Ordinance of the Red Heifer
1Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2“This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed. 3You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. 4Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. 6The priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer. 7The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until evening. 9Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin. 10The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the alien who sojourns among them.
11‘The one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days. 12That one shall purify himself from uncleanness with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. 13Anyone who touches a corpse, the body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.
14‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days. 15Every open vessel, which has no covering tied down on it, shall be unclean. 16Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days. 17Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt purification from sin and flowing water shall be added to them in a vessel. 18A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally or the grave. 19Then 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 from uncleanness, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening.
20‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean. 21So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. 22Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’ ”
37‘Thus says the Lord God, “This also I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them: I will increase their men like a flock. 38Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so will the waste cities be filled with flocks of men. Then they will know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”
23Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 26Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
1) Why is death defilement so serious to יהוה?
2) How does cleansing foreshadow spiritual rebirth?
3) What keeps our service pure before Him?
PSALM 142
Prayer for Help in Trouble.
Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.
1I cry aloud with my voice to the Lord;
I make supplication with my voice to the Lord.
2I pour out my complaint before Him;
I declare my trouble before Him.
3When my spirit was overwhelmed within me,
You knew my path.
In the way where I walk
They have hidden a trap for me.
4Look to the right and see;
For there is no one who regards me;
There is no escape for me;
No one cares for my soul.
5I cried out to You, O Lord;
I said, “You are my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
6Give heed to my cry,
For I am brought very low;
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are too strong for me.
7Bring my soul out of prison,
So that I may give thanks to Your name;
The righteous will surround me,
For You will deal bountifully with me.”
Chambers of the Temple
1Then he brought me out into the outer court, the way toward the north; and he brought me to the chamber which was opposite the separate area and opposite the building toward the north. 2Along the length, which was a hundred cubits, was the north door; the width was fifty cubits. 3Opposite the twenty cubits which belonged to the inner court, and opposite the pavement which belonged to the outer court, was gallery corresponding to gallery in three stories. 4Before the chambers was an inner walk ten cubits wide, a way of one hundred cubits; and their openings were on the north. 5Now the upper chambers were smaller because the galleries took more space away from them than from the lower and middle ones in the building. 6For they were in three stories and had no pillars like the pillars of the courts; therefore the upper chambers were set back from the ground upward, more than the lower and middle ones. 7As for the outer wall by the side of the chambers, toward the outer court facing the chambers, its length was fifty cubits. 8For the length of the chambers which were in the outer court was fifty cubits; and behold, the length of those facing the temple was a hundred cubits. 9Below these chambers was the entrance on the east side, as one enters them from the outer court.
10In the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, facing the separate area and facing the building, there were chambers. 11The way in front of them was like the appearance of the chambers which were on the north, according to their length so was their width, and all their exits were both according to their arrangements and openings. 12Corresponding to the openings of the chambers which were toward the south was an opening at the head of the way, the way in front of the wall toward the east, as one enters them.
13Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the separate area, they are the holy chambers where the priests who are near to the Lord shall eat the most holy things. There they shall lay the most holy things, the grain offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering; for the place is holy. 14When the priests enter, then they shall not go out into the outer court from the sanctuary without laying there their garments in which they minister, for they are holy. They shall put on other garments; then they shall approach that which is for the people.”
15Now when he had finished measuring the inner house, he brought me out by the way of the gate which faced toward the east and measured it all around. 16He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds by the measuring reed. 17He measured on the north side five hundred reeds by the measuring reed. 18On the south side he measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 19He turned to the west side and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 20He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall all around, the length five hundred and the width five hundred, to divide between the holy and the profane.
Number of Those Returning
1Now these are the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city. 2These came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum and Baanah.
The number of the men of the people of Israel: 3the sons of Parosh, 2,172; 4the sons of Shephatiah, 372; 5the sons of Arah, 775; 6the sons of Pahath-moab of the sons of Jeshua and Joab, 2,812; 7the sons of Elam, 1,254; 8the sons of Zattu, 945; 9the sons of Zaccai, 760; 10the sons of Bani, 642; 11the sons of Bebai, 623; 12the sons of Azgad, 1,222; 13the sons of Adonikam, 666; 14the sons of Bigvai, 2,056; 15the sons of Adin, 454; 16the sons of Ater of Hezekiah, 98; 17the sons of Bezai, 323; 18the sons of Jorah, 112; 19the sons of Hashum, 223; 20the sons of Gibbar, 95; 21the men of Bethlehem, 123; 22the men of Netophah, 56; 23the men of Anathoth, 128; 24the sons of Azmaveth, 42; 25the sons of Kiriath-arim, Chephirah and Beeroth, 743; 26the sons of Ramah and Geba, 621; 27the men of Michmas, 122; 28the men of Bethel and Ai, 223; 29the sons of Nebo, 52; 30the sons of Magbish, 156; 31the sons of the other Elam, 1,254; 32the sons of Harim, 320; 33the sons of Lod, Hadid and Ono, 725; 34the men of Jericho, 345; 35the sons of Senaah, 3,630.
Priests Returning
36The priests: the sons of Jedaiah of the house of Jeshua, 973; 37the sons of Immer, 1,052; 38the sons of Pashhur, 1,247; 39the sons of Harim, 1,017.
Levites Returning
40The Levites: the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodaviah, 74. 41The singers: the sons of Asaph, 128. 42The sons of the gatekeepers: the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, the sons of Shobai, in all 139.
43The temple servants: the sons of Ziha, the sons of Hasupha, the sons of Tabbaoth, 44the sons of Keros, the sons of Siaha, the sons of Padon,