The Uncleanness of Contact With Death And Its Removal (Numbers 19:10-22).
In view of our earlier analysis of the whole chapter the following section is necessarily chiastic.
a The one who touches the dead to be unclean seven days (Numbers 19:11).
b The application of the ashes on those who have touched the dead (Numbers 19:10-12).
c Judgment on those who refuse the use of the ashes (Numbers 19:13).
d The description of what is unclean (Numbers 19:14-16).
d The application of the ashes to the unclean through the ‘water of uncleanness' (Numbers 19:17-19).
c Judgment on the one who refuses to be cleansed (Numbers 19:20 a).
b Those who have not had the ashes applied to them, and on whom the water of uncleanness has not been sprinkled, are unclean (Numbers 19:20 b).
a Those who touch the water of uncleanness, containing the ashes applied to the one who has touched the dead, are to purify themselves and all who have touched the unclean person are unclean until the evening (Numbers 19:21-22).
We must now consider this in more detail.
“ He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days,”
To come into contact with the dead body of any person was to be unclean for at least seven days. Such was the intensity of the uncleanness that there was no way in which that uncleanness could be removed before the passage of a divinely complete period for its cleansing. And even then it could only be after due process. But once that process was completed the person could feel totally released from its taint.
“ The same shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean. But if he does not purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.”
The person who needed to be cleansed from the defilement of contact with death had to purify himself on the third day by the application of the water of uncleanness. Should he fail to do this he would not become clean on the seventh day (see Numbers 19:19).
“ Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of Yahweh, and that person shall be cut off from Israel, because the water for uncleanness was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet on him.”
The situation was considered to be so serious that to fail to take advantage of such cleansing would make the person liable to the death penalty. By such behaviour they would be defiling the Dwellingplace of Yahweh by introducing permanent death into the camp, and treating death lightly. Death was an enemy that had to be excluded, a disease that had to be eradicated. Of course, if they remained for ever outside the camp it would not matter. There would be no problem. The problem lay with those who were careless with regard to contact with death but thought that they could live among the holy people in the camp which surrounded the dwellingplace of Yahweh. That was not possible.
This ‘cutting off' might be through death or permanent banishment. But usually being cut off denotes death, and it probably therefore does here. It would not, however, presumably be applied to one who remained permanently away from the camp. It should be noted that this is speaking of sin with a high hand, a deliberate refusal to submit to cleansing. It is not speaking of those who innocently were unaware of their need to be cleansed.
“ This is the law when a man dies in a tent. Every one who comes into the tent, and every one who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.”
The taint of uncleanness when a man died affected everyone who came into his tent and everyone who lived there. They lived under the shadow and taint of death for seven days and had to be cleansed.
“ And every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean.”
The uncleanness even extended to any open vessel, any vessel with no ‘lid' on it. The taint of death affected it and what was in it. It permeated everywhere within the tent.
“ And whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.”
The same applied to contact with a dead man as a result of battle, or coming across a dead body and touching it (which presumably any merciful person would do under most circumstances), or even touching the bone of a man, or a grave. All possible contact with human death is involved. It would be a regularly occurring event in the lives of many people. But such was the awfulness of death that it rendered those who came in contact with it as unclean (see introduction to the chapter).
“ And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the purification for sin offering, and running water shall be put to it in a vessel,”
For any rendered unclean the ashes of the purification for sin offering (as described in Numbers 19:1-10) were to be put in a vessel with ‘running water', such as water taken from a spring which was untainted and ‘living'. This water could then be utilised for cleansing. (In this regard we should note that this is the only water which in itself is ever said to have ‘cleansed' anyone, and it cleansed because it contained sacrificial ashes).
“ And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, and on all the vessels, and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touches the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave,”
The process was to be carried out by a clean person, untainted by the taint of death or impurity. That person would take hyssop and dip it into the water and with it sprinkle the tent in which the man had died, all the vessels and persons who had been there, and anyone who touched a bone, or a slain man, or a dead corpse, or a grave.
“ And the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day, and on the seventh day he shall purify him, and he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean in the evening.”
This sprinkling was to be carried out on the third day and on the seventh day. The sprinkling on the seventh day would purify him, but only if he had also been sprinkled on the third day (Numbers 19:12). Then each person sprinkled must wash their clothes, bathe themselves in water and be unclean until the evening. They were, as it were, having a new beginning, arising from their uncleanness and contact with death. That this would be hygienically wise is undoubted, but the main purpose cultically was that the person might feel themselves removed from the grip of death, and that all might know that it was so. Now they could recommence normal life and approach Yahweh in as far as an ordinary person could do so.
“ But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh. The water for uncleanness has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean.”
However, the person who refused cleansing, and thus sinned against Yahweh with a high hand, was to be cut off because he had defiled the Sanctuary of Yahweh (compare Numbers 19:13). He could have no further part in the assembly. He was as one dead. And this was because he had accepted ‘death' by refusing to be cleansed from it. The water of uncleanness had not been sprinkled on him. He was unclean by choice. He would be either excluded or put to death. He had the choice there too (no one would prevent his flight).
“ And it shall be a perpetual statute to them: and he who sprinkles the water for uncleanness shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for uncleanness shall be unclean until the evening. And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean. And the person who touches it shall be unclean until the evening.”
This was to be a perpetual statute for all Israel. Meanwhile the one who had performed the sprinkling must wash his clothes, presumably lest any drop had fallen on them. And anyone actually touched by the water of uncleanness would be unclean until the evening. And whatever was touched by such a person would become unclean, as would anyone who touched what had become unclean. Such was the scrupulousness with which the taint of death should be avoided.
Thus was the taint of the enemy death to be removed from the people of God, so that they might serve the living God without fear. Death was the opposite of all that God wanted for them, and all that God is. This passage is the foundation for Isaiah's teaching that death would one day be swallowed up (Isaiah 25:8). It was unnatural to God's purposes. And it would result in Isaiah's teaching concerning resurrection (Isaiah 26:19). Compare also Paul's description of death as the last enemy which will be abolished (1 Corinthians 15:26). Adam had introduced death into the world by sin. Through the death of His own Son God would remove it for ever. And this was what the sacrifice of the red heifer pointed to (Hebrews 9:13-14). We come to a better cleansing through the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7).
It may be asked why such a procedure was necessary for cleansing from such contact with death. Both theologically and psychologically its effect was profound. It illustrated that death was an enemy, that it was foreign to God. It illustrated the fact that God is the living God to Whom death is abhorrent. It illustrated the fact that God gives life from death. But above all it comforted those involved in the process with the recognition that the death had no power over them. They were freed from it and no longer affected by it. They need not fear it or feel defiled by it. They were once more acceptable to God and free from every taint of it. (It also incidentally helped to prevent disease).
So the first part of Numbers stressed the mobilisation of Israel for the possessing of the land (Chapter s 1-10). The second part has now demonstrated Israel's failure to obey God and enter the land (Chapter s 10-14), and their subsequent wilderness wandering, but with the last part stressing the future that would be theirs once they entered the land. It has thus ended with the promise of life (Chapter s 15-19). The second half, and remainder of the book will outline the preparation and first moves towards again moving forward to possess the land, establishing the hope of life (Numbers 20:1 to Numbers 21:21) and certainty of victory (Chapter s 22-25), while also establishing Israel in Transjordan as a kind of firstfruit of future victory and the final possession of the land. It will end with the final settlement in the land of five outstanding representatives of faithfulness to the covenant, the daughters of Zelophehad (Chapter s 26-36).