Numbers 19:2

This [is] the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded,.... By which it appears, that this law was not of the moral, but of the ceremonial kind, being called an ordinance, a statute, a

This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never

The ordinance of the law, or, the constitution of the law, i.e. that which God hath ordained or established by law. That they bring thee, at their common charge, because it was for the common good. Red; a fit colour to shadow forth both the bloody nature and complexion of sin, , and the human nature, and especially the blood, of Christ, from which this water and all other rites had their purifying virtue. Wherein is no blemish; a fit type of Christ, who was such, . Upon which never came yoke; whereby may be signified, either that Christ in himself was free from all the yoke or obligation of God’ s command, till for our sakes he took up our yoke, and put himself under the law; or that Christ was not drawn or forced to undertake our burden and cross, but that lie did voluntarily choose it. See ,18.

Numbers 19:2 This [is] the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein [is] no blemish, [and] upon which never came yoke:Ver. 2. This is the ordinance of the law, which.] An ordinance, a law, a commanded law: all this to show the peremptoriness of the Lord in this point, that unless we lay hold upon the blood of Christ, prefigured by this red heifer, we cannot escape the damnation of hell. That they bring thee.] At a common charge, because for a common good. All the congregation must get them a bloody Saviour. A red heifer.] Typing out Christum cruentatum, Christ covered with his own blood: white and ruddy, as the Church says of him: Tam recens mihi Christus crucifixus, ac si iam fudisset sanguinem. The pressure of his sufferings made him sweat great drops, or rather clods of blood, in a cold night, besides what afterwards issued from his many wounds in his head and body. Never came yoke.] Christ never bore the yoke either of sin or servitude. He laid down his life of himself. See Hebrews 9:13-14. He was not subject to any command of man. Luther.

Verse 2. Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring thee, c.] The ordinance of the red heifer was a sacrifice of general application. All the people were to have an interest in it, and therefore the people at large are to provide the sacrifice. This Jewish rite certainly had a reference to things done under the Gospel, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has remarked: "For if," says he, "the blood of bulls and of goats," alluding, probably, to the sin-offerings and the scape-goat, "and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God!" Hebrews 9:13-14. As the principal stress of the allusion here is to the ordinance of the red heifer, we may certainly conclude that it was designed to typify the sacrifice of our blessed Lord. We may remark several curious particulars in this ordinance. 1. A heifer was appointed for a sacrifice, probably, in opposition to the Egyptian superstition which held these sacred, and actually worshipped their great goddess Isis under this form; and this appears the more likely because males in general were preferred for sacrifice, yet here the female is chosen. 2. It was to be a red heifer, because red bulls were sacrificed to appease the evil demon Typhon, worshipped among the Egyptians. See Spencer. 3. The heifer was to be without spot - having no mixture of any other colour. Plutarch remarks, De Iside et de Osiride, that if there was a single hair in the animal either white or black, it marred the sacrifice. See Calmet, and See Clarke on Numbers 8:7. 4. Without blemish - having no kind of imperfection in her body; the other, probably, applying to the hair or colour. 5. On which never came yoke, because any animal which had been used for any common purpose was deemed improper to be offered in sacrifice to God. The heathens, who appear to have borrowed much from the Hebrews, were very scrupulous in this particular. Neither the Greeks nor Romans, nor indeed the Egyptians, would offer an animal in sacrifice that had been employed for agricultural purposes. Of this we have the most positive evidence from Homer, Porphyry, Virgil, and Macrobius. Just such a sacrifice as that prescribed here, does Diomede vow to offer to Pallas. - Iliad, lib. x., ver. 291. Ὡςνυνμοιεθελουσαπαριστασο, καιμεφυλασσε· Σοιδ' αυεγωῥεξωβουνηνινευρυμετωπον, Αδμητην, ἡνουπωὑποζυγονηγαγενανηρ· Τηντοιεγωῥεξω, χρυσονκερασινπεριχευας. "So now be present, O celestial maid; So still continue to the race thine aid; A yearling heifer falls beneath the stroke, Untamed, unconscious of the galling yoke, With ample forehead and with spreading horns, Whose tapering tops refulgent gold adorns." Altered from POPE. In the very same words Nestor, Odyss., lib. iii., ver. 382, promises a similar sacrifice to Pallas.

2. a red heifer] a red cow. The Heb. word is that ordinarily used for the full-grown animal (e.g. Genesis 41:2-4; 1 Samuel 6:7). The reason for the particular colour is not known. The red animal and the scarlet thread may both, perhaps, have had reference to blood as an instrument of purification. without spot] perfect. Any blemish, such as lameness, blindness, or the malformation of a limb, would disqualify it.

A red heifer - Red, in order to shadow forth man’s earthly body, even as the name Adam bears allusion to the red earth of which man’s body was fashioned.

2. The ordinance of the law — This use of two words, each of which signifies law or statute, occurs again only in Numbers 31:21, in connexion with purification. It is intended to give emphasis to the ordinance.