The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 265

evil at all, bnt rather the welcome riddance of the soul from a burdensome and unfit companion-was not learned from the word of God. The Bible teaches us to regard the body as the fitting dwelling-place of the soul, and necessary to the completeness of our nature. That separation of body and soul which takes place in death it teaches us to regard as penal. Death, accordingly, is the awful effect and memo:ial ?f ~in, and cont.act with. the dead causes defilement. Blessed be God, the gospel mn~es ,!IS to look on n bnghter scen.e. I£ the law a_dmoni~hed men that the wages of sm 1~ denth, the go~p!l bears w_1tness that God m Cl.mst offers to us a gift of eternal life. To say this 1s i:iot to dts}?arage !he law. Bnght objects show best on a dark ground. _The gospel 1a app!"ec~at;ed rightly by those only who have laid to heart the teachmgs of the law. Still 1t 1s not the dark ground that we are invited to gaze upon so much as the bright object to whose beauty it serves for a foil. Th& relation between the law we have been considering nnd the grace of Christ is strikingly seen in the story of the raising of Jairus's daughter, and of the widow's son at Nain. In both instances Christ was careful to touch the dead body; and in both instances the effect immediately wrought proclaimed the intention of the act. From the dead there went out no real defiling influence on the Lord. On the contrary, from him there went forth power to raise the dead. In Christ grace reigns through 1ighteousness unto life; he 1s the Conqueror of death.-B. Vera. 1-22.-The water of purificatwn, and its U/IS0'/18. The extreme difficulty of applying the details of tltls chapter to the spiritual truths of which they were 11 shadow forbids ua attempting more than a general application of the narrative. L Gn.EAT c.uui: WAS NEED.ED IN PROVIDING THIS BIN OFFERING (for 80 it ia called in vers. 9, 17). There were precepts as to the victim's sex, age, colour, freedom from blemish, and from compulsory fo.bour. There were further minute requirements as to the method of killing and burning. The animal, first killed as a sacrifice, was to be utterly consumed. No ordinary pure water, but water impregnated with ashes, might serve as a medium of purification. These typical facts are applicable to the means of purification provided in the gospel. Christ was no ordinary sacrifice, but "without blemish," '' separate from sinners," voluntary (John x. 18), appointed to death in a particular manner (ibid. xii. 32, 33) ; a complete sacrifice, vicarious, for all the congregation (1 Tim. iL 6; I John ii. 2), in order that God might thus provide the means of complete purification (Heb. ix. 13, 14). II. DEFILEMENT WAS INCURRED IN THE PURIFYING PR0CE!lS. This was shown in varions ways. The heifer was not killed before the altar, but outside the camp. The high priest was to have nothing to do with it, nor was even Eleazar to kill ii himself. The blood was not brought into the tabernacle, but sprinkled at n distance1 in the direction of it. The priest that sprinkled the blood and burnt the cedar wooei was defiled. The man that burned the carcase was defiled. The man, ceremonially clean, who collected the ashes became unclean. Even the "clean" man who sprinkled the unclean with the purifying water became himself unclean. Thus God seeks by type and symbol, "line upon line," to impress on us the truth that sin is "exceeding sinful." And we are reminded that even our sinless Priest and Sacrifice needed to be "made sin " for us in order that we might be cleansed from all un. righteousness and made "the righteousness of God in him." III. THE PURIFICATION PROVIDED WAS IN PERPETUAL DEMAND. II Deuths oft" compelled frequent contact with the dead. A corpse, even a bone or a grave, was sufficient to cause defilement. .A.a death is the penalty of sin, in this way too God taught 1he defiling effect of sin, and therefore the need of perpetual purifications (Heb. L 1, 2). These are still needed even by Christiane who have been justified and have exercised "repentance from dead works " (John xiii. 10; Heb. vi. I). Thus we learn-I. The fearfully polluting charncter of sin. Its contagion spreads to all who are susceptible. It exerts its baneful effects on that part of the creation incapable of guilt (Rom. viii. 20-22), and even on the sinless Son of God when he comes into contact with it ae a Saviour (lea. !iii. 5, 6; 1 Pet. ii. 24, &c.). 2. The mysterious method of purification. Some of these ceremonies are "hard to be under- stood," and we have some difficulty in knowing exactly how to apply them to the truths respecting spiritual purification in the gospel. Just so in "the mystery of OH. XIX. 1-22.J THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 249