THE CEDAR-WOOD, AND THE SCARLET, AND THE HYSSOP
Paul A Gray
Leviticus 14: 1-23
Numbers 19: 1-10
It says in 1 Corinthians 2: 13-15, “which also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him; and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned; but the spiritual discerns all things, and he is discerned of no one”.
Spiritual things are conveyed by spiritual means. Perhaps your initial reaction to the scriptures read is that they are somewhat obscure. If we just read them as historical records of rules that were given to Israel in the past, then they would indeed be obscure, but they have a meaning for us. The simplest way I can explain that is to say that these scriptures that we have read in Leviticus and Numbers relate to the Lord Jesus, and I hope to bring that out.
What led me to them was the references in Leviticus and Numbers to the cedar-wood and the scarlet and the hyssop. In Leviticus they are taken, and they are dipped in the blood. And in Numbers, they are cast into the burning. So, what do they mean and why are they treated differently in each case?
I first seek to set out briefly what the scripture in Leviticus suggests. It tells us in Mark 1: 40-41 that a leper came to Jesus “beseeching him, and falling on his knees to him, and saying to him, “If thou wilt thou canst cleanse me. But Jesus, moved with compassion, having stretched out his hand, touched him, and says to him, I will, be thou cleansed. And as he spoke straightway the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed”. This section in Leviticus 14 is the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. And there was a man who was a leper who came to Jesus, and it says Jesus touched him, and it says that he was cleansed.
Now you can come to Jesus to be cleansed from your sins. That is the first thing that is important to understand. The leper in Mark’s gospel had been part of Israel, and then he had become a leper and had become an outcast because of his condition. The man that is contemplated in Leviticus 14 is in the same situation. He is currently outside the camp, but he was an Israelite.
We can apply this chapter to the gospel, but it also applies to the recovery of a believer. It can apply to us in our own soul history without others necessarily knowing about it because, as believers, there are times when we too need to be recovered. And the path to recovery is through the finished work of Jesus and our acceptance of it. But it says, “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing”. There is not another way back, and there is no way for you to come into salvation except by believing in the Lord Jesus and in His finished work and in His precious shed blood. There is not an alternative. This is the way, and Jesus is also the way back if we have failed.
It says of the leper in Mark 1 that the Lord touched him, and it says in the note b that He touched him freely. Nobody wished to come into contact with lepers in these days because they were regarded as highly contagious. It was thought that they would affect anyone who touched them. And yet here was Someone, the Lord Jesus, who was willing not just to touch the leper but to touch him freely. How would that man feel? He was an outcast. Indeed, if anyone approached him he would have to tell them he was unclean and they would keep their distance. And here is a Man who does not keep His distance, but who comes near and touches him. Jesus touches him freely and is not affected by the leprosy because He Himself was sinless.
We may think of situations when perhaps there are believers, brethren, who might have gone away. Is our attitude towards them that they are simply to be shunned and ignored? We must be separate from what is sinful; there is no question about that. But is there something that can be extended to them by the way of the healing touch of the Lord Jesus? It is brought to this man by the priest outside the camp. It is brought to him where he is, where he needs it. Now, he cannot come back into the camp until matters are settled, but the priest is able to come to him where he is and to bring him what he needs.
And the sore of leprosy is found to be healed; so the Lord has been working and the priest takes account of that. Then the priest commands to take for him that is to be cleansed these two clean living birds and cedar-wood and scarlet and hyssop. This is what I mean in referring to spiritual things that are discerned by spiritual means. The cedar-wood and the scarlet and the hyssop may be thought to have two applications. The first is to the dignity and worth of Christ Himself: the dignity is spoken of in the cedar-wood. The scarlet is the distinctiveness of Jesus. They say in the scripture, “Never man spoke thus, as this man speaks”, John 7: 46. Even the centurion had to confess at the cross, “Truly this man was Son of God”, Matt 27: 54. He had never seen anything like it. And the hyssop speaks of the lowliness of Jesus. He was “wearied with the way he had come”, John 4: 6. He says, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the heaven have roosting-places, but the Son of man has not where he may lay his head”, Luke 9: 58.
But all those things that have this application to Christ also speak of what has to be judged in ourselves. We should not be seeking a place of public dignity or personal distinctiveness. And then there is the hyssop; while it is right to be humble, the scripture speaks of those who do their “own will in humility and worship of angels”, Col 2: 18. All of that goes in the death of Christ and hence, whereas the greatness of Christ and His personal distinctiveness are endorsed in His resurrection, so also anything that distinguishes man is cast into the burning, as we see in Numbers. And we have to accept that in order to be set free.
Then there are the two living birds. There is one that is killed over running water. In order for any of these things to apply to us Christ had to die. He had to die there on the cross, and it says, “who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”, Heb 9: 14. Typically, He was killed over running water, and yet what comes out of that is blood. And there is a bird that is set free, a living bird set free in the open field. You think of the Lord Jesus set free in the open field. “Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, John 20: 17. That was the open field; there was no restriction on Him then. He has “ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”, Eph 4: 10. But Jesus is also referred to as “He that descended”. He is the same also that ascended. He descended in love for you and for me, in order that we might be set free from what hinders us.
The priest sprinkles the blood on him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times. The work is perfect - in scripture, seven often speaks of perfection. We see in the tabernacle system in the great day of atonement that the blood is sprinkled once on the mercy-seat, Lev 16: 14. Once is enough for God. The work of Christ has never to be repeated, but the blood was sprinkled seven times before the mercy-seat in order that we might have reassurance as to its efficacy. Every time we come to the Supper we have the reassurance that there on the table before us are the loaf and the cup, a perfect reassurance of God’s satisfaction in the finished work of a blessed Man, and our hearts are drawn out in response to Him.
This man has to remove all that distinguishes him. He shaves his hair, his head, his beard, his eyebrows. He must also wash his garments; his associations too must be clear. And he shall bathe his flesh in water and he is clean. It may be said, that is the end of the matter then. Not so: he is to be brought into something greater. It is not simply that he should be restored to a state of being clean. There is what comes in on the eighth day. This speaks to us of the enjoyment of what is eternal, and it is the entrance of the tent of meeting. He is to come to the place of blessing and privilege where God would speak to His own.
I want to point out one or two further features. The he-lamb is to be slaughtered at the place where the sin-offering and burnt-offering are slaughtered, in a holy place. “For as the sin-offering, so the trespass-offering is the priests: it is most holy”. It is at that standard. The trespass offering might relate to offences in the holy things of Jehovah. Perhaps someone has breached the principles of the testimony. There was an answer in the trespass offering. It also relates to our relations with one another. Perhaps a distance has come in between brother and brother, or brother and sister, or sister and sister. The trespass offering is the way back and it is at the same level, the same standard as the sin-offering and the burnt-offering: it is acceptable in the sight of God. Everything that has been removed in the death of Christ is applicable to the believer just as it is to the unbeliever. The standard of the burnt-offering is the standard of our acceptance, and anyone who is recovered comes back into the full acceptance of God, in all the fulness of what He has in mind for them.
Furthermore, the man to be cleansed is anointed with the oil. Generally this was reserved for the priests. This was not a prescription for the people of the land at this time - or the people of Israel as they went into the land. The application of the oil on the blood was for the priests. But as we were reminded earlier, in this dispensation believers are all regarded as priests. When a person is recovered they are recovered to the full height of sonship and priesthood. It applies to each one of us, and I have appreciated in my own experience what it is to be brought back to what is true, and what is known, and what is available. As anointed with the oil you come to an increased appreciation of the value of what is available in Christ. And you are brought into the fulness of what God has in mind.
So, if one is lost to us for the moment, the way back may seem impossible but it is not impossible with God. All things are possible with God. That is why I touched on the section from verse 21: “But if he be poor, and his hand be not able to get it, then he shall take one lamb for a trespass-offering”. Someone might be absent, no longer enjoying fellowship as a result of some course of action, and I might feel that their understanding of the gravity of what they have done is limited. But if they do recognise that what they have done is wrong, and do recognise that the answer lies in Christ, that should be sufficient.
When we first come to the Lord Jesus as Saviour, I do not think we realise exactly the depth and gravity of sin. We know it is wrong; we come to that. But as we go on in our experience we realise more fully what it was for Christ to be made sin. We can never exhaust His sacrifice. And I realise also more fully what it was for sins to be borne for me, borne by Him on the cross. You might wonder why the sin offering does not come first in Leviticus. It is the burnt offering first, and then the oblation, and then the peace offering, and then the sin offering. Why is this the order?
It may be because in our Christian history we start with an appreciation of the fact that God has accepted us in Jesus. I could not do anything myself, but He has done it all. Atonement is made by Another. That enters into the burnt offering. And then as you go on you begin to appreciate the Lord Jesus and what He has done, His walk and His ways. That is the oblation: a Man after God’s heart who would do all His will, Acts 13: 22. And then you appreciate what the fellowship means; that is what the peace offering speaks of. I can say that these are my brethren, and I love them. “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren”, 1 John 3: 14. And then I can look back and say that I am beginning to appreciate a little more of what all this cost. We cannot measure it, but we can appreciate it.
So we read of someone in verse 21, and he is poor. Perhaps he does not understand the extent of where he has gone wrong. I have experienced that, and I had to accept that I had been wrong, and that it was not possible to justify what I had done. I simply had to accept the Lord’s mind for me. But someone might realise they had done something wrong but not be quite up to the full height of things. Well, it says here, “if he be poor”, and then it says, “as his hand may be able to get”.
The confession of the thief on the cross was not a long one; nor was it a full one in the sense that the Lord had not at that point died or shed His blood. But the thief recognised that he needed a Saviour. Now if there is anyone who is not sure if they can be saved, you can, and you must. You might say that you are not sure of all the detail of the truth and all the things that are spoken of in the Scripture. That is all right; you can come into that. “Believe on the Lord Jesus” and you will be saved, Acts 16: 31. That is it.
But if someone has gone out of the way and might not be at the full height of things, a simple acceptance that they have been wrong and an acceptance that the answer lies in Christ ought to be sufficient. You might look for more; you might hope for more. But let us accept what God would accept because after all the lamb is Christ. It is not that we are set on a lower one, but the man who cannot find enough for the two he-lambs and the yearling new lamb, he still has got one lamb. He still has two turtle doves. He has what his hand is able to get.
There is a situation earlier in Leviticus where all that the person can present is a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour; such a person does not even have the means to offer two turtle doves, chap 5: 11. It is like the thief on the cross. He knew that Christ was perfect, and he knew that he was not. So I just encourage us brethren both as to ourselves and others; do not stop short by saying, ‘Well, I do not have very much’. What you have, if it is Christ, will please God. And if you are seeking to recover one or another, and they have some impression of Christ, work with that. We desire everyone to be in the full good of what God has in mind; the things prepared by God for those that love Him, but let us be gentle with one another, brethren. That is all I would say.
We come to Numbers 19. We spoke previously about the world around. This section brings forward the water of separation, needed in such a scene. It begins with the red heifer which is distinctive. We have spoken of the distinctiveness of Christ, and we see here three distinctive features of the red heifer. The first is that it is “without blemish”. It says of Christ, “who did no sin”, 1 Pet 2: 22. The next feature is “wherein is no defect”, and we know of Christ “in Him, sin is not”, 1 John 3: 5. And the third feature is “upon which never came yoke”; of Christ it is said that He “knew not sin” (2 Cor 5: 21) - the yoke of sin never came upon Him. The only yoke that ever came upon Him was the Father’s will. He was never under the yoke of sin for an instant. How unlike Him I am. Can I say that I have done no sin? No, I cannot say that. But I can say, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Pet 2: 24. Can I say that there is no sin in me? No, I cannot say that, but I can say that “God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh”, Rom 8: 3. And what God has in view is that I might not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit. And can I say that I have never been subject to my own will? Of course I cannot. But what I can say is that I have proved that being subject to the Lord’s will is better than mine.
The Lord says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”, Matt 11: 29. And He says, “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”, v 30. A yoke is what held two oxen together side by side, so that they could walk together and pull the implement, the plough, the harrow, whatever it might be. Think of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that He would walk alongside you and show you how to do what you have to do. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”. A brother pointed out that the Lord does not say, ‘learn about me’. He says, “learn from me”. Now it is good to learn about Jesus, but it is better to learn from Him: “learn from me”.
This red heifer in all its perfection is to be slain. Here, the cedar-wood and the scarlet and the hyssop are cast into the midst of the burning of the heifer. So in Christ, all that distinguishes man goes; and then the priest washes his garments. But then there is this water of separation: it is a purification for sin. The water of separation is what we need in order to keep us separate from a sinful world. Occupation with Christ keeps us separate from a sinful world. This answers to the teaching in Romans 6 where it speaks about the body of sin. That is the world of sin around, and we need to be free from that.
The serpent of brass which comes next in Numbers (chap 21: 9) answers to Romans 7. That chapter brings out the sin that is within, which is referred to as “this body of death”, v 24. And the springing well which follows the brazen serpent (Num 21: 17) answers to Romans 8. That is the gift of the Spirit. “If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom 8: 13), but that is not the end of the matter: “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”, v 14. And it is by the Spirit that we cry, “Abba Father”, v 15. So separation from the world is available in Christ. Dealing with what is within, deliverance from it, is available in Christ, and response toward God is available in the power of the Spirit.
These are the things that Scripture teaches us. They are worth going in for. They are worth learning. If you look for Christ on every page of scripture, and seek Him, the Spirit will help you to find Him. If you go to 1 Chronicles 4 there is a long list of names, and one might ask why it is all recorded, and why it is worthwhile to read it. Well, you have Jabez who says, “Oh that thou wouldest richly bless me, and enlarge my border”, v 10. So there was a man who was exercised in relation to spiritual growth. You have a man in verse fourteen who was “the father of the valley of craftsmen”. He was a man who was diligent in what would be constructive in relation to the things of God. There were daughters there. The sisters are included. There was the house of the byssus-workers in verse 21: that is to say, persons who were concerned with the garments of the priesthood. And there were potters that were making vessels, no doubt having in mind service, and there were the plantations and enclosures having in mind food. And it says, “there they dwelt with the king for his work”, v 23.
The work of a potter may not be considered a great work. The potter does not make golden vessels. However, he is making what would be serviceable; he is a valuable brother. And he, along with the craftsmen and the others, dwelt with the king in his work. That is why it is important to read Scripture with the power of the Spirit, that spiritual things may be discerned by spiritual means. This may appear to be a long way from the cleansing of the leper and the red heifer. Well, the cleansing of the leper brings us back into what we enjoyed, and the red heifer keeps us separate from the world, but that is not the end of the matter. The point is that there is much more! There is infinite variety in Scripture; there is a blessedness about it that can fill your soul. I could not tell you how many times I have read John’s gospel but I will read it again very soon. I will tell you why. I love it. I love the Man in it, and He loves me. And every time I read it I get something fresh, and every time I read it I get something living.
But scripture is full of other books that are worth reading too. If you have never read what are called the Minor Prophets - after Daniel’s prophecy and onwards; to the natural eye they might appear obscure and complicated. But Christ is there! Think of Habakkuk. Think of all that was against him, all the difficulty, all the problems that he was facing. He says,
For though the fig-tree shall not blossom,
Neither shall fruit be in the vines;
The labour of the olive-tree shall fail,
And the fields shall yield no food;
The flock shall be cut off from the fold,
And there shall be no herd in the stalls:
Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah,
I will joy in the God of my salvation, Hab 3: 17, 18.
He goes on to say,
Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength,
And he maketh my feet like hinds' feet,
And he will make me to walk upon my high places”, v 19.
He was lifted up above the things that would naturally have held him down. There is wealth in every scripture. There is depth in every scripture. It is worth reading, beloved, and the younger you are when you read it the more easily you will retain it.
I know that there are many demands on time - they seem to increase with every passing year. But I also know and have proved that God is “a rewarder of them who seek him out”, Heb 11: 6. Taking up the scriptures and giving a little time to them brings a value and a reward that cannot really be compared with anything else. Ministry is very valuable. It is good to read that too, but start with scripture. Start your day with Christ. Start your day with the Man in the glory. I cannot tell you how long you should spend or what you should read; He will tell you that. But I will tell you it is worthwhile.
You may know the hymn:
Jesus! Thou art enough
The mind and heart to fill;
Thy patient life - to calm the soul;
Thy love - its fear dispel. Hymn 174
The writer cannot have been older than twenty-seven when he wrote that because it appears that he died when he was twenty-seven years old, and he had that in his heart and in his soul. God gave him it: ‘Jesus! Thou art enough’.
If I left only one thing with you it would be this: ‘Jesus! Thou art enough’.
For His Name’s sake.
Maidstone
23rd November 2024