Numbers 19

v1-8: The Lord Jesus died, “not only like the bulls and goats at the altar, but also like the red cow outside the camp.” The cow was unblemished, pointing to Christ’s “spotless purity and sinless perfection,” and it had never been yoked, because it “was a type of the willing sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.”

v9-10: The ashes of the cow cleansed the water of purification. These “ashes were sufficient for all the people” even “for the foreigners who lived among them.” This reminds us that “there is enough power in the blood of Christ for all who repent and believe the Gospel, for every Israelite, and not only for their sins but also for the sins of the whole world.”

v11-22: When God’s people came into contact with death, they became unclean, but this “defilement contracted was only ceremonial.” It was when they neglected “the prescribed cleansing,” that the ceremonial uncleanness turned into “moral guilt.” Our sin makes us unclean and “separates us from God, but it is our uncleanness and our not purifying ourselves that will separate us from him forever.”

Numbers 20

v1-13: “God is able as ever to supply his people with good things, even in their greatest difficulties and when the immediate circumstances seem tough.”

v14-21: It is not a strange to find that the “reasonable requests” we make “are denied by people who are unreasonable.”

v22-29: “Aaron must not enter Canaan… to show that the Levitical priesthood could make nothing perfect.” Only a better priesthood can bring God’s people into the heavenly Canaan, and that is “the priesthood of Christ, because it is undefiled, is unchangeable and will last forever.”