But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.
We are told about the person who sprinkles the red heifer water for purification, And it shall be a statute forever for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening(Numbers 19:21). In other words, the one who purifies others defiles himself in doing so.
Blood is ritually unclean and the red heifer water is blood based. Therefore he that even touches that water is made impure by it but yet, while it is unclean, it purifies others, and while he who touches it defiles himself, he purifies others. How can an impure element purify? It may seem like a contradiction but is it really?
To what can it be compared? When I clean my house I usually get dirty and I have to wash myself afterword; even the washing agents that I use are dangerous to me. When I do dishes (the old fashioned way) I put my hands in dirty dishwater to scrub plates and silverware then rinse the dishes clean onto a dish drainer. I dirty my hands to clean a dish.
While this seems to be a contradiction, it is very consistent with the principles of God’s Kingdom. It is impossible for one to ascend unless he first was down, or descended from above. Before being first, we must hold the inferior position.
Also in the same manner, serving precedes leading; lowliness comes before exaltation and poverty before wealth. The carnal is before before the spiritual, the corruptible before the eternal. Adam was the first, Yeshua the last, but in the end, the first becomes last and the last becomes first!
Please Abba, may He who was first and made Himself last to take us back as firsts with Him return soon to establish a first-class kingdom on earth in these last days.