Most of us, in our country, are shielded from preparing a body for burial.  We leave it up to trained professionals who come and take lifeless bodies from hospital beds, private homes, vehicle accidents, or from places of business. Whenever and wherever death occurs, these people know exactly what to do and do it quickly, quietly, and reverently in most cases.  Funeral home employees also know how to provide a comforting environment for the mourners of loved ones who have passed from this life to the next. Randy and I have worked with funeral home providers in our past pastoral ministries.  There are many details that command certain practices to be done legally and reverently in the cleansing, dressing, and preparing of bodies for burial.  This is all done behind the scenes so that mourners are comforted.  “Blessed are the mourners…for they shall be comforted.”

But what if you are in the middle of the desert wilderness?  What then?  God provides the details; God always knows what lies ahead for His people and has the answer.  God knows exactly what they will need to know when death occurs in the camp.  God directs them with purpose.  That’s how God works!

The regulations about “clean and unclean” are spelled out in detail in Leviticus 11–15, telling the Israelites what they could eat, how they should deal with bodily discharges and infections, and what to do about dead bodies. Certainly, there was a hygienic purpose behind these laws, but there was also a spiritual purpose: to teach the Israelites the difference between holiness and sin and to encourage them to walk in holiness.

Numbers 19

The Water of Cleansing

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ² “This is a requirement of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. ³ Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. ⁴ Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. ⁵ While he watches, the heifer is to be burned—its hide, flesh, blood and intestines. ⁶ The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer. ⁷ After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening. ⁸ The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening.

⁹ “A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They are to be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin. ¹⁰ The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he too will be unclean till evening. This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the foreigners residing among them.

¹¹ “Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days. ¹² They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they will not be clean. ¹³ If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse, they defile the Lord’s tabernacle. They must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean; their uncleanness remains on them.

¹⁴ “This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent: Anyone who enters the tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days, ¹⁵ and every open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean.

¹⁶ “Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

¹⁷ “For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them. ¹⁸ Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave or anyone who has been killed or anyone who has died a natural death. ¹⁹ The man who is clean is to sprinkle those who are unclean on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify them. Those who are being cleansed must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and that evening they will be clean. ²⁰ But if those who are unclean do not purify themselves, they must be cut off from the community, because they have defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, and they are unclean. ²¹ This is a lasting ordinance for them.

“The man who sprinkles the water of cleansing must also wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water of cleansing will be unclean till evening. ²² Anything that an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and anyone who touches it becomes unclean till evening.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

First of all, be grateful to God for providing trained morticians when death occurs in our families!  I respect those who have been trained to help others through this time of loss.

Could Eleazar have been the first mortician?  God appointed him to be involved in the process for sure.  Because of their involvement with a dead body, Eleazar and the man assisting him were considered ceremonially unclean and had to wash themselves and their clothing before returning to the camp in the evening. A man ceremonially clean gathered up the ashes into a container and placed it in a clean place outside the camp, accessible to the people. He too had to wash before he could return to the camp.

It was a very serious offense if a defiled person refused to be purified, because defiled people defiled the camp. God’s presence dwelt in the tabernacle and He walked among the people; therefore, the camp had to be kept holy. 

The church today doesn’t worry about external ritual uncleanness, but we should take to heart the lesson of this chapter; God wants us to be a holy people.  Does that mean we must be perfect to enter the church doors?  No, Jesus says come to Me, just as you are, with a promise; I will set you free from the chains of your sins that bind you and hold you down. 

When we seek Jesus, repent in His Name, giving ourselves to Him; Jesus changes everything about us from head to toe.  We may have come to Him as the “walking dead” but Jesus gives “new life in Him.”  We are new creations who are born again! By the power of God’s Holy Spirit living in us; we begin to think, speak, and respond in a new and different way—like Jesus! 

Jesus says to come as you are; but we will not stay as we are.  It is His Will and Plan to take us on new adventures with His love, mercy, and grace lessons coming along on  the journey. Jesus purpose is to save us from our walking dead lives that lead nowhere!  Instead, we come alive in Christ who saved us and set us free—for eternity!

The dead cannot cleanse themselves.  Jesus is the One and Only who washes away our sins and makes us holy before God.  Jesus also taught us that as forgiveness is freely given too us, we must freely give forgiveness to others and tell them what we know and have in Jesus.

Let us pause to prayerfully reflect—

When we come to Jesus wherever we are or even at church gatherings; are we seeking God’s holiness?  Are we consistently yielding to His purification process in us?  Are we ready to rise from the ashes of death and defeat to be purified instead by the lessons of those ashes, be cleansed in the Living Waters, and rise with Him in victory?

“For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:9-14 

Come alive in Christ!

Lord,

Cleanse my heart and wash it clean from all impurities.  Renew my mind and transform my daily responses and actions.  Refresh my soul with your new, tender mercies for today’s part of the journey.  Restore the joy of your salvation that is always at work within me. I love you, Lord, with all my heart, all my mind, and all my soul.  I trust you with my life because you are Life!

In Jesus Name, Amen

By Your spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me
In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

(Elevation Worship, Songwriters: Christopher Brown / Mack Brock / Matthews Thabo Ntele / Steven Furtick / Wade Joye/Resurrecting lyrics © Essential Music Publishing)