June 20, 2013

Numbers 19:1-2 — “The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:  “This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke.”

In the “Theological Declaration of Barmen” Written by Karl Barth and the confessing church in Nazi Germany in response to Hitler’s national church we find “Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.”

Now how does that connect to this odd business in the Book of Numbers that talks about the Red Heifer. Do you remember — The Red heifer (which must not have hairs of any other color, must be in perfect health, and it must not have been used to perform work) is sacrificed and burned outside of the camp. Cedar wood, hyssop, and wool dyed scarlet are added to the fire, and the remaining ashes are placed in a vessel containing pure water which is then used to purify a person who has become ritually contaminated by contact with a corpse — water from the vessel is sprinkled on him, using a bunch of hyssop, on the third and seventh day of the purification process. Just to compound the oddity, the priest who officiated then becomes ritually unclean, and must then bathe himself and his clothes in a ritual bath and is deemed impure until evening. Where’s the logic to all of this? There isn’t any! There doesn’t need to be. There is another translation of “This is the requirement of the law” that says, “This is the law of the Torah” – or in other words, “This is how God says it has to be”. That’s the only explanation necessary, and that’s all we get.

I love the wonderful words that Karl Barth and his colleagues penned, knowing perhaps that they were writing what might, in the fullness of time, become their death warrant. They perfectly express the requirement, and its source.

Of course John Sammis expressed it beautifully too, and perhaps more simply, in the hymn so many of us love …

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, what a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Somebody asked me today, “What things does God want from us?” I could find all sorts of Biblical texts – but the bottom line is that God knows what He’s doing, and all He want of us is that we trust … and obey! Just do it!