin was worthy of death, as Romans 6.23 says, and it also taught that, number two, Sins could be forgiven if a substitute died for the sinner. When Jesus died on the cross then, he came as the true final sin offering, so we now understand the symbolism of the animal sacrifice in the Old Testament known as the sin offering. Other commands of God are harder to grasp, and Numbers 19 is one of those. Verses 1-6 describe the recipe for making the water of cleansing. from ashes of a red heifer. Verses 7 through 22 describe the regulations and uses of this water of cleansing. But what good did it do anyone to be sprinkled with this water? The water of cleansing did nothing. It didn't make anyone physically clean. It didn't remove sins. Nor did it have special magical powers that removed demons or something else bad from someone's life. It was truly and only a ritual, a ceremony with no tangible benefit. So why did God command it? Verse 9 said this water was for purification from sin. But the only instances where God commanded it to be used were when someone touched a dead body. Verses 11 through 13 and verses 16 through 21 describe that. So purification from sin must mean purification from the consequences of sin, namely death. Death was not God's original plan for humanity. It was His curse on us for our sins. Since God is life and death is a curse, God gave Israel this ritual to set Israel apart from the consequences of sin. If someone were to touch a dead body without this ritual, They would defile the Lord's tabernacle, as verse 13b in the NIV says, and you can also see verse 20c for more about that. The point of the Red Heifer purification water, then, was to teach Israel about the holiness of God. God was not to be approached and worshipped by someone who had been in contact with death. Instead, they were considered defiled and unacceptable to approach the Lord until they went through this ritual. The ritual was a teaching tool, then, to show God's people and us that God is completely separate from sin and from death. and one must not approach him to worship without being set apart. In Jesus, we have been set apart. There is no need for this kind of ceremony any longer because God has credited to us the perfections of Jesus. When we come to God in worship, whether in prayer and singing or whatever, We know that we will be accepted because Christ's death has been applied to us and we are declared clean, worthy, set apart, washed, sanctified, holy, and perfect in Him. Have you ever considered how a passage like this shows how utterly holy God is? As you think about this offering, Do you get a greater appreciation for all that God has given to us in Christ? He not only cleansed our sins, He has removed every unacceptable trace of sin, death, and defilement from us in Jesus. Not because of anything we did, but because Jesus did it all for us. That is something to praise the Lord about. Think about that today and I'll see you next time. May God bless you. I hope you have a great day today.