191 Then 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 . 3 'You shall give it to Eleazar the priest , and it shall be brought outside e e the camp and be slaughtered in his presence . 4 'Next 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 . 5 'Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight ; its hide and its flesh and its blood , with its refuse , shall be burned . 6 'The priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer . 7 'The 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 . 8 'The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water , and shall be unclean until evening . 9 'Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside e 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 . 10 'The 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 19:1-10
Commentary on Numbers 19:1-10
(Read Numbers 19:1-10)
The heifer was to be wholly burned. This typified the painful sufferings of our Lord Jesus, both in soul and body, as a sacrifice made by fire, to satisfy God's justice for man's sin. These ashes are said to be laid up as a purification for sin, because, though they were only to purify from ceremonial uncleanness, yet they were a type of that purification for sin which our Lord Jesus made by his death. The blood of Christ is laid up for us in the word and sacraments, as a fountain of merit, to which by faith we may have constant recourse, for cleansing our consciences.