Num 19:2, "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. 
Once again, we are reading a chapter which contains elements that may need more explanation for our understanding. As we have done before, we will turn to by Dr. Ronald B. Allen in his writing on the Book of Numbers contained in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. 
If you will continue to bear with me once more, we will be using extensive quotations along with scripture in order to gain a better sense of how the grace of God was in such evidence in the manner in which He put His mercy and His forgiveness and His holiness at the forefront of His people’s experience in the testimony and the comportment of their lives.
We begin with the following quote giving illumination as to the very basis of this chapter dealing with the red heifer. We should recognize the reason that it resonates with our reverence for God.
Quote, The words used to describe the heifer are familiar in the context of sacrificial worship: the heifer was to be perfect without defect, and unused, i.e., one that has not been used as a draft animal with a yoke about its neck. As in all the legislation respecting the use of animals in worship, God will accept no culls. The tendency of people presented with commands to kill animals in ritual worship would be to use that occasion to get rid of animals that are not worth the demands of their feed and care. But the demands of the Lord are quite specific: only the very finest animals, ones that ordinarily would be used for the improvement of the herd, are acceptable for Him. This means a person had to have sufficient faith to believe that if one used his finest animals for sacrifice, the other animals would still improve the herd and flock – or that it would not matter, because obedience was more important than anything else. End Quote.
The key at this point was that God required the people to offer the best of the heifers in obedience unto Him and in regard for Who He was. It would not do to bring just any old cow to be slaughtered in the manner described. This mattered because the cleansing would be of those things that would prevent further communication and fellowship with the Most Holy Lord God. In veneration for that which was ordained by Him, only the most exact and defined red heifer would be sufficient for this ritualistic purification process. 
As detailed in many of the scriptures that we read, when God required such obedience to His ordinances of appropriate animals to fulfill the needs of the sacrifices, and the offerings, and the ritual practices, they were to be exactly as per His requirements and His stipulations. For example, as in Ex 12:5. Ex 12:5, 'Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 
   	This was so precise and specific that God reinforced it many times. Consider what was relayed in Lev 22, verses 20-22. Lev Chapter 22, verses 20-22, 'Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it will not be accepted for you. 'And when a man offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill a special vow, or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it. 'Those that are blind or fractured or maimed or having a running sore or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord, nor make of them an offering by fire on the altar to the Lord. 
	However, as is sadly the case so often with humanity, the people began to disregard the holiness and the awesomeness of God. The Prophet Malachi, in Mal 1:12-14, gave voice to the protest of God against the nation of His choosing in their slovenness and their absolute disregard for the purity and the majesty and the honor of God.     
Mal 1:12-14, "But you are profaning it, in that you say, 'The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised.' "You also say, 'My, how tiresome it is!' And you disdainfully sniff at it," says the Lord of hosts, "and you bring what was taken by robbery, and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your hand?" says the Lord. "But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock, and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King," says the Lord of hosts, "and My name is feared among the nations." 
Whenever we are dealing with the Lord, we must always and constantly keep at the forefront of our understanding and our consideration with Whom we are in communion. We are not just in discourse with another human being. We are not just working around a relationship with the thought of gaining the greatest reward for the least possible expenditure of resources. We are offering ourselves to the plan and the purpose and the glory of the Lord God, Almighty, the Creator of the heavens in all their vastness. He is the Creator of the earth, filled with every evidence of His mighty hand in operation.
As such, it would be exceptionally wise on our part to not try to play Him as we do each other. We should never bring Him anything less than the very finest of our sacrifices of worship and adoration and love. It would show infinite wisdom on our part to regard Him with all fear and with utmost reverence and to not try to short cut or to minimize our estimation of Him. We should be bringing the very best of all that we have and are to worship Him!
When He tells us to do something and how to do it, we should not question His intentions or His veracity. We should comply, not in resignation, but in delight to do His bidding as the means of honoring Him for the fact of Who He is and what He has done through the incomprehensible gift of His Only Begotten Son. 
As but one expression of our heartfelt earnestness before God, would that we kept this focus in mind each time we gather together in worship and praise. Let our estimation of God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be at the forefront of our participation in the communion table so as to not to defile it or to profane it. Neither should we ever allow it to become merely custom and ritual. Rather it should be earnestly enthralling and of incalculable value each time we partake together in remembrance of His so great love to us!
   	Returning to this morning’s reading, let us now look at the significance of the red heifer in comparison to those animals which were specifically for sacrificial purposes. This is in order to highlight the fact that this was the means of common cleansing rather than a sacrificial event of redemption. It was the manner in which the general populace could maintain an honorable relationship with God when they had become unclean through the general happenstances of life. 
Rather than atonement for sin and for acts which required the covering of the sacrificial actions of the priests within the Tent of Meeting, this procedure of the common cleansing of everyday actions and situations was necessary for those so affected to know that God had made a way, through His grace for them to have His good pleasure in their lives. That is why this was such a different type of making available the means to deal with God’s grace and mercy in the daily details of humans dealing with the practical effects of physical life and death.
Quote, There are many things that are quite unfamiliar to sacrificial ritual in this text. First, the color of the heifer is important. It was to be red, presumably because of the color of blood. In the standard sacrifices of Leviticus 1-9, there is no mention of the color of the animal that is to be offered; the only requirements are in configuration and perfection.
	The factor that makes this periscope unique is that the animal involved is not a sacrificial beast. This is a cow, not a bull (contrast Lev 1:3, “a male without defect”). It is to be slaughtered, not sacrificed; and it is to be killed outside the camp, not at the holy altar. In contrast to the blood of sacrificial animals that is sprinkled against the holy altar on all sides…, some of the blood of the heifer is to be sprinkled from the priest’s finger seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting….
	Instead of the separation of hide and offal from the meat and the fat of the sacrificial victim, as in the case of the sin offering …, the heifer was to remain intact while it was burned …. The fire of the holocaust was to be augmented with cedar, hyssop, and scarlet stuff (perhaps scarlet-colored wool). These elements were associated in the Hebrew mind with cleansing properties …. They help us see the cleansing association that the resultant ashes are to have in the Hebrew consciousness. End Quote.
	As an interjection at this point, please remember the grace and the mercy of God that was evidenced in the cleansing of those struck with leprosy, as we have previously considered. The Lord opened up the means whereby one who was so filthy and ragged in his or her physical body, riddled with sores and illness and fetid odors could be restored to his or her community. Rather than just being discarded as worthless and an anathema to society, the Lord, in Lev 14, verses 2-7, provided an avenue for the leprous to once again be brought into the home and the family and the community. God’s grace and mercy stipulated that the one in whom such physical illness had been healed could also experience social cleansing as well. 
Lev 14:2-7, "This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Now he shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out to the outside of the camp. Thus the priest shall look, and if the infection of leprosy has been healed in the leper, then the priest shall give orders to take two live clean birds and cedar wood and a scarlet string and hyssop for the one who is to be cleansed. The priest shall also give orders to slay the one bird in an earthenware vessel over running water. As for the live bird, he shall take it, together with the cedar wood and the scarlet string and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was slain over the running water. He shall then sprinkle seven times the one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the live bird go free over the open field.
	As was pointed out, the Hebrew mind was enabled to understand the provision of God through such a manner of this cleansing action. The whole idea of the ashes of the red heifer mixed with water and then sprinkled on the one who was in need of cleansing was neither foreign nor strange. It merely showed the means by which Jehovah would return one so cleansed into full communion with Himself and with His people. 
In continuation of our morning’s concluding quote, then - It is primarily the ashes of the red heifer…that are the focus of this act, for they will be used in the ritual of the waters of cleansing. It is striking that the animal is to be burned in its entirety – “hide, flesh, blood and offal”…. The burning of the beast with its blood and offal is unprecedented in the OT. The normal pattern for the sacrifice of the burnt offering is given in Leviticus 1:3-9. ( 'If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it, a male without defect; he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. 'And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf. 'And he shall slay the young bull before the Lord; and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall offer up the blood and sprinkle the blood around on the altar that is at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 'He shall then skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. 'And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. 'Then Aaron's sons, the priests, shall arrange the pieces, the head, and the suet over the wood which is on the fire that is on the altar. 'Its entrails, however, and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer up in smoke all of it on the altar for a burnt offering, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord.) 
Distinctives from the killing of the red heifer are several: (1) the burnt offering was to be a male; (2) the animal was to be presented at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting; (3) the priest was to place his hand on it in identification of the act of atonement; (4) the animal was to be sacrificed at the altar; (5) the blood was to be sprinkled on the altar, not burned with the animal; (6) the animal was to be skinned and cut in pieces; (7) special attention was to be given to burning the head and the fat; (8) the various parts were to be cleansed and washed before being burned. 
	In nearly every respect the killing of the red heifer is distinct: this was a female that was taken outside the camp to be killed; the priest had to be present, but there was no identification made with it; a bit of blood was sprinkled from the priest’s finger toward the tabernacle seven times; but the rest of the animal was to be burned in its entirety, without the draining of the blood or the cleansing of its offal. End Quote.    
	As is evident, the differences in the way in which the people were instructed to use the ashes of the red heifer versus the sacrificial sacraments of the priestly duties were quite marked and dissimilar. The entire process was one which could be done as often or as infrequently as the situation required. It was generally performed on a yearly basis, but if the ashes were exhausted within a year, it could be repeated in order for the people to have a release from those common incidental reasons for this need of cleansing. It was not limited to just a specific time each year, but available on the basis of necessity and the frequency of the requirements to clean off the dirt of the daily trek of life on this earth. 
	Next week, Lord willing, we will finish our dealing with this red heifer in line with how it still points to the need for the covering of the blood of Jesus. His grace and His mercy and the working power of His blood serves to cover so much more than the grossness of our sin and shame. He is effectively dealing with all the dirt and the uncleanness of the daily issues of this life in the manner which will bring glory to His name and continual restoration to our living fellowship with the Lord. So be it!
"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. Amen.

					
This morning’s benediction is Ps 9:1+2. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Thy wonders. I will be glad and exult in Thee; I will sing praise to Thy name, O Most High. Amen.