Chapter 7

Jesus Makes the Unclean Clean

(Numbers 5:1–4)

J. Ligon Duncan

Numbers. The book with the worst title in the English Bible. “In the wilderness,” the book’s Hebrew title, would be an improvement. Steven Spielberg could do something with that, but “Numbers” only the math majors could love. Furthermore, Numbers doesn’t usually rank highly on our lists of favorite Bible books. John. Romans. The Psalms. Even Genesis. But few would even put Numbers in their top ten.

Thirty-six chapters; 1,288 verses; lots of laws; lots of sand; lots of desert; lots of grumbling; lots of wandering—it doesn’t sound very hopeful, does it? But do not underestimate this book. It is the Word of God, and “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching” (2 Tim. 3:16). I want you to see how important, practical, applicable, and profitable the book of Numbers is. I want to preach to you the gospel by Numbers.

The Challenges of Numbers

Before we begin, I want to highlight a number of things about the book of Numbers that modern readers find challenging. I’ll mention three: history, bad behavior, and obscure laws.

First of all, it’s a book of history, and some folk’s eyes glaze over when they hear the word “history.” Contemporary Americans have often failed to see the value of history. Our patron saint, Henry Ford, once said, “History is bunk.” Similarly, this is why one British scholar wryly opined, “War is God’s way of teaching Americans history and geography.” Now, I love history. I’m from Mississippi, a state where a man once said, “The past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past.” But even if you don’t love history, you’ve never read history like Moses can tell it. And, after all, this is the story of your people. If you are a believer, this is your story. This is your family history.

Second, Numbers can be a depressing book because it records the story of God’s people behaving badly. In this way, they were like us, and even though we’d rather not read about ourselves behaving badly nor think about our sin, it’s important that we do. It’s important that we think about it, that we deal with it, and that we repent of it. And this book helps us do that. This is one of the applications of Numbers that the New Testament explicitly makes to Christians.

Third, this book is filled with strange and bizarre laws and rituals that may seem impenetrable, irrelevant, and unconnected to the more exciting history of God’s people in their wilderness wanderings. But Moses is a great storyteller, and the laws, procedures, and rituals he records are actually connected with a divine logic to the story he tells. They explain to us things we need to know about God, about ourselves, and about our Savior.

The New Testament Teaches that Christians Are to Be Instructed by Numbers

If you’re wondering whether this book is worth the effort, I want to remind you that the apostle Paul explicitly tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:1–13 that the wilderness events in Exodus and Numbers happened and were written down for us. Numbers is a Christian book. Even its ceremonial laws—laws that are no longer binding on believers (Mark 7:19; Acts 15:5–10; Heb. 9:8–14; 10:1–10)—are filled with lessons for Christians. This book is meant to teach Christians about the Christian life. And I didn’t make that up. Paul said it:

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Cor. 10:1–13, emphasis added)

Don’t miss what Paul says in verse 6: the events recorded in Exodus and Numbers took place as examples for us. What happened to and with our Hebrew forebearers was, by God’s design and providence, meant to be an example to us as Christians more than three thousand years later. And then in verse 11 Paul says they happened as an example and were written down for us. Paul says the very reason that God had Moses write this history was for us! So, these things, this story, these laws are meant to instruct us. We should pay close attention to them.

Now I want to direct your attention to a seemingly obscure and initially baffling example of the laws recorded by Moses. Consider Numbers 5:1–4:

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person. You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst.”

And the sons of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp; just as the Lord had spoken to Moses, thus the sons of Israel did. (nasb)

It seems hard, doesn’t it? You are a faithful Israelite. You love God. You are grateful that he has redeemed you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You are traveling with his people in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land. You believe Moses’ word. You worship the living God. You have turned your back on idolatry, but you have become defiled through no fault of your own. You’re a man or a woman and you have a discharge—and so you are expelled from the camp of God.

Or, you’ve contracted leprosy. The first five books of the Bible cover skin diseases all the way up to and including the dreaded Hansen’s disease with the term “leprosy.” Some of them are permanent, some of them are temporary, and if you’ve contracted that skin disease it’s not your fault. But you are excluded from the camp.

Or, as we will see in Leviticus 15:1–13, you’ve come into contact with someone with a skin disease or a discharge and so you’re excluded from the camp. Or, what’s worse, someone you love has died and you’ve come into contact with the dead body of your loved one and so you’re expelled from the camp. That seems hard. It seems like God’s not very loving, caring, or kind. What is going on in these laws? Why would God command this? What is he teaching us?

Well, notice three things. These laws have a practical function, a theological function, and a Christological function. That is, they have a practical purpose: God is actually caring for his people lovingly by giving these seemingly hard commands. They have a theological purpose: they teach us something important about God. And, most importantly of all, these laws point us to Jesus.

The Practical Purpose of the Laws in Numbers

These laws have a practical purpose. Far from being cruel, unreasonable, and uncaring, these laws actually show God’s attentive, wise, and pastoral care for his people. How so, you ask? Well, hundreds of thousands of people are in the desert with minimal medical resources, and certainly nothing like our modern antibiotics, which are themselves an expression of the kindness of God’s common grace to us all. In their context, in their situation and circumstances, contact with a dreaded skin disease, some kinds of bodily discharges, or a dead body could have spread an epidemic that could have killed tens of thousands of people. The only way to deal with that was by quarantine. As hard as that may seem, God in his kindness is taking care of hundreds of thousands of people by providing them these stipulations. He’s caring for both the sick and those who come into direct contact with them by demanding the removal of the sick from the proximity of those who are well. God always has his purposes. They may seem hard, but they are good, right, and wise—and, ultimately, when we see the big picture, they are kind.

But, as Calvin observes, God was not simply acting as a physician here, he had something more important to teach us in these laws.

The Theological Purpose of the Laws in Numbers

These laws were given for a theological reason. They were actually given to teach the people of Israel about who God is and what he is like. They draw attention to an important attribute of God, one of the great blessings he has granted to his people, and one of his great activities as God. In short, they were designed to teach the children of Israel that God is holy, that God is present, and that God has spoken.

God Is Holy—“that they may not defile their camp, in . . . which I dwell” (5:3)

The defilement laws of Numbers and Leviticus speak of a God who is undefiled and who does not dwell with those who are defiled. He is holy. The fundamental meaning of that word is that he is separate from that which is defiled.

We see that language even here in Numbers 5:1–4. Why are they to be sent away? Verse 3, “so that they may not defile the camp in . . . which I dwell.” God is without defilement. God dwells in the camp. Those who are defiled must go outside the camp.

Understand that in the Law of Moses there are many ways that the doctrine of sin is taught. Sin, in the Torah, the instruction from God through Moses, is transgression, breaking the law of God. In the language of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which is simply echoing and elaborating on 1 John 3:4, “sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.” That is, you can transgress God’s law in two ways. You can not do what he tells you to do, or you can do what he tells you not to do. Either way, you are transgressing the law, and sin is explained repeatedly as transgression in the books of Moses (e.g., Gen. 50:17; Exod. 23:21; 34:7; Num. 14:18).

Sin is also explained as defilement. It defiles you. It brings about in you that which God did not intend when he created human beings. And the ultimate expression and consequence of that defilement is death. Adam and Eve thought they would get equality with God and life by transgressing his law. Instead, they got defilement and death. Over and over in Numbers and Leviticus, in particular, sin is pictured for us as defilement, and in these laws of exclusion we get a graphic picture of what defilement does to our communion with a holy God. Just as Adam and Eve, after their sin, were excluded from the garden and the company of the holy God, so those who are ritually defiled in Israel are excluded from the camp where the holy and undefiled God is. Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden was, at least in part, idolatry—they worshiped their own wills rather than obeying God and they wanted to be equal with him—and throughout the Old Testament idolatry is said to entail defilement (e.g., Isa. 30:22; Jer. 7:30; 32:34).

This is a picture the New Testament still remembers. Paul writes to the church in Corinth: “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). The apostle John brings us back to it at the very end of the Bible. In Revelation 14:3–4, he reminds us that the redeemed are undefiled and dwell in the presence of the Father and the Lamb. But what of those who are morally defiled? Listen to what he says about the vision of heaven that he sees in Revelation 21:8: “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Those are all moral categories. Now look at what he says at the end of the chapter in verse 27: “But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” John is talking about defilement and exclusion from glory. But the defilement is moral. The ceremonial pictures of defilement in Leviticus and Numbers point to the dreaded disease of moral defilement, which excludes us eternally—if it is not dealt with—from presence with God. The reason why is that the morally defiled will not dwell in the New Jerusalem. So the law teaches us that God is holy and is going to be treated as holy. He is undefiled. And the defiled cannot besmirch him by dwelling in his presence.

Think of how that principle was applied even to Moses’ sister (see Num. 12:1–16; Deut. 24:9). When she was part of a conspiracy to undermine her brother Moses, the mediator whom God had appointed for his people, she contracted leprosy by the judgment of God and was excluded from the camp even though she was a prophetess. Though she had led the people of God in song and praise at the Red Sea, she was excluded from the camp. You see how seriously God takes his holiness: “Miriam, outside the camp. I am holy, you will treat me as holy, and you will treat my mediator as holy. You undermined my mediator? Outside the camp with your leprosy!”

God Is Present—“their camp, in the midst of which I dwell” (5:3)

Yes, these strange commands teach us that God is holy, but they also show us a blessing: God is present. He is present with his people in that camp. Remember that in the Garden of Eden, before the Fall, God was present with Adam and Eve. He walked there among them. And remember what God said to Moses in Exodus 33, after the rebellion of Israel in the false worship of the golden calf. God is so indignant at Israel’s idolatry that he says to Moses that he is no longer going to travel with them in their midst. Strikingly, God says, “If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you” (Exod. 33:5).

Essentially God tells Moses, “I’m not going to destroy the children of Israel here because of their idolatry (even though they deserve it), but I am going to send you on to the Promised Land, just without me.”

Now unfortunately, if God offered that to most evangelicals, we’d take it. “You can go to heaven, just without communion with me, without my presence.” Many of us would take that offer in a heartbeat. Some would even say: “That’s a good deal, sign me up.” But not Moses. His response is different: “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here” (Exod. 33:15). In other words, Moses in effect says: “Lord, if you’re not going to be present with us, just go ahead and kill us now. You are the whole reason that we want to go to the Promised Land, because you are better than the Promised Land. You are the treasure. Your presence is the whole point. So don’t give us any other treasure, even the Promised Land, if you’re not also going to give us yourself.” Here is the principle: God dwells in the midst of his people. Numbers 5:3 tells us that God dwells in the midst of the camp.

That’s the flip side of the laws about excluding defiled people from the camp. The laws remind us that God is there. God is there in the camp. That is a huge blessing and privilege. Yes, his presence requires carefulness about defilement, because he is holy and undefiled, but his presence is the greatest blessing and comfort we could possibly experience. And it is always a marvelous picture of condescending grace.

Do you remember when David purposes to build a temple for God? He is living in a big palace and he says, “Lord, I want to build you a big house” (see 2 Sam. 7:2). And the Lord says, “David, when in all the times of the sojournings of my people have I ever dwelled in a big house? When my people were living in tents in the wilderness do you know where I lived? I lived in a tent right in their midst all the way” (see 2 Sam. 7:5–7). In the camp, God manifests his presence with his people, and therefore, because God is dwelling in the camp, you have to be very careful about defilement. The sacrificial animals have to be taken outside the camp because they are defiled. The refuse of Israel has to be taken outside the camp because it defiles. Because God is present in the camp, those who are ritually defiled because of hemorrhages, discharges, leprosy, or contact with dead bodies have to go outside the camp.

But the positive message in this—the inestimable blessing—is that God dwells with his people, near his people, in the midst of his people. That is our God. He has always been like that. When Jesus comes and tabernacles among us (John 1:14), he simply reflects the heart of his Father, who dwells with and near his people. The comfort of this is incalculable.

God Has Spoken—“as the Lord said to Moses, so the people of Israel did” (5:4)

So these laws teach that God is holy and that God is present. But they also teach that God has spoken. Think of it. Put yourself in this situation. Your son has a discharge of the most ordinary sort. He is fourteen years old, your firstborn, and the priest comes to you and he says, “He’s got to go outside the camp. Outside of the safety and protection of the camp in the howling wilderness of Sinai.” And that deeply concerned father who loves his son as his pride and joy, nevertheless, as a humble and Bible-obeying Hebrew believer, says, “Because that’s what God has said, we’ll obey. Son, you’ll be alright, we’ll obey. The Lord will protect you outside of the camp.”

Or, imagine that your wife has contracted a skin disease and the priest comes and says, “That woman whom you love more than life itself, she’s got to go outside the camp.” And every molecule of your being screams out, “Not her! Send me outside the camp, but not her!” Listen to the language of Numbers 5:4: “The people of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the Lord said to Moses, so the people of Israel did.”

Would you have obeyed the word of God like they did? If it was your son or daughter, your husband or wife, your best friend?

This is what it means to live by the Book. It’s when we go to this Book and it tells us to do things that cost us, things we don’t want to do, even things that may break our hearts, then, then, we find out if we really love and trust God, and believe his word. It is in those moments when we are called to follow the Book when it’s hard, that our hearts’ true natures are revealed. You do what you believe. And you won’t obey what you don’t believe.

There are all sorts of people who want to call themselves “people of the Book,” and when they find things in it that make them out of step with this culture, or their desires, what do they do? They reinterpret the Book. Yes, in those places where this Book says things that butt up against our will or our desires, we’re tempted to reinterpret it.

There are people right now in our time and culture, people who claim to be Christians, trying to do this with the Bible’s crystal-clear teaching on sexual ethics. Same-sex marriage and same-sex sexual activity is forbidden in the Bible, and yet people try to rationalize their own desires and behavior by changing their interpretation of the Book. But let me be clear: not one of us is immune from the temptation to change the meaning of God’s Word to make it less demanding, less intrusive—all in the pursuit of giving ourselves an excuse to do what we want to do.

There are many idolatries—Calvin said our hearts are idol factories—and the question is, “Are we going to bow the knee to God and live under the Book because God has spoken, believing and obeying every word commanded to us, or are we going to make it up as we go along?” And if we do what we want rather than what God commands, then we are not like the faithful children of Israel who sent their loved ones out in obedience to the spoken word of God, just as the Lord commanded them.

These laws provided a test of faith. Do we really believe God has spoken, even when what he has spoken seems hard and is hard? Moses tells us here that, in this instance, the people in the wilderness showed they believed the Lord had spoken, by obeying his commands.

So these seemingly strange laws are profoundly theological. They teach us that God is holy, God is present, and God has spoken.

I also want you to see how encompassing this law is. You really need to look at Leviticus 13—15 to see the comprehensiveness of it. Leviticus 15:1–12 will give you a sense of the demands of the law of discharges:

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. And this is the law of his uncleanness for a discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body is blocked up by his discharge, it is his uncleanness. Every bed on which the one with the discharge lies shall be unclean, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean. And anyone who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever sits on anything on which the one with the discharge has sat shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever touches the body of the one with the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And if the one with the discharge spits on someone who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And any saddle on which the one with the discharge rides shall be unclean. And whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until the evening. And whoever carries such things shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. Anyone whom the one with the discharge touches without having rinsed his hands in water shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And an earthenware vessel that the one with the discharge touches shall be broken, and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.”

Did you see the expansion of Numbers 5:1–4 here? Not only is the one with the skin disease or discharge unclean or defiled, anyone who comes into contact with him is defiled or unclean. This uncleanness is contagious! If you come into contact with it, you’re unclean. That is how comprehensive these commands are about defilement. They convey a moral lesson. They say, “You are a defiled sinner, everything you touch is unclean, and everyone who touches you or what you have touched is unclean.”

The Christological Purpose of the Laws in Numbers

Now, we have argued that these laws were given for a practical purpose and a theological purpose, but, ultimately, they serve a Christological purpose. They point us to Jesus Christ. How?

Well, do you remember Luke telling us about Jesus’ walk on the road to Emmaus with two disconsolate disciples (Luke 24:13–35)? As an answer to their crisis of faith, Jesus gives them a systematic Christological study of the Old Testament Scriptures. Luke tells us that he said to them:

“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25–27)

Beginning with Moses (the Torah, the Pentateuch) and all the Prophets (the rest of the Old Testament), Jesus explained how the Scriptures point to his person and work, to his humiliation and exaltation! Well, what if I told you that that same Luke who recorded that amazing conversation, also knows our passage in Numbers 5:1–4? And, in canonical order, in Luke 5 and Luke 8, he takes us to an encounter between Jesus and a leper, Jesus and a woman with a discharge, and Jesus and a little dead girl.

Luke tells us of Jesus’ encounter with a leper in Luke 5:12–13:

While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.

Take the force of this in—what Luke, the physician, tells you. Jesus stretches out his hand and touches the leper! Every good Hebrew there is screaming, “Jesus, don’t touch him! You will become unclean!” But Jesus “stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy left him.”

Jesus touches the unclean man and something amazing happens: Jesus doesn’t become unclean, but the man becomes clean. Luke is telling you that Jesus can do what the ceremonial law couldn’t do. You can read all the way through Leviticus and do you know what it doesn’t tell you? It doesn’t tell you how to heal a leper. It doesn’t tell you how to make an unclean, defiled leper clean. It tells you what to do if a person becomes clean, but it doesn’t tell you how to make anybody clean. The priest isn’t given a solution about how to make somebody clean, because there is nobody that can make someone clean but Jesus. Jesus touches that leprous man and he makes him clean!

Then, as Jesus is about to minister to a worried father and a fretting family who are fearing for their daughter’s life, he encounters a woman with a discharge in Luke 8:40–56.

Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.

As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment. . . . (vv. 40–44)

Once again, every faithful, ceremonial-law-keeping Hebrew there, had they seen it and understood her condition, would have screamed out to Jesus, “Don’t let her touch you!” But she does touch him and she becomes clean. He does not become unclean. Luke writes, “And immediately her discharge of blood ceased” (v. 44).

Why? Because Jesus can do what the ceremonial law can’t do. He can make her clean.

And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” (vv. 45–48)

Then, in the wake of the unmitigated joy that this daughter of Israel must have been experiencing after her deliverance from an affliction that had vexed her for a dozen years, crushing news comes to the father he was on his way to help.

And now, Jesus is faced with something beyond any priest or teacher. He’s faced with the ultimate defilement. Death. Surely there was nothing that could be done.

While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler’s house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand . . . (vv. 49–54)

Again, Jesus touches the corpse of the little girl. And every observant Jew would have screamed out: “No, Jesus, don’t touch that dead body! You’ll become unclean!”

Taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. (vv. 54–56)

He touches her, he doesn’t become unclean, and she lives! He speaks to her like a Hebrew father would address a little child when it’s time to get up in the morning. “Sweet girl, get up.” “My child, wake up.” And. She. Lives.

Who is this? Who is this that can touch the unclean and defiled and not become unclean and defiled? Who is this who can touch the unclean and defiled and make them clean and undefiled? Who is this who can touch the dead and speak them to life? Luke has a megaphone up to your heart and he’s proclaiming, “This is a mediator who can do things that Moses couldn’t do, that the priests couldn’t do, that even the high priest couldn’t do. He can touch lepers—and he’s not unclean, but they’re made clean. He can touch people with discharges—and he’s not unclean, but they’re made clean. He can touch dead people—and they come to life. Who is this? This is the Son of God made flesh! This is the only mediator for all God’s people, “who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy” (Ps. 103:3–4).

Why all this about defilement and Numbers 5? Luke knows that only Jesus can address the defilement and uncleanness, both ritual and actual, that Numbers 5:1–4 points to. And brother pastors, you need to know that too.

Jesus Knows What to Do

If you’re going to point people to Jesus, then you need to know that Jesus knows what to do with them when you bring them to him. When the weight of the sense of our own defilement finally comes home, when we meet our true selves in all our uncleanness in the middle of the night, what do we say in our hearts?

Or, when your people say things like, “You don’t know what kind of life I’ve lived. You don’t know what I’ve done. I don’t think anyone can forgive me of my sin, certainly not THAT one.”

Or, when that sense of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man comes upon our hearts, what do we say? Do we say, “I don’t think there’s any way my defilement can be dealt with”?

Not at all, because it’s in that moment we need to know that our Jesus knows how to deal with our defilement. And what does he do? He reaches right out for that defilement. And, like Luke’s God-fearing Jews, we scream out in our heart: Lord, you don’t know what I’ve done. Don’t touch that defilement. It is my shame; I don’t want anybody to know that I’ve done THAT. I don’t even think that God can forgive me of THAT. Jesus, don’t reach out and touch that defilement. You’ll become unclean!

And what does he do? He reaches right out and touches that defilement—and he doesn’t become unclean, but you become clean.

Brothers, when you take people to Jesus, he knows what to do with them. There is power in him to deal with our defilement:

“What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

How Jesus Makes Us Clean

This brings me to where I want us to go. Because this is not the end of the New Testament’s references to the realities of Numbers 5. Let’s turn to Hebrews 13, and as we do, let’s ask ourselves, “How is it that Jesus does this? Exactly how is it that Jesus touches the defiled and he’s not defiled and they are made undefiled? How is it that he touches someone who is unclean and they are made clean and he’s not made unclean? How is it that he is able to grant this forgiveness and pardon and cleansing?”

Hebrews 13:10–13 helps us with the answer:

We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.

Do you see what’s going on here? How is it that Jesus touches the unclean? How can the undefiled, sinless Son of God touch the unclean and make them clean? Because he says to his Father, “Father, I want to bear their reproach in their place outside the camp.”

Do you see what is going on in that “outside the camp” picture? To be “outside the camp” is to be cut off from the presence of God. That is what defilement deserves. Think for a moment of the Aaronic blessing: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Num. 6:24–26). With this in mind, Jesus says to his loving Father, “Father, I know that in your great love for your people and in your infinite holiness and righteous perfection, the only way your grace and favor can be righteously pronounced on your people—the only way the Aaronic benediction can be righteously pronounced on your people—is if someone bears their reproach, bears their shame, bears their guilt, bears their uncleanness, and bears their defilement. Father, I want to do that for them. I want to do that for them because I love them, just like you love them, and because I want to glorify you in bringing them home to you, back into your holy presence. So I will go ‘outside the camp.’ I will be cut off so that they will not be cut off. I want to bear their reproach so that they can be clean.”

And so, the sinless, undefiled Son of God hears not, “The Lord bless you and keep you,” but “the Lord curse you and cut you off” so that you can hear, “The Lord bless you and keep you.”

The sinless, undefiled Son of God hears not, “The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and be gracious to you,” but “I will turn my face away from you and show you no mercy, but only the just judgment due defiled sinners.”

The sinless, undefiled Son of God hears not, “The Lord make his face to shine upon you and give you peace,” but “my face will look on you in righteous indignation and you will bear my wrath and have no peace; you will be cut off from your people, driven away from the comfortable presence of your God and it’s enjoyment.”

And in bearing their reproach, their defilement, they will be made clean, whiter than snow.

That is what Jesus does.

So, when you share the gospel with non-Christians and they object, “You don’t understand; you don’t know who I am and what I am like and what I’ve done,” you can say, “Friend, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that he can’t touch and clean in you. Nothing. There is no disease that he can’t fix in your soul because he has borne the unmitigated wrath of God in your place outside the camp so that you can dwell in the presence of God, in him, by faith, forever.”

Second Corinthians 5:21 tells us, “He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

There’s the motivation for evangelism! Don’t you want to tell everybody in the world about Jesus? And where does the author of Hebrews take you? Let us respond and say ourselves, “He went outside the camp for me? I want to go outside the camp. I want to go to lepers, and I want to go to people with discharges. And I want to go to people who are dead in trespasses and sins, and I want to tell them about the one man who can do something about their sin, the one man who can save their lives: the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to share the gospel!” Go!