Num 19:1-22
The law of the red heifer for purification in its entirety is a prophetic picture of Messiah:
… a red heifer, faultless, with no blemish, and upon which never came a yoke. Num 19:2
Messiah is faultless and without blemish (1 Pet 1:18-19).
And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. Num 19:6
Wood, hyssop, and scarlet together is a sign of Messiah in Torah:
Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood [scarlet] that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts [wood] with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.” Exo 12:21-23
As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the open field. Num 14:6-7
There are only three places in Torah that I could find, where the wood, scarlet, and hyssop appear together. Three, a sign of Messiah in Torah. In each of these three instances (Exo 12, Num 14 and Num 19) Israel was being delivered from death. The ashes of the red heifer were kept to purify someone who had touched death (Num 19:11-18). The blood of the Passover lamb does not allow the angel of death to enter. Messiah is our Passover lamb offered on the wood of the cross. His blood, which ran scarlet, imparts resurrection life, as the living bird was set free cleansing us from a walking death (as leprosy was a fatal disease, but did not kill in one day).
Hyssop appears in a few more places in Scripture connected with purification:
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Psa 51:7
For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. Heb 9:19-22
And the ashes of the red heifer was for purification from sin; Messiah being the perfect purification from sin.
… the ashes of the heifer … shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of sprinkling; it is a purification from sin. Num 19:9
For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Heb 9:13-14
Num 20:1-29
This section of Scripture concludes with a single weak paragraph, introducing a new strong theme:
20:22-29 {s} Death of Aaron
21:1-3 {p} Destruction of the Canaanites of Hormah
That is,
20:22-21:3 {s+p} Death of the high priest followed by victory over enemies.
Messiah Yeshua is our High Priest, and through His death on the cross, He subdued our enemies — sin, death, and the power of the devil — under our feet!
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the record of our violations, that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; and having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a spectacle of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Col 2:13-15
Num 21:1-22:1
The next strong theme of Scripture, following the above is:
21:4-16 {s} Complaint at the Way of the Red Sea
21:17-20 {p} Praise at the Well of Beer
That is,
21:4-20 {s+p} Complaint, then confession + repentance; the bronze serpent; praise.
This is a complete picture of the gospel of grace. The complaints serve to reveal the heart of the old man, the old nature, here foreshadowed by the old generation of unbelief (Heb 3:17-19). But then, when eyes are opened to that unbelief, and it is confessed as sin and repented of, the old man looks to Messiah Yeshua on the cross, and his nature is fundamentally changed. He becomes the new man with a new nature, here foreshadowed by the new generation of belief. The praise serves to reveal the heart of the new man.
The bronze serpent on the pole is a prophetic picture of Messiah Yeshua on the cross. We don’t have to speculate about this as Yeshua Himself taught us:
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Joh 3:14-15
We are used to thinking of the serpent as associated with the devil, the enemy. In fact, the serpent was on the pole, because when Yeshua was on the cross, the sins of the whole world were laid upon Him – the fruit of the serpent. Sin was crucified with Yeshua, and when He was raised to life again, sin stayed dead in the grave. Hallelujah!
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