The Water for Impurity Cleanses us from the Effect of Death resulting from Rebellion

This week in our deeper study, our Crystallization-study, of the book of Numbers we come to Num. 19, a record concerning the water for impurity, which was not for sin but for dealing with the impurity of death.

Num. 19 is a chapter that is not familiar to many Christians, and most Bible readers emphasize the red heifer when they come to this chapter; but the real subject is the water for impurity.

The red heifer is the primary component that goes into the water, but the subject is the water sprinkled for impurity.

The context of this chapter is very important; first, this chapter is in the book of Numbers, which means that it is directly related to the main thought and subject of this book.

The main thought of Numbers is that God wants to form His people into an army and lead them to take the land He has promised them, and the build them up as His dwelling place; the water for impurity is related to this.

Secondly, this chapter is in the middle part of Numbers; this book has three sections – first being formed into an army, then journeying, and then fighting, and ch. 19 is in the section on journeying.

The journeying of the children of Israel through the wilderness involved failures and rebellion. After being formed into an army and journeying toward the goal, being led by the Lord, there will be failures and rebellion; this should not shock us.

There are at least five major rebellions in Numbers, and ch. 19 comes after five chapters that detail these rebellion, beginning with the mildest rebellion – murmuring, and culminating with the most severe rebellion – Korah’s rebellion, a direct challenge against God’s authority.

We need to be enlightened not to murmur, for this opens the door to a greater rebellion.

We may not consider that murmuring is rebellion, for we murmur inside our being and we don’t rebel, but murmuring leads to further rebellion, and the result of rebellion is death.

In the type in Numbers it was physical death, and in reality there’s spiritual death. In the rebellion of Korah we know that 250 have perished, but even before the Lord came in to touch this situation, it says that in one day 14.700 people perished; so there was death everywhere in the camp of Israel.

This death affected everyone, for wherever you went, there were dead bodies, graves, and bones. When there’s a rebellion and death comes in, everyone is affected; we may say that only those who rebel should be touched by death, but actually that’s not what the Bible teaches and this is not our experience.

Whenever a rebellion comes in, death comes into the entire camp, and everyone is affected by death. Even those who are clean are affected by death, and even those who applied the water for impurity to others became unclean; everyone is affected by the death as a result of rebellion.

In such a context there’s something called, the water for impurity; what does this water deal with? It deals with the impurity that comes from contacting death. When we contact death in any form, we become defiled and impure, and there has to be something that takes care of that situation.

We may have thought that the blood takes care of this impurity, but according to the Bible it’s not the blood but it is this water, the water for impurity, that is the special remedy for death, for it cleanses us from the defilement of death that results from rebellion.

Death is more Defiling in God’s eyes than Sin; We should Avoid Spiritual Death

Numbers chapter 19, a very special in the Old Testament, is a record concerning the water for impurity; the impurity in this chapter doesn’t refer to sin but to death (see Num. 19:11, 13-16).

We all understand and know that sin is impure, and touching something sinful would cause us to be impure; but we need to realise that impurity related to death is much more serious.

Death issues from sin, and sin is the root of death (Rom. 5:12); sin and death are not exactly the same thing, rather, death is more defiling in the eyes of God than sin (see Lev. 11:24-25; Num. 6:6-7, 9).

Why does God hate death more than sin? We don’t know for sure, but at least in part, we see that death is the result of sin, so in death sin has prevailed and reached it goal, producing death, so God hates death more than He hates sin, and in His eyes the defilement from death is greater than the defilement of sin.

In Lev. 11 we see the defilement of death and to deal with it; here touching death is a matter of what kind of people we contact, as signified by the clean and unclean animals.

If we touch an unclean animal, we become unclean; if we touch the carcass of one of the unclean animals, we are unclean until the evening – less than one day.

But in Num. 19 it is different; it takes seven days to be cleansed, for the dealing in Num. 19 is not with any common sin but with rebellion, which is a sin not just against God’s righteousness and holiness, but a sin against God’s economy, His authority, and His administration.

The defilement from this kind of sin doesn’t get cleansed in a simple way or in a quick way. Death is detestable and abominable; God hates death more than sin, and in His eyes, death is more defiling than sin.

The most hateful things in the eyes of God is death; in God’s eyes death is an ugly, abominable thing, and we should detest it. The death we speak of here is mainly spiritual death; we need to avoid spiritual death (Rev. 3:1-2; Rom. 5:12, 14).

In the type in the Old Testament there was physical death, and the reality in our Christian experience and especially in our church life, we need to avoid spiritual death. It is our responsibility to avoid it; we will encounter it, but we need to avoid it.

The source of spiritual death in the universe is Satan, as signified by the tree of knowledge of good and evil; this is where spiritual death originated. Death is more complicated than sin; sin is simple – it’s just sin, but death has good, evil, knowledge, and death all bundled together in it.

So it is easy to be confused when you encounter death, for some of it looks good, some looks evil, some is related to knowledge, and some is death – and all of it has its source in Satan, the source of spiritual death.

Spiritual death is mainly spread by words, either spoken words or written words. The way that Satan initially imparted spiritual death was through his words to Eve; Eve listened to some words, and death came into the human race.

Words transmit spiritual death, and spoken and written words can impart death to others; so we should be careful what we read and listen to, for spiritual life can be imparted through the word of God and the ministry, but spiritual death can be imparted through certain kind of speaking and writing. Oh Lord Jesus!

Spiritual death is more prevailing today on earth more than physical death; spiritual death is everywhere – not only in worldly and sinful places but even in the most moral, ethical places.

Lord Jesus, we love You, we love life, and we love being in the realm of life and enjoying You as life. We want to stay away from death and consider spiritual death as the most defiling thing, just as You do. Oh Lord, what about our words, both those spoken and those written? Lord, what about what we read and listen to? Save us from listening to words of death and from reading words that impart death. May we remain in the realm of life and enjoy the tree of life, and may we stay away from spiritual death, which is so prevailing on earth today!

The Water for Impurity Cleanses from the Effect of Death resulting from the Sin of Rebellion

Because of the sin of rebellion in Num. 11-14 and 16, death became prevailing among the children of Israel (v. 49). These chapters detail one rebellion after another, and then in ch. 19 we have the water for impurity; ch. 20 again records another rebellion.

We should not be shocked when rebellion happens in the church life; we should not be surprised that rebellion may take place even in the church life in the Lord’s recovery.

These things happen all the time, and the fact that they happen doesn’t prove that it is not the church life but that this IS the church life – and the book of Numbers backs this up!

When the Lord is moving, when He is raising up an army to fight with Him and journey with Him on earth so that He may gain the earth, this is a direct threat to His enemy, and of course that the enemy will constantly look for ways to use someone as a means and channel for rebellion.

We do not want to be such ones, but the truth is that this happens, so it shouldn’t surprise us. And when rebellion happens, death comes in; spiritual death affects everyone, even those who were not involved in the rebellion.

The good news is that there’s a way to be cleansed from the effect of death resulting from the sin of rebellion.

Even though by the Lord’s mercy we may not be involved in rebellion, yet, having passed through a rebellion, the effect of being around death is defiling.

After the rebellion of the children of Israel in Num. 16 and as a result of God’s judgement, the entire population of Israel was under the effect of death (v. 49).

In Num. 16 we see that the rebellion that started with murmuring got increasingly worse, and Korah and those who followed him rose against God’s deputy authority; the result was that death was everywhere.

Even those who were clean, who had nothing to do with rebellion, and even those who handled the ashes that became the ingredient of the water for impurity, they all became defiled. Those who sprinkled others with the water for impurity became defiled also.

When rebellion and death comes into the church life, it affects everybody, and nobody is exempt from that. The filthiness of death had spread everywhere, and the people were in a situation of impurity.

In Num. 19 therefore God told His people to prepare the water for impurity with the ashes of a red heifer so that they might use the water to remove the filthiness of death with which they had been affected.

Hallelujah, there is something that can remove the defilement of death – there’s a particular type of Christ, the water for impurity, and this can cleanse us from the defilement and effect of death resulting from the sin of rebellion.

Only the working of Christ’s redemption, through His dignified and humbled humanity, with His death and the Spirit of His resurrection, can heal and cleanse our situation of death. Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, by Your mercy and grace we want to be formed into the army that You desire to have on earth to fight for Your interest and journey with You so that You may regain the earth. Oh Lord, save us from rebelling against You; may we cooperate with You to deal with rebellion in our being. May we take You, Lord, as the water for impurity, and may we be cleansed from any defilement of death resulting from the sin of rebellion. Amen, Lord Jesus, it is only the working of Your redemption, through Your dignified and humbled humanity, with Your death and the Spirit of Your resurrection that can heal and cleanse our situation of death!

This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Apa pentru impuritate ne curăță de efectul morții care rezultă din răzvrătire.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Numbers, msg. 28 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 5, The Water for Impurity.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # How wonderful redemption is, / My gracious Lord, in Thee! / Not seen, nor heard, nor e’er conceived / What Thou hast done for me! / Thou art divine, mysterious, / Beyond my grandest phrase! / Redemption is so marvellous, / Beyond all pow’r to praise! (Hymns #116)
  # As for Thy will for me, / I do not know it well; / I substitute my own / And often would rebel. / Oh, may Thy living light, Lord, / Scatter all my night, Lord, / And everything make bright, Lord, / For this I pray to Thee. (Hymns #426)
  # For God to gain His army, priesthood, and dwelling place, / Defilement must be dealt with, that to Him we’d be chaste. (Song on, Christ in Numbers)