November 4, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Numbers and 1 Corinthians? Here’s today’s reading:
Numbers 19 (NIV)
The Water of Cleansing
1 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.……Continue Reading
This account reminds me of the defiling nature of sin. Back in the old testament days, the workings atoned, it was physical – the concept of clean and unclean. Today, the same concept applies, though not physically. If we are careless about how we deal with sin in our lives, it will have a way of defiling us.
Apart from the obvious public health and safety issues associated with handling a dead animal or human body I suppose there is much that God is saying to us figuratively as well taking such time with these issues. Obviously the time of unclean is particularly shorter when it was an animal (one day) compared to a humen (seven days) because typically something that killed an animal would not kill us and vice versa. But certainly death and sin are continually corralated in the Bible and there was much work to be done in order to be considered “clean” again after touching a dead body (or to be rid of sin/death). Of course this was before the work Jesus did on the cross but it still shows us the conscious effort we must make to acknowledge our our sin, turn from that sin, and work to follow God avoiding sin again in our future. Sometimes I read these chapters and right off the bat they don’t seem relevant to us today but the more I read them the more I see how much we learn about our own hearts and minds today by seeing these physical rituals they did then.
Numbers 19 and 20
Numbers 19. Pray very hard for our election. Will God`s grace prevail and the United States become again a nation of blessings from God, or will God allow evil to continue? May God cause a revival in our nation to come back to Him. 2 Chronicles 7:14 {If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.} May we seek His face.
Number 19
Numbers 19
I am always amazed at the various things that the law had to address as God sought to protect the Israelites from sin and disease as well as create awareness and appreciation of various things. It makes sense that interaction with a dead body would cause pause and recognize the contamination it could bring. Also fascinating is the means that cleansing was accomplished with this heifer being burned and the ashes being used in the cleansing. It all points to the care and concern that God had for His people and the wisdom He has to know what they needed to be right in many facets of life.
The sacrifice of a spotless red heifer for ashes for the water of purification.
Numbers 19