He Made Himself Unclean

Numbers 19:7 KJV
Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even.

There are three people who, in this chapter, volunteer to be made unclean.
• The one who burns the heifer
• The priest who sacrifices the heifer, and
• The man who gathers the ashes of the heifer
In each case the man was clean previous to his ministry. In each case his unclean condition separated him from the congregation until the evening. To make others clean; to make a way for others to come to God, these men made themselves separated from their own.

They picture Jesus Christ who
• Left the glory of heaven
• Identified with mankind
• Sullied himself in eating and drinking with sinners
• Became sin for us so much so that the Father turned His back on His own Son and then
• Gave to us, who put our faith in Him, the very righteousness which was His own.

I am thankful that the priest's unclean condition was only until the evening. When morning came he was once again clean and free to minister in the presence of the congregation. Christ carried our sins to the grave. In the morning, three days later,
• He arose leaving our sins in the grave
• He arose victoriously
• He arose gloriously
• He arose in fellowship with His Heavenly Father and
• He arose to minister to us forever before the throne