[Numbers 19] Ashes of the Red Heifer. Our chapter today covers the subject of a very particular sacrifice known as the “Red Heifer.” What is so special about the Red Heifer? Is the physical temple of God going to be restored and the sacrifice reinstituted? What does the Red Heifer tell us about who Jesus is to us? Why is the Red Heifer so rare, and what does this tell us about Jesus?
[Num 19:1-22 KJV] 1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 2 This [is] the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein [is] no blemish, [and] upon which never came yoke: 3 And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and [one] shall slay her before his face: 4 And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times: 5 And [one] shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn: 6 And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast [it] into the midst of the burning of the heifer. 7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even. 8 And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even. 9 And a man [that is] clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay [them] up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it [is] a purification for sin. 10 And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever. 11 He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. 12 He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. 13 Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness [is] yet upon him. 14 This [is] the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that [is] in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. 15 And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, [is] unclean. 16 And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. 17 And for an unclean [person] they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel: 18 And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip [it] in the water, and sprinkle [it] upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave: 19 And the clean [person] shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even. 20 But the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the LORD: the water of separation hath not been sprinkled upon him; he [is] unclean. 21 And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until even. 22 And whatsoever the unclean [person] toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth [it] shall be unclean until even.
The sacrifice of the Red Heifer is probably the most talked about and mystical of the sacrifices God prescribes in the wilderness worship. Some believe that without the red heifer, the third temple restoration cannot be brought about.
According to Wikipedia:
“Some Fundamentalist Christians believe that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ cannot occur until the Third Temple is constructed in Jerusalem, which requires the appearance of a red heifer born in Israel. Clyde Lott, a cattle breeder in O’Neill, Nebraska, United States, is attempting to systematically breed red heifers and export them to Israel to establish a breeding line of red heifers in Israel in the hope that this will bring about the construction of the Third Temple and ultimately the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.”
The Red Heifer, interestingly, is sacred not only in the Bible but in many pagan traditions as well. Islam and Greek mythology both speak of a Red Heifer. Red Heifers are extremely rare. A group in Israel called the Temple Institute has been attempting to identify Red Heifer candidates consistent with the criteria mentioned in this chapter. They identified one in 1997 and another in 2002 but then later disqualified them as unsuitable. What does the Red Heifer tell us about who Jesus is to us? The animal was a rarity, and Jesus as our sacrifice for sin is the quintessential rarity – a singular sinless man born of a virgin.
As v. 1 tells us, the animal could have had no yoke upon it. Jesus never came under the yoke of sin; He was absolutely sinless. The animal had to be red in color. This speaks to us of the humanity of Christ. Adam’s name means “red man.” If you do not understand that Jesus was “fully man” and “fully God,” then you do not understand who He is and what He has done for you. In ancient times the controversy of Christ did not believe He was a man because they saw Him and walked with Him. The challenge was to receive Him as God. In our day, we accept Him as God but have trouble identifying Him as man. The Red Heifer has special significance to us revealing Jesus as FULLY MAN in His sinless perfection and death and resurrection on our behalf.
In vs. 10-12, there were instructions for handling the ashes after a Red Heifer was sacrificed. What was the purpose of retaining the ashes of the Red Heifer? None of the other ashes of sacrifice were kept for any reason. The ashes of the Red Heifer were kept for use in purifying those ceremonially unclean from touching a dead body. What does this tell us about Jesus? The penalty for sin is death, and we are all born into a state of defilement because of sin. When we accept the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf, He becomes our cleansing from sin and death in the same way the ashes of a Red Heifer rendered a man ceremonially unclean in the Old Testament system of worship.
In the purification protocols regarding the ashes of the Red Heifer, water was used. Rabbinic sources say that this water came from the pool of Siloam in the days of Jesus. This is interesting and adds new light to a miracle Jesus performed with the waters from this pool.
[Jhn 9:5-7 KJV] 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
By using these waters connected with the sacrifice of the Red Heifer, Jesus is identifying Himself as the solution for the sin problem of the world by which He is offering to open our eyes to see ourselves in the light that He is to us – the Light of God and forgiveness and cleansing. The person who is ceremonially unclean by touching a dead by could not be purified any other way than from the ashes of the Red Heifer. Man is born into a fallen state, yet he is an immortal being. If he dies in the sin state, he faces eternity separated from God in a place of torment. There is no exception.
[Rom 3:23 KJV] 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
There is no other remediation for sin that is acceptable before God. Jesus made this emphatically clear:
[Jhn 14:6 KJV] 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
There are no excuses and no substitutes. Your moral excellence or religious piety does not influence God in the least. Ignorant savages who have never known or heard the gospel will not be overlooked in their requirement to accept Jesus as savior. Many well-known ministers have been challenged on this fact by the media, and to a man, they refuse to say unequivocally that ONLY JESUS is the way to salvation. Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, even Judaism provides no solution for the sin debt. Those who are in these religions or no religion at all if they die without accepting Jesus as savior, will spend eternity separated from God in a place of torment. Our response may be, “that isn’t fair – how can a loving God do such a thing…” This is the response of a self-focused mind. Instead, our response must be not to blame God and hold Him accountable for seeming unfairness but to LOOK to OURSELVES as those commissioned to tell a lost and dying world on its path to hell about a savior who said, “No Man Comes to the Father but by Me…”
