Numbers 19:11-22
The virtue of the water which contained the ashes of the heifer matched the many instances in which defilement took place during the wilderness journey. To touch a dead body or a human bone corresponds for us to contact with the corruption and violence of this world. The flesh can show itself in the family (the tent: v. 14), so then give special attention to your children, these "open vessels" so easily offended! (v. 15; Luke 17:2). It can appear outside, in our work (in the open fields: v. 16). A little deception, a slander, a foolish word or an unseemly joke (Ephesians 5:4); each of us can make his own list of these "little bones", fleshly manifestations we often pass over without paying any attention to them. Yes! the believer is defiled by these shortcomings. They don’t seem very important to those who do not know Jesus, but we who love Him should take them seriously; we remember that it was to atone for things like these that He had to suffer and die. Each time we have to renew what corresponds to this process of purification – judgment of ourselves in the light of the Word of God, and fresh realisation of the efficacy of the work of Christ.