Numbers 19:20

"But the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah: the water for impurity hath not been sprinkled upon him; he is unclean. And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them: and he that sprinkleth the water for impurity shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water for impurity shall be unclean until even. And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall he unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even."

Another of the mysteries of this ceremony appears here. Why should the one sprinkling the water of impurity be unclean, whereas it was the same water that purified the unclean person? We have discovered no reasonable solution of such questions, of which there are several in this chapter. Perhaps it was designed to contain elements of mystery beyond the powers of full human comprehension. The best comment we have seen on this was that of Jamieson:

"It taught that the purifying efficacy was not inherent in the ceremony itself, but arose from the Divine appointment, as in other ordinances of religion, which are effective means of salvation, not from any virtue in them, but solely from the grace of God."[15]

Without a doubt, it was this "short-form" ceremony that principally achieved the continued purity of Israel during the wanderings, enabling them, at last to enter the Promised Land as God had promised.