The Spoils of War. . .
Numbers 31:21-23 And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD commanded Moses; (22) Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead, (23) Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water. Eleazar instructs the Hebrew men of war, on how to treat the spoils that they bring into the camp from the battle field. If it is able to withstand it, if the spoils are of a nature able to physically survive the fire, then they must pass through the fire to be purified and cleansed. Nevertheless after passing through the fire the spoils (and indeed all spoils) must be washed with the water of separation. This 'water of separation', its preparation, its recipe take care to notice, was given by God directly t...