Numbers 19:11

Numbers 19:11 says, He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.  Moses then received instructions about anyone who touched a dead body, and someone would have to if the body was not to be left where it fell.  This law concerned the dead body of a person, and brought a heavier burden than touching the dead body of any animal or an unclean person.  When touching the dead body of a person, anyone who touched it would be unclean for seven days.  Matthew Henry says this may have had to do with the wages of sin being death, and any death being associated with sin.  Verse twelve adds, He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.  In order to be clean after the seventh day, the person had to cleanse themselves on the third day.  Christ rose on the third day to wash away our sins, and if we accept Him as our Savior and Lord, we are immediately made spiritually clean, and do not have to wait for any amount of time to pass after we accept Him to be so.  Verse thirteen states, Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him.  Though the cleansing was a ceremonial one, anyone who failed to be cleansed by the water of separation was still unclean and cutoff from the rest of the nation of Isreal.  Being washed by the blood of Christ is not a physical thing, but a spiritual one, and until we are washed by His blood, we are cutoff from His kingdom.  Verse fourteen adds, This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.  If a person died in a tent, everyone and everything in that tent would be considered unclean.  When we come in contact with sin today, it pollutes everything that we come in contact with, if we do not ask God for forgiveness through our faith in Jesus Christ.  Verse fifteen continues, And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean.  Every uncovered vessel would be considered unclean, just as every person is unclean until they are covered by the blood of Christ.  Verse sixteen concludes, And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.  Even touching a bone or a grave knowingly made a person unclean for seven days.  Anytime we knowingly come in contact with sin, we need to be purified once again.