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The purification offered to the people by the ashes of the red heifer were very important in the days of ancient Israel.
As for the modern world, we just passed a season and time when we have to be aware of what we think is right before God. We need to know and understand what is appropriate or forbidden in worship. Our hearts need to always be pure before God. Sometimes we make horrible human mistakes. Often we fail to understand how important certain things are. It was no different in the days of Moses.
In ancient times there was no Messiah.
So, how was this handled in the ancient times?
It was handled through the ritual of the ashes of the red heifer. Perhaps this will help us in our logic for considering how to move and breathe in God’s will in the days of our own culture. Let’s look at how it all took place.
CLEANSING WATERS
Numbers 19:1-11 speaks to us of how the Israelite people were to obtain cleansing so that they could be allowed inside the area of the tabernacle for worship. This is where we learn of the ashes of the red heifer.
This is the first time in their journey through the wilderness that we hear of the necessity of the ashes of a red heifer.
IMPORTANT RITUAL
It became a very important ritual for Israel. Let’s read the passage first:
Numbers 19:1-9: The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: “This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish that has never been under a yoke. Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle lit seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting.
While he watches, the heifer is to be burned – its hide, flesh, blood and intestines. The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer. After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bath himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening.
The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening. A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They are to be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleaning; it is for purification from sin.
The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he too will be unclean till evening. This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the foreigners residing among them.
STORY BEHIND THE RITUAL OF THE RED HEIFER
Are you familiar with the whole story of the necessity of the red heifer?
God first calls attention to the need for it in the cleansing routines used by the priest. As time goes on we begin to see a much larger picture of why the red heifer was used.
First a red heifer must be found. It must have no defects or blemishes. This animal should have never been used for plowing (or ever put under a yoke for work.)
CLEANSING FROM THE RED HEIFER
The people could not enter the tabernacle unclean.
This sacrifice of the red heifer would be offered up for their cleansing before they would be allowed to go inside the courts of the wilderness tabernacle to worship.
The red heifer (three years old) was to be taken outside the camp by the priest to a specific place where it was to be slaughtered and burned. The ashes were then mixed together with pure spring water to be sprinkled upon the people for purification.
A CONTINUAL PRACTICE
This practice started in the days of Moses. It was implemented through history up until the time that the Temple was destroyed.
All together there have been nine red heifers sacrificed. The nation of Israel is now waiting on the 10th red heifer to appear. Many think it will arrive at the same time that Messiah returns to earth.
Originally the people were contaminated. They became impure because of the making of the golden calf. You can read the story in Deuteronomy, Chapter nine of your bible.
THE STORY OF THE GOLDEN CALF
To make that story very short; it was a time when Moses had ascended to the mountain of God to receive the commandments of God. The people were tired of waiting on their leader to return. They were bored and restless. Impatiently, they appealed to Aaron (whom Moses had left in charge) to create a golden calf.
Miriam’s son, Hur, tried to persuade the people that this was wrong. They killed him for standing up to them.
We know that bulls were a pagan symbol of worship in the land of Canaan. Also, they were worshiped in some areas of Egypt from where the people of Israel had just been released from slavery.
Aaron, probably afraid of the same fate as Hur, complied with the wishes of the people. He made the calf that they wished for him to make.
INFLUENCE FROM FOREIGNERS
Many scholars have pointed out that there were Egyptians who tagged along with the crowd as they left Egypt. Some thought perhaps they had been secretly conspiring, persuading the people to make the calf.
Aaron was said to have stalled for time, thinking that Moses would soon return. When that didn’t work, he was said to have commanded that the people bring all their gold for making the calf. Aaron’s thinking was they might be stingy and not want to give up their gold.
However; they complied.
It is unlikely that Aaron actually intended this calf to become an idol. We also know he proclaimed a Feast for Yahweh after he finished making it. (Exodus 32:5).
THE TWISTING OF TRUTH
At first it appeared that the people worshiping the calf seemed to associate it with the God who brought them out of Egypt.
It was said by some that the Egyptian conspirators living among them knew magic tricks which made the calf appear to jump out of the fire. Many believe that this was when the people’s hearts turned from worshiping God to worshiping the golden calf.
The people again allowed themselves to be tricked into believing a lie by sensational magic.
Whatever the circumstances leading up to this (there are many theories) as time went on the truth came out.
SELF DESTRUCTION AMONG THE CAMP
Most of the people wanted Aaron to make them a God to lead them because Moses had tarried so long on the Mountain.
They had allowed themselves to be deceived.
Whatever their original intentions, it becomes clear in Exodus 32:8 that the people immediately fell to worshiping the calf and violated the first commandment which God was giving to Moses on the Mountain (Thou shalt not have any other gods before Me.)
Now, God is omnipresent. He could see the people in the camp and tend to Moses on the Mountain at the same time. God KNEW this was going on the whole time, yet; He was giving Moses instructions of His will. God informed Moses of his displeasure with the people. He said that they would die for their sins. God told Moses that a new people, descendants of Moses, would take their place. The generations of Moses would be used to carry God’s will with them to the nations of the world.
MOSES STANDS IN THE GAP
Moses was very distressed.
He prayed for God to forgive the people. Moses reminded God of the covenant with Abraham as he was begging for mercy.
God decided to be merciful.
Moses had promised the people that he would return in 40 days. When the 40th day arrived, Moses returned at sunset with the Commandments of God in his hands. His assistant, Joshua, was waiting on him at the foot of the Mountain. They returned together at the end of the 40th day after receiving the Revelation of God, just as promised.
A MILLION SHATTERED PIECES
When they approached the camp and saw what was taking place, Moses threw the tablets of the commandments on the ground in frustration. In this impulsive action he broke the tablets into a million shattered pieces.
Then, Moses took the golden calf and ground it to dust. He spread the dust over water and made the people drink it.
This was his way of showing them the worthlessness of their idol. Moses wanted them to understand the lack of power it had. This procedure was also the test procedure typically used for determining if a wife was in adultery. We studied that in the past and you can review it here if you like: NUMBERS FIVE AND THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY. The people had committed spiritual adultery by worshiping an idol.
Moses then stood at the entrance of the camp. He told everyone who worshiped God to stand with him. The entire tribe of Levi came.
LIVES WASTED IN IDOLATRY
Moses then commanded those who were of God to slaughter those who had worshiped the golden calf, no matter how important those people were to them.
Can you imagine what a hard request this must have been for most of these men?
That day three thousand of the children of Israel lost their lives because of the sin of idolatry.
Moses went back up the mountain. There he prayed to God for the next 40 days while the people mourned their dead and atoned for their sins before God. When the 40 days were up, God told Moses to hew another set of tablets.
Moses ascended to the mountain a third time for God to inscribe the Commandments.
Over the next 40 days God inscribed the commandments. He told Moses that He had forgiven the children of Israel.
HOW TO OBTAIN ATONEMENT FOR SIN
As Moses stood on the mountain with the commandments in his hands, God taught Moses how the people could make atonement for their sins through repentance and prayer.
God proclaimed thirteen attributes for the people to recite in the days of their repentance. These are a story unto themselves, but you can read of them in Exodus 34:6-7.
After all of this Moses invited God to go before them and to use them as His people again.
God promised a covenant to Moses.
On the tenth day of the month of Tishrei, (Yom Kippur,) Moses returned to the camp. Again he brought the commandments and told the people of God’s covenant with them.
God had promised them many blessings and miracles.
Moses’ face shinned so bright that the people were frightened. They looked at him in awe. Moses veiled himself. Once veiled, he proceeded to teach the children of Israel the Torah.
THE RED HEIFER WAS SYMBOLIC OF THE REVERSAL OF THE SIN OF THE GOLDEN CALF
Well……I tried to make that explanation as brief as possible, but you can’t leave much out and have the whole story. Getting back to the reason for the Red Heifer, can you see how this ritual would signify the reversal of the sin of the golden calf?
The Jewish people living in the modern world of today still look for the Temple to be re-instituted. They think the story of the Red Heifer is a mystery of God that cannot be explained. In wonder they ask how it would be possible for the ashes of a sacrificed animal to purify a people from sin and defilement. It is still a great mystery to them. The only explanation they CAN see is that it was the reversal of the sin of the golden calf.
There are many mysteries surrounding the thought and ritual of The Red Heifer. It was originally used to purify the people, especially from the contamination of death. Death was considered the worst impurity of all impurities; because life was considered the most sacred of all pure things. It was this atoning sacrifice that eventually brought eternal life through Christ as the red heifer.
Sin had brought the death of three thousand people.
These three thousand knew the truth; but they had let others in the culture persuade them of untruth.
Can you not see that happening all around us today?
THE INFLUENCES OF THE WORLD BOTH THEN AND NOW
Israel didn’t just get up one day and decide to be disobedient to God, it seeped in on them from worldly influences.
Are you getting a picture of this now?
Could we in the United States of America be guilty of the sin of idolatry too?
The answer is not hard.
Do we too need to be made pure from the water and ashes of a red heifer?
Well, something better has already happened.
GOD HAS PROVIDED
Just like God was merciful to the People of Israel who followed Him, He has also looked down on us today. In great love He had provided a way for us to be cleansed of the impurity of death from association with the ways of our current culture.
Our Red Heifer came in the form of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
We can know this from the scripture in Hebrews:
The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:14)
THE ONLY BEGOTTEN OF GOD
After years and years of God teaching His people the story in a million different ways, God sent His Only Begotten Son.
The Son of God lived out the story in every aspect of His life on earth.
Can we not look upon His life and see that He was our sacrifice, our salvation, our only hope?
The Church stands like Moses and says, you who believe in God come to my side.
Take a stand. Live out what you believe no matter how hard the turn may be for you.
You may have to give up some things that are dear to you in order to come out of the world.
COME OUT OF THE WORLD AND RECEIVE LIFE
The answer though, on the other side of the cross, is life!
Life is worth it all.
Eternal life is the final gift of God to His people.
Jesus died that we may live forever.
This is a paradox, much like the paradox of the Red Heifer.
A MYSTERIOUS PARADOX
This act in itself was a paradox because those who administered the ashes of the Red Heifer had to contaminate themselves outside the camp with the death of the cow.
This act of touching death made them impure.
In taking on these impurities from death though, they were able to cleanse the people that they served.
To make people pure; one had to become impure.
It was a paradox.
MODERN EXAMPLE
In considering these facts, I think of the people today who have willingly made the sacrifice in risking their own lives to give medical help to those who have fatal diseases, such as doctors and nurses who have have made a profession of treating cases of Ebola.
If you study these doctors, you will see that those who know God and have gone to their jobs with the backing of prayer and the heart of a servant of God, have fared much better than others.
Is this a coincidence?
It is another paradox. To prevent the disease you must stay away from exposure; but to treat the disease you must be exposed.
Such was the case with our dear Jesus who took on our sins before God on the cross. He would never have been exposed to sin through his own ways; only to help us with our ways.
SIN ALWAYS BRINGS DISEASE
Sin is the greatest disease there is.
Jesus took on all of our sin.
He was pure, but he became impure for a time while he took on all of our sins on the cross in order to cleanse us from the sin we have brought on ourselves. Our sins were transferred to him. This was like the sins of the congregation of Israel were transferred on to the head of the red heifer.
The example of this story was the first case of cleansing; but throughout the history of the tabernacle and the temple and the worship of Israel, the priests serving God went through the same ironic service year after year. In their actions they were always teaching the mercy and justice of God.
THE PARADOX OF MERCY AND JUSTICE
Mercy and justice existing together are yet another form of paradox we must consider in this story.
This is only a small sampling of the stories behind the mystery of The Red Heifer. It is said that the whole Torah can be explained from studying this one story.
The story of The Red Heifer contains so much more than man can even begin to understand.
It is all about being obedient and faithful to God, even when you do not know or understand what is going on in your circumstances.
A HELP FOR MODERN TIMES
This amazing story of The Red Heifer is a wonderful thing for followers of Christ to consider as we make our way through a pagan world.
We always consider the story of the Red Heifer when we think of Yom Kipper, the Day of Atonement.
This holy day happens every fall, right before The Feast of Tabernacles. It is interesting that the ritual was first implemented right before the people were allowed to use the tabernacle. Now the day in which we realize its significance is right before the people go to a celebration of a memorial of the tabernacle which is called The Feast of Tabernacles.
A MODERN DAY JOURNEY OF 40 DAYS
Those of us who observe The Day of Atonement carefully confess our sins and spend time with God in communion, just listening for His sure instructions for our lives before that Day of Atonement arrives.
If we have taken a wrong turn during the year, this gets us back on track. We make the turn back around. The point is to have this done before the Day of Atonement; so that our hearts will be clean before God.
NUMBERING OUR DAYS
So once again, in this book of Numbers we can clearly see how God is always teaching us how to number our days.
This is the very first implication of The Day of Atonement; which is now considered to be the most sacred holy day of all days.
We all may have atonement now, because One greater than the red heifer of ancient Israel has come.