Chukat Slides (PDF)
Chukat Notes (PDF)
Overview of Chukat (“Ordinance”) Numbers 19:1 – 22:1
Israel camped at Sinai for almost one year (13 days short of one year), then travelled to Kadesh Barnea to enter into the Promised Land. As soon as they arrived, their unbelief surfaced. Yehovah knew what and who awaited them there, but the people convinced Moses to “send for himself” (Lech Lecha) spies into The Land. The unbelief continued: only two of the spies returned with a good report – they saw through their spiritual eyes and trusted Yehovah to deliver on His promises. The remaining ten gave a bad report, because they looked through their natural eyes. Yehovah’s anger raged at this display of unbelief, and He carried it out in two ways: He killed on the spot the ten who gave the bad report; and He sentenced that entire generation that left Egypt to wander in the Wilderness until every last one of them (except Joshua and Caleb) was dead.
On the heels of this event came Korah’s rebellion, where 250 Tribal leaders joined with Korah and a group of Reubenites to challenge Moses’ authority to hear from Yehovah and to lead Israel. Yehovah’s anger continued with this rebellion, resulting in the death of almost 15,000 people.
We have seen a lot of death in these last two Portions, so it is logical (and Yehovah is very logical) to offer here the remedy to uncleanness that came from contact with death. Back in Leviticus we learned of the differences between “clean” and “unclean”; here we learn the procedure for a person to be restored from “unclean” to “clean”.
Chapter 19 The Red Heifer
The Red Heifer Sacrifice is the perfect example of a chukat – translated as “law” or “ordinance”: one that defies our human understanding…not because Yehovah didn’t explain it correctly to us, but due to the limitations of our feeble human brain to understand it.
This chapter introduces a new ordinance concerning purification by means of the Red Heifer Sacrifice. Anyone that came into contact with a dead body needed a means to be made ritually “clean” again. For instance, when Nadav and Avihu were struck dead in the most Holy Place (Lev 10), their cousins carried their lifeless bodies out and, in the process, became “unclean.” It was for this ritual cleansing that the Water of Purification was made using the ashes from the Red Heifer Sacrifice. On the surface, this sacrifice appears similar to the Burnt Offering. But in fact, the two have very little in common: color, gender, location and method of sacrifice are all different (see the notes for this comparison of the Burnt Offering, the Red Heifer Sacrifice, and Yeshua’s Sacrifice). And the concept that ashes mixed with water could bring about purification sounds rather peculiar to us living in 21st Century Western culture. Incredibly, it is this same Water of Purification mixture that Yeshua turned into wine during the wedding feast at Cana (John 2).
The sacrifice animal was to be female, completely red in color (including hooves and eyes); the presence of more than one white or black hair would disqualify it; she was never to have been yoked for work. She was taken across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives where the sacrifice took place. (Alfred Edersheim, in his book The Temple Its Ministries and Services, describes the bridge that crossed over the valley and also the entire procedure for the Red Heifer Sacrifice.) Unlike the Burnt Offering, the Red Heifer was completely consumed – the hide, the flesh, the blood and all of the innards were completely burnt, along with cedar wood, hyssop and a scarlet cloth. Do we all see here a picture of Yeshua’s Sacrifice on the Tree: cedar, hyssop and scarlet color? The ashes of the sacrifice were then mixed into mayim chaim,”living water” to be then used in the purification ritual. Anyone who came into contact with a dead body was “unclean” for seven days: he was to isolate himself from the camp; purify himself with the Waters of Purification on the third and seventh days; and after the seventh day he was “clean” again. There are strong connections between this Red Heifer Sacrifice, the “Living Bird” Sacrifice for purification after leprosy in Leviticus 14; and the Scapegoat of the Yom Kippur service in Leviticus 16.
Before we leave this, I want to make the connection between the location of the Red Heifer Sacrifice and Yeshua’s Sacrifice on the Tree. Ezekiel 43:21 establishes the location of the burning of the Sin Offering outside the sanctuary as the miphkad, “appointed place” (see the Power Point slides for details); the Miphkad, or “counting” gate was the place where the sacrifices were inspected one last time before they crossed over to the Mount of Olives where the sacrifice took place. The Miphkad Gate in the wall around Jerusalem was located at the northeast corner of the city, at the end of the bridge connecting the City to the Mount of Olives. Exodus 38:25-26 establishes that the “counting” (pakad…from which we get the word Miphkad) of Israel for the purpose of the “head tax” for the building of the Tabernacle connects to the Miphkad Gate in Yeshua’s time. And…the word for “man” here is gulgolet, literally meaning “skull”; and do we see the connection between gulgolet and Golgotha???! So I am strongly suggesting that Yeshua’s sacrifice took place on the Mount of Olives at the same location as the Red Heifer Sacrifice. That’s why Simon the Cyrene had to carry Yeshua’s cross after He had passed through the Miphkad Gate – the Red Heifer sacrifice could no longer carry a burden. And the Centurion at the foot of the cross (Matt 27:54) could see the torn veil in the Temple from only one spot on the entire Earth…the Mount of Olives.
The Paradox of the Red Heifer: The ashes in the Water of Purification purified those who were contaminated, but those same ashes contaminated those who prepared them.
The Paradox of Yeshua: Anyone who touched a contaminated person became unclean, yet when Yeshua touched a contaminated person, He remained clean and the person was healed.
Chapter 20 Water from the Rock, Part II
The chapter starts with the death of Miriam even though the Rabbis say that she died at the very end of the 40-year Wilderness wanderings. They say this story is placed here (before the Water from the Rock event) because the water that Yehovah provided for them came from Miriam’s tent. I’m just telling you what the Rabbis say…not what I believe!! In fact, Paul tells us in I Corinth 10:4, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Messiah.”
So they were at Meribah and the people once again murmured that they have no water and, just as He did in Exodus 17 (when they were at Rephidim – two different events at two different places at two different times), Yehovah instructed Moses to provide water from the Rock…with one difference. This time Moses was to “speak” to the rock instead of “striking” it as he did before. But in his frustration with the murmuring people (he called them rebels even though Yehovah never called them that) Moses struck the rock…twice! Even worse, he and Aaron took credit for delivering Yehovah’s water! By striking the rock twice they ruined the picture that Yehovah wanted to present to Israel…that Yeshua would be struck only once for all. Because Moses and Aaron both disobeyed Yehovah’s instructions, He prohibited them both from leading the people into the Promised Land.
Israel was ready to move on from Kadesh Barnea and they asked the King of Edom to allow them passage through his land: “Thus says your brother Israel…let us pass through your country.” Why did they address Edom as “brother”? Because they are brothers: the Edomites are the descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau. Israel even promised to not eat any of the food nor drink any water on their journey through…but the King refused entry. So they were forced to travel much farther to the east to skirt around Edom….but Yehovah knew they had another 38+ years to kill (pun intended) before Israel would be ready to enter the Promised Land.
The chapter ends with the death of Aaron. He is the only person in Scripture whose date of death is recorded: the 1st day of the 5th month (the 1st of Av).
“Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word at the water of Meribah.”
Chapter 21 The Serpent on a Pole
It is believed that the defeat of the Canaanites here is a continuation of the events that took place immediately after the 12 Spies episode in chapter 14. If that is the case then Yehovah makes the point that Israel faced the prospect of war from the very beginning of their journeys. With the Canaanites defeated, Israel continued her journey around Edom; and the people once again started to murmur:
“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.”
So Yehovah’s anger was once again kindled and He sent fiery serpents among the people; many were bitten and many died from those bites. The people came to Moses, they repented and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” We are finally seeing some repentance among the people…the result of the first generation dying off and the maturing of the second generation. Yehovah told Moses to make a brass serpent and place it upon a wooden pole; “if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
In John chapter 3 Yeshua explained to Nicodemus that He is that Serpent on the Pole. It’s hard for us to see that a serpent (evil) made of brass (judgment) could possibly represent Yeshua (Salvation); yet when He died on that Tree of Sacrifice, He took our sin (evil) upon Himself and Yehovah judged (brass) Him for our sins. What a Savior we have!
The Portion ends with Israel traversing Moab and fighting (and conquering) their way through the nations east of the Jordan where they are poised to enter the Promised Land. There is no indication in these verses of the amount of time that this journey took. Some hold the view that Israel was camped at Kadesh for most of the forty years in the Wilderness – because Scripture gives us event details for only that period of time. Others say that most of those forty years took place as they travelled through the places that are listed in verses 10-20 here. May the Holy Spirit reveal this truth to you.
Regardless of the amount of time that had passed, Israel has moved around Edom and into position in Moab to enter the Promised Land across the Jordan River from Jericho. The conquest of the Promised Land actually began here with the defeat of the two kings, Sihon & Og, both giants, descendants of the Nephilim from Genesis 6.
Yeshua said, “Search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life; and they are they which testify of Me.” The Scriptures He refers to is the Tanach (the Old Testament) because the Brit Chadashah (New Testament) didn’t exist at that time. We see that the three events in this Portion (the Red Heifer, Water from the Rock and the Serpent on the Pole) all represent Yeshua in the Tanach.
The Haftarah Reading (Judges 11:1 – 33)
This week’s Haftarah describes Israel’s defeat of the Ammonites. Jephtah the Gileadite was chosen to lead them in battle against the Ammonites. The first thing he did was to send them a message declaring his peaceful intentions; but he also included in that message the story of Israel’s defeat of Sihon & Og described in this week’s Torah Portion. Eventually Israel engaged them in battle and defeated the Ammonites. We read from Judges 11:1-6 & 32-33:
“Now Jephtah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot; and Gilead begot Jephtah. Gilead’s wife bore sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephtah out, and said to him, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” Then Jephtah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tov; and worthless men banded together with Jephtah and went out raiding with him. It came to pass after a time that the people of Ammon made war against Israel. And so it was, when the people of Ammon made war against Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to get Jephtah from the land of Tov. Then they said to Jephtah, “Come and be our commander, that we may fight against the people of Ammon..… So Jephtah advanced toward the people of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. And he defeated them from Aroer as far as Minnit—twenty cities—and to Abel Keramim, with a very great slaughter. Thus the people of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.”
The Brit Chadashah reading is a commentary on the Red Heifer sacrifice from this week’s Torah Portion. The writer of the Book of Hebrews compares the ineffectiveness of the Levitical sacrifices – including the Red Heifer – to the more perfect sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua. We read from Hebrews 9:11-15:
“But Messiah came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the New Covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”