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This week’s Parasha is titled Chukat or in English, “Decree of.” It encompasses Numbers 19 through 22:1. Last week’s Torah reading, Korach, established the authority of Moses as the leader of Israel, as well as Aaron’s authority over God’s chosen priestly line.
Parasha Chukat shares with us three distinct biblical accounts that the young Israeli nation experienced while in the wilderness. Though distinct, they all point to Yeshua.
Our first account starts in chapter 19. Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come. The yoke signified that it had never been used for any worldly purpose and that it was pure and undefiled.
They were to give this heifer to Eleazar the High priest. Eleazar and another priest would take the heifer outside the camp in which the lower priest would slay it before Eleazar.
Eleazar would then take the blood with his finger, sprinkle the blood toward the tabernacle of the congregation seven times.
The assisting priest would then burn the cow completely, skin, flesh and blood, and even the dung. The High Priest would then take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet thread and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer. After this, the priest would wash his clothes and himself thoroughly. He’d re-enter the camp where he was considered unclean until the evening.
Then a man from the camp, who was clean, would gather up the ashes, secure them outside the camp in a clean place, to be used by the nation of Israel. This was purification for sin; the ashes were mixed with water and sprinkled on those who were ritually unclean in order to purify them. Also, those who came into contact with dead persons either by touching, or being in the presence there of. It should also be noted, that if a man was unclean for other reasons, and didn’t receive the purification, he would be cut off from the congregation for defiling the sanctuary of the Lord.
Presently in Israel they are again looking for a red heifer in order to cleanse a new temple and High Priest, so the sacrificial system can be reinstituted.
As believers in Yeshua, we realize that the Parah Adumah (Red heifer) was a prophetic picture of the Messiah’s cleansing us from sin.
Yeshua was sacrificed outside the camp as was the red heifer. So Yeshua also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood (Hebrews 13:12).
The sprinkling of both makes us clean. Yeshua is the mediator of the New Covenant and His sprinkled blood speaks better things than that of Abel (Hebrews 12:24). Yeshua being the reality, where Abel’s was a type.
But most importantly Hebrews 9:13-14: If the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Are you serving the living God?
Chapter 20 starts on a sad note. Miriam died and was buried in Kadesh while the Jewish people were passing thru the Wilderness of Zin. Zin was a “dry and arid nation” and once again, the Israelis began to complain, questioning why they had left Egypt where there was plenty of water. Moses and Aaron went to the door of the tabernacle and fell on their faces and the glory of God appeared. The Lord told Moses to assemble the congregation and to speak to “the rock” and He would then provide water. But Moses struck the rock twice with his staff and water began to gush forth. There was enough for the entire congregation and their cattle to drink.
Chapter 20 also records the Edomites refusing the nation of Israel’s passage along the King’s highway towards the Promised Land. They would eventually have to take a much longer and dangerous route. Also, upon arriving at Mount Hor, God summoned Moses, Aaron, and Eleazar to ascend the mountain. God instructed Aaron to place his mantle on his son Eleazar, after which, Aaron died.
Chapter 20 teaches us that, all of us, including leaders of our homes or leaders of a body of believers, are to acknowledge that God is ultimately in charge and we are to follow His instructions. By striking the rock twice, Moses did not follow God’s explicit instruction, and this removed the mental picture of God’s promise of providing and placed the attention on Moses himself. By this action, he took the magnificence of the miracle. Subsequently he forfeited the opportunity to lead the Israel nation into the Promised Land.
Chapter 20 also reminds us that our walk here on Earth will not always be an easy passage along the King’s highway. We may encounter our own hostile Edomites who make our life more difficult and dangerous. We are to put our trust in the always faithful Yeshua Ha’Mashiach. He will guide us through this wilderness called life.
Chapter 21 tells us about Israel not only complaining about the manna, but loathing and calling it worthless. This resulted in God’s judgment in the form of poisonous snakes biting many of the people. The people came to Moses, confessing their sins and pleading with him to intercede on their behalf to God for forgiveness and rescue. That rescue came in the form of a bronze serpent. God instructed Moses to make a bronze snake, and whenever anybody got bitten, they needed to look up to the snake on the pole, and they would live.
The serpent on the pole was a prophetic picture of the Messiah suffering on a cross. Yeshua made reference to this passage when speaking to Nicodemus in John, chapter 3, stating: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.
In closing I would like to engage our thoughts with these two verses:
Yeshua suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood (Hebrews 13:12).
Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured (Hebrews 13:13).
Eternal salvation in the presence of our Creator is only achieved when we believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua. It is by means of His blood that we are cleansed of our sin, sanctified, and called to be God’s eternal sons and daughters.
For this to happen, we must come to Yeshua publicly, openly confessing our sins, looking to the High Priest greater than Aaron, the Sacrifice better than the Red Heifer, the Leader greater than Moses, and the One greater than the bronze serpent; the One who is the author, and the finisher of our Faith.
And we must join Him outside the camp. We must become a separate and distinct people in this world; not doing as the world does but following Chukat Elohim, “the decree of God” that the Almighty has given us. Life will not always be an easy walk along the King’s highway. But we can endure the reproaches’ of the Edomites by keeping our eyes on Yeshua!