The Red Heifer, Numbers the 19th Chapter


Introduction:

I. The Ashes of the Red Heifer were the only way for Israel to purify themselves from the curse of death. If they touched a corpse they were unclean. (v.11) This uncleanliness would even defile the Tabernacle of God (v.13). Even if a person dies in a tent, all those in the tent were unclean (v.14). Open vessels are all contaminated by the near by death and are unclean. If they touch a dead solider, human bone or grave, they are unclean. (v.16).The only resolution to this curse of death was the ashes of the Red heifer mixed with water. All those who refuse to purify themselves with the cleansing water are to be completely cut off from the people and by default YHWH.

II. A look at the Ritual

  1. The Animal.

    A Female Cow, (Ruddy) A cow or kine or a calf.

    a) It is the female who will bring forth a child in Gen.3:15 who will crush the head of Satan.

    b ) The word Red (v.2) is adom or Adam. Same root word as 'ground'. Thus in the beginning God made Adam from the ground.

    c ) From Adam God promised to bring forth a life giver the woman. Her name was ishsha (woman or life giver Gen. 3:15). The last Adam also, was to “be born of a woman” to redeem those born under the curse of the law (Gal. 4:4). We then find this 2nd Adam to be Christ as Christ was born of a woman. The 2nd Adam must reverse the damage done by the first Adam, since the first Adam (and Eve) were expelled from the presence of God. Now the 2nd Adam (Christ) born under the law went outside the gate to redeem the 1st Adam's failure.

      d) Now we know why “female” and “Red” since the words themselves are prophetic

    B. Without a Blemish. - Once again, this is typology for our savior and His perfect life.

    C. No Yoke – Christ Jesus was not forced to do the will of the Father but “He offered Himself” (Hebrews 9:25,26).

    D. The Heifer was then to be given to the Priest and taken out side the camp to be killed.

    1. Some of the blood to be sprinkled toward the tabernacle.

    2. The Heifer then is to be burned, completely.

    3. The Priest takes:

    a) cedar wood =eternal

    b) Hyssop = cleansing

    c) Scarlet = blood

E. The Priest is then to wash clothes, bathe himself

1. Is still unclean until the evening

2. A clean man must gather up the ashes

3. Mix with water.

4. This "Water" mixed with ashes is for the purification from sin. (Guess what, saved by water!).

JESUS AND THE RED HEIFER SACRIFICE

The suffering of the Messiah fulfills the typological [prophetic] elements of the red heifer sacrifice.

A. The heifer was to be slain outside the city; Jesus was slain “outside the gate,” (Hebrews 13:12). Historically the heifer was taken to the Mount of Olives and slain.

B. The entire heifer was to be consumed. Jesus gave himself completely in sacrifice. The ashes of the heifer were to be collected by one that was clean and stored in a clean place. Joseph of Arimathea, a devout man, collected Jesus’ body and placed it in a new tomb, one that had never been defiled, (John 19:41.) The heifer’s ashes were to be stored outside the city; Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb outside the city.

C. During the sacrifice of the heifer, hyssop, cedar and scarlet was to be added. While on trial Jesus had a scarlet robe placed on him,

(Matthew 27:28). As he hung on the cross he asked for a drink. The soldiers dipped hyssop in vinegar and gave it to him, [5] (John 19:29).

D. The red heifer ashes were applied to the defiled person in two stages, on the third day and on the seventh, (Numbers 19:12). There was an “already-but-not-yet” process of cleansing from the defilement of death. Likewise, the New Testament affirms that Jesus destroyed death by his death, (2 Timothy 1:9-10), but would destroy death at his parousia (coming), (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).


DELIVERANCE FROM DEATH

A. We are delivered from death.

The writer of Hebrews states the purpose of Jesus’ sacrifice “through death, he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the Devil,” (Hebrews 2:14). Is this an implicit reference to the red heifer sacrifice? This sacrifice, more than any other, was devoted to the deliverance from the defilement of death.

B. It Is Jesus who cleans the conscience from Dead Works

In Hebrews 9:13-14 it says: “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Because of the meaning of the red heifer sacrifice-deliverance from the defilement of death--Hebrews 9:13-14 must be seen as a “resurrection text” setting forth the reality of resurrection life in Jesus. He provides cleansing of the conscience and deliverance “from dead works.”

We Must Define Dead Works!

A. Deliverance from “dead works” means deliverance from “works or conduct that leads to death instead of life.”

a. For the Jew this included deliverance from the Old Covenant System because, though glorious, it was a “ministration of death,” (2 Corinthians 3:6); it could not give life, (Galatians 3:20-21).

b. For the Gentile, deliverance meant freedom from that which had

“killed”; “And you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins” said Paul to the Gentile Ephesians of their conversion to Christ. In Christ is to be found “the eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15). To put it succinctly “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life,” (Romans 6:23).



RESURRECTION IMPLICATIONS

A. The Logic of the matter!



a. The red heifer was for the deliverance from death; Jesus’ sacrifice is for the deliverance from death. Jesus’ sacrifice is effective spiritually; something the red heifer ceremony could only anticipate. Because Jesus died to deliver us from death, (Hebrews 2:14), and because his sacrifice is effective this means we are currently delivered from death.

b. It is how we draw Near to God

1) Hebrews draws on the imagery of the Old Covenant sacrifices: “Let us draw near to God with a true heart, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water,” (Hebrews 10:22). The Old Covenant sacrifices were applied by the sprinkling of the blood and washing of the body; yet they could never cleanse the conscience. (Hebrews 9:9; 10:1-4).

2) We draw near to God through baptism.

The blood of Jesus however is applied to our hearts at the time when our bodies are “washed with pure water.” This is an unmistakable reference to baptism. In Romans 6:3-4, the writer says that those baptized into Christ join with his death, burial and resurrection; they are raised to walk in newness of life. Resurrection life is for those who enter the power of his resurrection.

The apostle affirms in Colossians 2:11-13 that in baptism the believer is “buried” with Christ and “raised up with him by faith in the operation of God.” He also says that at this juncture “you, being dead in your trespasses and the un-circumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” Here is deliverance from death by the power of the sacrifice of Jesus.

FURTHER IMPLICATIONS

A. When the law is fulfilled, then the Old covenant is History.

a. God decreed that when the Old Testament was completely fulfilled it would pass away, (Matthew 5:17-18). If Christ has not completely fulfilled the prophetic aspect of the red heifer sacrifice the old law is still in effect. Thus, if death has not been completely purged, the law is still in effect. If he has fulfilled the prophetic element of that offering, the old law has passed---and death has been abolished.



b. In Colossians 2:14-16 and Hebrews 10:1-4 the writer says the Old Covenant sacrifices were a “shadow of good things to come.” Both passages also say that Jesus is the substance or reality to which those shadows pointed. Thus, the completion of Jesus’ work would signal the termination of the Old Covenant and its sacrificial system.

c. It was all temporary.

1) God never intended for animal sacrifices to be permanent: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire” Hebrews 10:5. The Lord always pointed Israel beyond those animal offerings to the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus.

2) The old system had to go. As long as that old system--including the red heifer sacrifice--stood, man could [can!] have no access to God, (Hebrews 9:6-10). That old system was to stand until “the time of reformation,” (Hebrews 9:10); but that system was “ready to vanish away” when Hebrews was written, (Hebrews 8:13).

3) A warning against returning to the Law.

a) In the first century, some Jewish Christians were forsaking Christ to return to the observance of the Old Covenant law. b)The Hebrews writer said that to do so was to apostatize and crucify Christ afresh,” Hebrews 6:4-6.

c) Cannot return to the Law. All attempts to reestablish the red heifer sacrifice are tantamount to a rejection of Christ’s sacrifice. His sacrifice accomplishes deliverance from sin and death. Simply stated, if Christ’s sacrifice delivers us from sin, it delivers us from death. Christ’s sacrifice lacks nothing. Reestablishment of the red heifer sacrifice could add nothing to it.

Christ’s sacrifice is the reality anticipated by the “shadow” of the red heifer offering. Christ’s sacrifice is better than the red heifer holocaust, (Hebrews 9:13-14). A restoration of the red heifer sacrifice would be the reinstitution of an inferior system. The ashes of the red heifer “sanctified to the purifying of the flesh.” Jesus’ sacrifice cleanses the conscience.

d. The cleansing of the red heifer sacrifice cleansed from the defilement of physical death. The sacrifice of Christ gives eternal life,



(Hebrews 9:15). O'Theos never took pleasure in “burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin,” (Hebrews 10:6-7). To seek the restoration of those sacrifices is to return to what He never desired. Christ’s death and his parousia destroyed death and brought life to full reality. The shadows of the old system have given way to the reality.

e. Jesus’ sacrifice is superior to the red heifer sacrifice. Jesus is the fulfillment of the sacrificial system of Old Covenant Israel. Jesus is the cessation of the Old Covenant system. Let us not be guilty of rejecting the perfect, efficacious deliverance from death because of a zealous but misguided zeal over the birth of a red calf in Israel. The sacrifice of the red heifer--or a thousand others cannot replace the sacrifice of Christ.



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by Lane Rogers