If you have ever cleaned out a wood stove, you know that ashes can make you pretty dirty, but our ancestors needed ashes to get clean. The ashes were mixed with water to make lye, a necessary ingredient of homemade soap. In today’s Scripture, we read about ashes and water being used for cleansing as well.
The rebellion that began earlier now takes a new form as 250 leaders challenge Moses’ leadership and Aaron’s priesthood. Under God’s direction, Moses calls upon the leaders to each offer incense, along with Aaron, to see which offering God will honor. The Lord demonstrates with earthquake and fire that he has chosen Aaron. When the people continue to grumble, God sends a plague that is only stopped by Moses’ intercession. From this we see the value of interceding for loved ones who are in rebellion against God.
God shows through the miraculous budding of Aaron’s rod that only he and his descendants may serve as priests, and then he gives Moses more of the laws governing sacrifices. Among them is a law about using ashes left from the burning of a red heifer being mixed with water to make a cleansing solution to purify those who had been in contact with the dead. This foreshadows the sacrifice of Jesus to deliver those who believe in him from death by purifying them from sin. Just as the heifer was to be sacrificed “outside the camp,” so Christ was crucified outside the city and considered unclean so that we might be cleansed (See Heb. 13:11–12).
Soap made with lye may be useful for cleansing our hands, but only the blood of Jesus can cleanse our hearts from sin. It is the prayer of confession that, like water with soap, will make that cleaning possible. God promises that when we confess, he will be faithful to forgive and cleanse us because of the sacrifice of his Son, but when we hesitate to confess our sin, we cannot experience his forgiveness (I John 1:9–10). What sins do you need to confess today so that you might be cleansed?
“What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!” (Robert Lowry)
Jim Jensen
Extended Scripture: Numbers 16–19
