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The Cross and its Shadow - Contents
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    Chapter 22-The Offering of the Red Heifer

    The life of every sacrifice, from the first one offered at the gate of Eden down to the cross, was a type of Christ; but the offering of the red heifer is different in many respects from all others. It was an occasional sacrifice, offered when needed, to purify from ceremonial uncleanness those who for any reason had touched the dead. 1Deuteronomy 21:1-9CIS 146.1

    The heifer was to be red, without one spot, thus in a special manner typifying the blood of Christ. It was to be without blemish, thus representing Him “who knew no sin.” 22 Corinthians 5:21 It was to be one that had never been broken to bear the yoke; it must be a heifer that had always been free, never forced to do anything.CIS 146.2

    This was symbolic of the Son of God, who came of His own free will and died for us. Christ was above all law, no yoke was upon Him. 3John 10:18 While enduring the agony of Gethsemane, He could have wiped the bloody sweat from His brow and returned to His rightful place in heaven, and left the world to perish. There was no power, only that of supreme heavenly love, that forced Christ toward the cross of Calvary. 4John 3:16 He came a voluntary offering, from choice. He offered Himself for the sins of the world, and the Father’s love for the fallen race was so great that, much as He loved His only Son, He accepted the offered life. Angels are amenable to the law of God, therefore their life could not have atoned for the transgression of the law. Christ alone was free from the claims of the law, the only one who could redeem the lost race.CIS 147.1

    The offering of the red heifer was a very imposing ceremony. The heifer was not taken to the temple, like most other offerings, but to a rough valley without the camp, that had never been cultivated or sown. The priest, clothed in the pure white garment of the priesthood, led the heifer, and was accompanied by the elders of the city and the Levites. Cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet were also carried to the place of offering.CIS 147.2

    When the procession reached the rough valley, they paused, and the elders came forward and killed the heifer. The priest then took the blood, and with his face toward the temple, sprinkled the blood with his finger toward the temple seven times.CIS 147.3

    If a person had been found dead in the field and it was not known who had taken the life, then the elders of the city next to where the slain man had been found, came forward and washed their hands over the body of the heifer as they offered a prayer to God requesting that the Lord would not lay innocent blood upon them. 5Deuteronomy 21:1-9 After this the heifer’s entire body, including the blood, was burned. As the flames mounted up, the priest stepped near and cast some of the cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet into the midst of the fire. 6Numbers 19:1-8CIS 147.4

    The red heifer was offered without the camp, typifying that Christ suffered, not for the Hebrew race alone, but for the whole world. If every offering had been slain within the court of the sanctuary, some might have taught that Christ died only for His own people, the Hebrew race; but the red heifer was offered without the camp, 7Hebrews 13:12, 13 symbolizing the fact that Christ died for all nations tribes, and people.CIS 148.1

    The condescension and love of the Lord is wonderful. Lest some poor, forlorn, discouraged soul should think he was not worthy to accept the offered sacrifice, the red heifer was not only taken without the camp, but to a rough valley, so rocky and utterly worthless that it had never even been plowed. No one had ever attempted to cultivate it; and yet here was the place chosen to sprinkle the blood of that special offering which typified Christ in a particular sense. It typified Him as one who is above law.CIS 148.2

    It does not matter if Satan has so marred the image of the Creator in man that there can scarcely a trace be seen of anything but the attributes of Satan; yet Christ with His mighty arm can raise such a one up to sit with Him on His throne. The whole life may be wasted and be like the rough valley, of no account; but if such a one will turn his eyes toward the heavenly sanctuary, and plead for mercy by confessing his sins, the precious blood of Christ, of which the blood of the red heifer was a symbol, will be sprinkled over his wasted life, as verily as the blood of the heifer was sprinkled over the rough stones of the valley; and Christ will say to the repentant one as He did to the thief on the cross, who had wasted his life, “Thou shalt be with Me in paradise.” 8Luke 23:38-43CIS 148.3

    There are none so sunken in sin or in heathen darkness but that hope and salvation are held out to them through the typical offering of the red heifer. This sacrifice was a shadow of heavenly things. Now type has met antitype. Christ has suffered without the camp for the sins of the whole world. There are none so sunken but that He can lift them up. It may look impossible to man; the customs and habits of the world may condemn a person, and say he is lost; but Christ is above all law. He can all save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. 9Hebrews 7:25 The cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet cast into the fire were typical of the purifying of the earth and all vegetation from every trace of sin by the b1ood of Christ. 10Isaiah 65:17-19CIS 149.1

    After the body of the heifer was burned to ashes, a person who was not contaminated by touching the dead, gathered up the ashes and placed them in a clean place, and they were kept to be used for purifying those who touched the dead. 11Numbers 19:9, 10 If a person died in a tent or house, the house and all who touched the dead body were counted unclean until purified. This was to impress the people with the terrible nature of sin. 12James 1:14, 15 It taught them that death came as the result of sin, and was a representation of sin. Some of the ashes were placed in pure running water, and a person who was ceremonially clean dipped a bunch of hyssop and cedar in the ashes and water, and sprinkled the tent, the articles within the tent, and the people. This was repeated several times until all were purified. 13Numbers 19:18, 19CIS 149.2

    In like manner, Christ, after He shed His blood for sinful man, entered the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary to present His blood before the Father, to cleanse man from the defilement of sin. 14Hebrews 9:11, 12CIS 150.1

    The cedar and hyssop used to sprinkle the purifying water denoted that the person upon whom it fell was cleansed from all earthly moral defilement. The thoroughness of the work was typified by its being repeated several times.CIS 150.2

    David evidently had this ceremony in mind when he prayed, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” 15Psalm 51:7 Paul’s mind was led from type to antitype when he wrote to his Hebrew brethren, “If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to 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.” 16Hebrews 9:13, 14CIS 150.3

    Many people read their Bibles and pass over these beautiful types as ceremonies peculiar to the Jews, and meaning nothing to Christians. They consider the Old Testament of little value. But the Lord through Moses gave that wonderful galaxy of types and symbols contained in the sanctuary service and the Levitical laws; and Moses was so fearful lest the people might think he had given them the service, that over two hundred times we find him assuring them that God Himself was the Author of them, by such expressions as “The Lord said,” or “The Lord commanded.” He desired all to know that God had given that marvelous system of types and shadows, not only throwing light from Eden to the cross, but revealing to sinful man the work of Christ from the cross to the end of time. These typical ceremonies, like a great reflector, throw light upon the ministry of Christ that cannot be obtained in any other portion of the Scriptures. The Saviour taught that a study of the writings of Moses would strengthen faith in Him. “Had ye believed Moses,” He said, “ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?” 17John 5:46, 47CIS 150.4

    Type Antitype Numbers 19:2. A red heifer without spot. Hebrews 9:13, 14. Christ offered Himself without spot to God. Numbers 19:2. There was to be no blemish in the animal. John 15:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21. Christ never disobeyed the law of God. He “knew no sin.” Numbers 19:2. One that had never borne the yoke, never been forced to do anything. John 10:15. “As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep.”

    Numbers 19:3; Deuteronomy 21:4. The red heifer was slain without the camp, in a rough valley, that had never been cultivated. Hebrews 13:12; John 10:16. “Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.” Numbers 19:5, 6. Heifer and cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, were burned in the fire. 2 Peter 3:7. The earth is “reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Numbers 19:17-19. Those ceremonially unc1ean were cleansed by being sprinkled with the ashes, 1 Corinthians 6:11. “Ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

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