What is the meaning of Numbers 19:3? Give it to Eleazar the priest • Verse 2 has already stated that the heifer is “without blemish, in which there is no defect,” foreshadowing the sinless Substitute later revealed in Christ (1 Peter 1:19). • The animal is entrusted to Eleazar, Aaron’s eldest surviving son (Exodus 28:1; Numbers 3:32). This underlines the priestly responsibility to mediate between a holy God and His people. • By naming Eleazar rather than Aaron, God keeps Aaron free from any contact with the carcass, so he can continue his daily tabernacle ministry (Leviticus 21:11-12). • The text reminds us that cleansing from defilement is God’s work through the priesthood He appoints. Hebrews 7:26-27 points forward to the perfect High Priest who offers Himself once for all. He will have it brought outside the camp • “Outside the camp” is where uncleanness is expelled (Numbers 5:2-4). The place of rejection becomes the place where cleansing is provided. • The sin offerings of the Day of Atonement were also burned outside the camp (Leviticus 16:27), stressing complete removal of sin. • Hebrews 13:11-12 draws the line straight to Calvary: “Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to sanctify the people by His own blood”. • God is teaching that reconciliation requires both separation from defilement and substitutionary shedding of blood. And slaughtered in his presence • The heifer is killed while Eleazar watches, guaranteeing the sacrifice is performed exactly as God decreed (Leviticus 1:4-5). • The priest’s presence confirms that forgiveness is not a private invention but a divinely authorized provision. • The animal dies instead of the people, a vivid picture of penal substitution (Isaiah 53:5; Hebrews 9:14). • Every detail points to Christ, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). summary Numbers 19:3 presents God’s precise remedy for uncleanness: a spotless victim entrusted to the priest, taken outside the camp, and slain under priestly supervision. Together these elements highlight God’s holiness, humanity’s defilement, and the necessity of an approved, substitutionary sacrifice—a pattern perfectly and finally fulfilled in Jesus Christ. |
    |