The Red Heifer Offering
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| The Red Heifer being led out of the Shushan Gate |
The other offering which shares some common features with the expiatory offerings of Leviticus is found in the book of Numbers (chapter 19). The red heifer offering recognizes both the root and result of our problem with the Adamic nature. It provides purification at the beginning and end of life. The Numbers passage deals with the second of these, corpse defilement. For the Hebrew nation corpse defilement was a serious matter. The Mishnah declares that one who has contracted corpse uncleanness becomes a ‘father of uncleanness’, because everything he touches then becomes unclean. Death, of course, points its icy finger to the second death and if unremoved would exercise eternal sway. The connection between death and sin is given in several Scriptural passages, the first of which would be the judgment pronounced in the Garden of Eden. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16,17). Adam’s sin brought the predicted result: “in Adam all die” (1 Cor. 15:22).
Defilement by death, a corpse, a grave, a bone, rendered a person ceremonially unclean for seven days. Priests and Nazarites were forbidden to touch a dead body, except for their nearest kin. The High Priest was not allowed to approach the dead at all, not even his own parents. Therefore the law of the red heifer made exceptional provision for purification in these circumstances. “And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin” (Num.19.17).
The offering was made on a special site ‘outside the camp’. The Levitical offerings stipulate, ‘in a clean place’ (Lev.4.12) for any sacrifice which was burned ‘outside the camp’. This was applied to the red heifer offering as well. The fourth verse requires the blood to be sprinkled directly before the Tabernacle, which the Rabbis interpreted as before the open entrance of the Tent. If, for any reason the flap or curtain of the tent was closed, then the sacrifice would be invalid.
But the red heifer differed from the other sin offerings in several ways. It was of pure red color, a female (signifying life in all its fruitfulness); upon which never came yoke (speaking of strength unimpaired) and it was wholly burnt, along with cedar wood (symbol of imperishable existence); hyssop (symbol of purification from corruption); and scarlet (the color being the emblem of life). It implied the sacrifice of highest life, and as far as possible, once for all.
During Second Temple times, the High Priest performed the ceremony on the Mount of Olives, at a place which afforded a direct view through the gate of the Golden Vine, that is, the entrance to the Temple building itself. To obtain the site on the Mount of Olives they needed to line up the three Eastern gates, that is, the Gate of the Pure and the Just which led into the court of Prayer, the Nicanor Gate which led to the Priests’ court and the Gate of the Golden Vine which was the entrance into the Holy Place.
The ashes of the heifer were taken and mixed with living water, to produce the waters of purification. This mixture was to be sprinkled on the unclean on the third and seventh days, both sprinklings speak of life, the seventh speaking of eternal life. Without the sprinkling an Israelite was to be ‘cut off’. This punishment could mean (i) to be denied the benefits of Temple and sacrifice; or (ii) to be put out of society (like a leper); or (iii) in severe cases, the loss of life. The red heifer sacrifice which was burnt ‘outside the camp’ is also analogous with the scapegoat, taken by a fit man, and let loose in the wilderness - which was to remove the personal guilt of the Israelites. Each suggests that the sanctuary did not have the answer for this level of sin.
The problem of sin was not only at the end of life but also at its beginning—it is then the Adamic nature is inherited. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me" (Ps. 51:5). The rite of purification was designed to make the unclean clean, so it was used to provide purification for sin at birth as well as death. After the birth of a boy, a woman was considered unclean for forty day, after which she had to bring a sin offering to the Lord and go through the rite of purification (Lev. 12.2-6). The forty day period was extended to eighty days in the case of the birth of a girl. A very significant example in Scripture is given in the gospels when it is recorded that Mary went through the ritual after the birth of Jesus (Luke 2.22 ff). Since He was her first-born they had to go through the rite of redemption also.
Mary and Joseph attended at the Temple together for the two rituals. The sin offering stipulated for the purification ceremony was a lamb plus a bird but in cases of poverty it could be two birds (either doves or pigeons) - Mary made the offering of the poor. She had no lamb to bring, but the child she held was the Lamb of God. The identity of the baby boy was not unknown to those who walked close to the Lord. While waiting for the ceremony which would have taken place at the time of the afternoon sacrifice, a godly man, Simeon identified Jesus as the Messiah, the ‘light to lighten the Gentiles’ (Luke 2.26-32), and then Anna, a prophetess confirmed the witness.
The death of Jesus on Golgotha fulfilled the typology of the sacrifice of the Red Heifer. “Jesus ... that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate” (Heb 13:12). Moreover, as with all the sacrifices, the offering of Jesus for sin brought about a purification that could not have been obtained by the sacrifice of an animal: “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, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:13,14). The phrasing of these verses clearly includes the red heifer offering along with the other sin offerings, that is, “the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh”. But the glory of Calvary is seen in the “how much more” of verse 14.
The blood of the Red Heifer had to be sprinkled before the open entrance of the Tabernacle. During Temple times the sacrifice took place on the Mount of Olives on the sight line to the open door of the Holy Place through which the veil of the Temple could be seen. I would suggest that the site of Calvary had to be on that sight line for when Jesus died, the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom.
While the idea of the Red Heifer offering was a once and for all sacrifice, it was never possible because the numbers of people who needed purification were so great, and the ashes/water mixture ran out. So the sacrifice had to be repeated, although it was always many years between each offering. But Christ was a once and for all sacrifice as the inspired writer declared. He “... once ... appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb.9:26) and, He “was offered once to bear the sins of many” (Heb 9:28). Furthermore, “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10). Jesus is our guilt, sin and red heifer offerings providing expiation, propitiation and purification.
Next Time - Sweet Savor Offerings
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