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Numbers 19:1 - Cleansing ritual

Doing some catching up.  I thought I had posted this from 1/8, but the blog doesn't lie.

If it wasn't for the fact that this ritual shows up in Hebrews 9:13, I would likely think of it as just an odd custom.  After all, the ceremonial clean laws and all associated with them are fulfilled in Christ.  I don't become ceremonially unclean so I don't think about how to become ceremonially clean.  But to ancient Israel, this was a daily concern.  God gave them rules on how they could become unclean and how long the condition would last.   If He did not then appoint in His word how they could become clean, they would be on their own to figure it out.  

Hebrews 9:13-14

For 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, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. 

And 1 John 1:8-9 

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Individual sins affect fellowship with God. Yes, I am seated with Christ in the heavenly places because of what He did on the cross.  My identify has changed permanently.  But sin that still dwells in my members affects fellowship.  I still need to be cleansed from all unrighteousness.  

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