Numbers 18:1-20:13, Mark 16:1-20

Thought from Today’s Old Testament Passage: Numbers 19:2-3 The true heading of all the books of Moses is to be found in the words of Jesus, "Moses wrote of me." Take the Lord Jesus Christ with you as a key, and however difficult the riddles of Leviticus or Numbers may at first sight appear, there is not one enigma in the whole collection which will not speedily open and yield instruction. To the Israelites themselves, these rites and ceremonies must have been rather an exercise of faith, than a means of instruction.…To us, the types are not a dark mystery to perplex our faith, but an open vision to delight our eyes. Having believed in Christ Jesus, having received Him as the Father’s sent One, and being reconciled unto God by His death, we look back to the ceremonies of the old law as the patterns of heavenly things, to endeavour to discover some new light in which the Saviour’s beauties may be set, and to behold Him from some different point of view, so that we may love Him the better, and may trust Him the more. Now, the particular point to which the red heifer referred, concerning Christ and His work, is just this—the provision which is made in Christ Jesus for the daily sins and failings of believers.… the red heifer most beautifully sets forth Christ as being the constant purification of His people, that they, having their consciences purged from dead works, may have power to worship acceptably the living and true God. (C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the Old Testament, Vol. 1, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House) 1962, p. 359)