Tag: red heifer

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 19–21; 1Corinthians 15: Death is the enemy, so choose life!

The word calls us to choose death but God pleads with us to choose life. (Graphic created with wordclouds.com)

Death is out of place in the order God created. The biblical offering of the red heifer and the purification water made from its ashes are poured into were designed by God to be a physical cleanser and a spiritual cleanser. In the Torah reading חֻקַּת Chukat (Numbers 19-21), instructions are given for its use to remove any physical remnants of death that clings to a person who helped take care of the final rest for the dead, but it was also a spiritual cleanser used to clear away the spiritual stench of death.

Death cannot inhabit the realm of life. Even thought death is all around us, we don’t have to wallow in it. God gives us a message of life in a culture of death. A life that the Creator is looking to restore. That is the consistent message from Genesis to Revelation. 

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 19–21: Mystery of the red heifer reveals the work of Messiah

The Red Heifer was required to be sacrificed on the pit made in the days of Ezra. Underneath this pit was a hollow to protect from a bone in the depth. Photo by Rdusatko via Wikipedia Commons under Creative Commons License.

The Torah reading חֻקַּת‎ Chukat (“statute of”) starts with “the statute (khukat) of the red heifer” and the bronze serpents, which are both symbolic of the role of the Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus).

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 19: Red heifer a picture of Messiah

A holocaust of a red heifer, with its ashes preserved in water was used to cleanse people who had made contact with a dead body and for ritual items used in Temple worship. (Photo by Rennett Stowe via wikimedia commons, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)

God did not create the ritual of the red heifer, described in Numbers 19, to prevent the spread of disease but to make sure we don’t treat the death of a fellow human being casually. That’s regardless of whether their death was recent or many years ago. Death is our enemy. Death is not natural. Death is not our friend. The symbol of the red heifer points to the Messiah, and we can learn how much Yeshua did for us through that symbol.

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 18-19: High priest as a type of the Messiah; lesson of the mysterious red heifer

There is a very special but blunt message in Numbers 18–19, targeted to the High Priest and his family. Moses is not addressed at all. God impresses upon the High Priest family and the Levites the seriousness of their charge. They are given certain rights within in the community of Israel but also gives them very serious responsibilities. God also places serious consequences on the High Priestly family and the Levites if they are derelict in their Temple duties.

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 19 — The red heifer

One of the most mysterious passages regarding the sacrifices involved with the sanctuary and temple of Israel is the red heifer. In fact, this teaching in Numbers 19 is intimately connected with the mission of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus).