Numbers 19 - Steve Wiggins Daily Devotional

“For the purification of the unclean person, they are to take some of the ashes of the burnt sin offering, put them in a jar, and add fresh water to them. A person who is clean is to take hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all its furnishings, and the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle the one who touched a bone, a grave, a corpse, or a person who had been killed.” Numbers 19 17-18

The majority of commands in the Torah make perfect sense by today’s medical & scientific standards. For instance, the kosher dietary laws have been proven to direct people into healthier eating patterns. Pertaining to matters of personal hygiene, the L_rd directed Israel to avoid mold spores & contagions, centuries before the microscope was invented.

Forgive me for not detailing the practical nature of all 613 Torah commands, because my point is simply that it took a great level of faith for the community of Israel to follow, what seemed like, senseless orders from Moses. There was only G_d’s word, and no practical science to support it. Only later…many generations later…did scientists begin to discover practical observable scientific foundations for G_d’s instruction.

I wish I could identify with Moses more in the book of Numbers. Sadly, I find myself empathizing with the grumbling Israelite community. This was especially true when I was a younger disciple. So many of G_d’s commands seemed needlessly inefficient and laborious. I wondered when I was ever going to enter that life of “freedom and abundant joy” I heard other followers of Messiah talk about.

Shortly after choosing to follow YEshua, I found myself longing for (and taking a few) day-trips back to Egypt, so to speak….just to remember the good old days of guiltless abandon. Those short returns to “Egypt” never really turned out like I wanted, and eventually I learned to appreciate G_d and take Him at His word.

I’m writing this to encourage you to trust Yeshua by faith, and stick with it. Proverbs 3: 5-12

All that said, let’s return to today’s (above) passage, Numbers 19 17-18. How does ash from an offering mixed with water purify a man and his household? Is it purely symbolic, or is there some medicinal property to this elixir? I have no idea. I simply know to trust the L_rd’s Word over my “instincts”. My instincts have failed me, yet the Word of the Lord will always prove right, in the end. So, let’s hold-on, pressing-on until the end!

Blessings,
~Steve Wiggins, Associate Leader, Worship Leader
Shuvah Yisrael
Daily Devotional, Monday, May 26, 2014