The Gospel Story of the Red Heifer
The Gospel Story of the Red Heifer.
“According to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:22).
The scarlet thread that is sewn into Holy Scripture from beginning to end is unmistakable. There is no doubt whatsoever that the Bible is blood-centric, that there is an overriding theme of blood wherever we look. We don’t need to be super-detectives to discover blood patterns in the Word. The Scripture seems practically preoccupied with blood, and one could be excused for observing that God seems to be out for blood. We find out why this is the case in Leviticus 17:11 and 13… “The life of all flesh is in its blood. The life is in the blood.” The Word of God seems preoccupied with blood only because God is preoccupied with life. God is out for blood only in the sense that He is out for Life. The Bible is blood-centric only because God is life-centric. In fact, the term “scarlet thread” is not strong enough. Instead, the Bible has a powerful crimson tsunami flowing through its pages from Genesis through Revelation, from before creation to the New Creation.
“Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ‘Tell the people of Israel to bring you a young red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come. And you shall give it to the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. And the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times. And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned. And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer.” (Numbers 19:1-6).
What is this ritual? At first glance, God’s peculiar instructions to Moses and Aaron were puzzling and mysterious. There appeared to be no logical reason for parts of this ritual as God explained it (Numbers 19). A young, perfect, unblemished red heifer, one who hasn’t been yoked, was to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered. This heifer has to be completely red, and it had to be a young female cow that had not borne a calf. After the butchering of the heifer, the attending priest was required to sprinkle some of the cow’s blood seven times directly in front of the Tabernacle. Seven (7), of course, is the Biblical number that represents perfection, completeness, fulfillment, finished, wholeness. The dead heifer was then to be completely burned, including its hide, its flesh, everything. Into this fire the priest was to place some cedar wood, a branch of hyssop, and a scarlet woolen thread. Both the man who burned the heifer and the eye-witness priest were then required to clean their clothes, take a bath, and be considered unclean till the evening. The priest was then instructed to gather the ashes and make a thin paste as they mixed the ashes with clean “living” water from a nearby stream. This mixture is called the “water of purification” by the Lord. “It is for purifying from sin,” says Yahweh (Nu. 19:9). If someone is deemed unclean, then a branch of hyssop is dipped into the watered down paste and is applied to the person’s tent, his vessels, and his body. The mixture of ash and water will purify the unclean person in the sight of God.
Why? The apparent reason for this ritual is made clear in Numbers 19. Anyone who has touched a dead body, or made any contact with a dead person, is considered unclean and expelled from the community, unable to worship or offer sacrifices at the Tabernacle. Such a person must undergo this ritual of purification before allowed back into the camp, whether to simply reside or to worship God. God is serious about this, and is making it abundantly clear that death is the ultimate indignity for those born in His image. Death is the supreme source of impurity and defilement, because it is the final result of sin. Death defiles the world, while God is about life. God is a life-giver and the author of life. Death is unacceptable in a spiritual sense, and is an extreme impurity that has to be dealt with. Death is a stark reminder of human mortality, while God is divinely immortal. This ritual was the way of God’s choosing to keep those boundaries of the mortal and the immortal, to maintain the divine order that separates death from life.
Death wish. Rabbi Jonathon Sacks added that there seems to be built into the human personality a deep-seated death wish, and this ritual is connected to that. “This ritual is directed against one of the most powerful and dangerous of all human drives: the death instinct.” (Covenant and Conversation: Numbers). Rabbi Sacks goes on to say that this death instinct, this inner impulse for self-destruction, overrides our pleasure instinct. This red heifer ritual then is to make it clear that death is not God’s will, it is not something to surrender to, it is not be entertained as an acceptable way to look at life. And isn’t it interesting that the Mosaic law did not give in to this death wish. Judaism revealed a unique attitude toward death, distinct from the surrounding nations that worshiped death or obsessed over death, like Egypt. And the Israelites did not approve of trying to contact or speak with dead ancestors, which was very common. The Mosaic tradition established a religion based on life, not death. Death was profoundly unclean, and God made a way to purify oneself from that uncleanness. There must be an atonement for anything associated with death.
Why red? There have been a couple of explanations as to why the heifer had to be red, as opposed to brown or yellow or black and white. Some have said that red is a symbol of blood. Blood is seen as a life principle. Creatures can’t live without blood, and so red signifies that life which protects against death. Others believe that the color of red is associated with sin. “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18). The death of the heifer symbolizes the destruction of sin, then. Sins are red, and of course ashes become white. Maybe, as in a few other details of this ritual, God only knows. After all, God can intend red to be a symbol of blood and as well as sin.
Golden Calf or Red Calf? There is a rabbinic tradition in the Red Heifer ritual that it in some ways was established by God to rectify the horrendous sin of the Golden Calf. For one thing, Aaron was not allowed to manage the Red Heifer ritual. That role was reserved for an associate priest. Perhaps Aaron’s exclusion was due to his guilt in his complicity in the Golden Calf incident. Perhaps God also wanted to undo the effects of the Golden Calf on the people’s memory, and so a heifer, a young calf, was chosen as the centerpiece of this ritual. In the sinful case the calf was worshipped as a god. In the Red Heifer case, the calf was a means of purification from sin. Also, Moses’ reaction to the Golden Calf is strikingly similar to the ritual with the Red Heifer. He burned the Golden Calf in a great fire, he ground it into powdered ashes, and then mixed those ashes with water. So far, those actions are exactly the same as the Red heifer ritual. Amazingly, Moses made the Israelites drink this mixture, so they’d never forget or repeat this great sin. In the Red Heifer, the watered down ashes were not taken internally like that, but instead externally. Still it’s easy to see the many parallels between the sin of the Golden Calf and the redemption with the Red Heifer. Perhaps this is God’s way of undoing that major act of sinfulness.
Jesus is the Red Heifer. Blood is sacred, says the Lord. Blood is holy, set apart from other aspects of creation. In the eyes of God, blood represents life. Life itself depends on blood. In fact, “the life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Lev. 17:11). Blood is a life principle flowing into the very structure of created life. Since the Fall in the Garden, the world has had a disastrous problem: sin. The result of sin is death. And the result of blood is life. So it naturally follows that blood is somehow the remedy for sin. Blood has to be involved if forgiveness is to happen, if life proves victorious over death. In God’s plan of redemption, His universal solvent is blood, it dissolves the presence and authority of sin.
The Sinai Covenant. God designed a blood sacrifice system in the Old Covenant that atoned for the sins of the Chosen People. As a God of justice and righteousness, He demanded a punishment for sin, and the blood of an animal sacrifice was put in place to satisfy that demand. Pure blood from unblemished and utterly innocent animals. Innocent blood was the only answer to the guilt of sin. But this sacrificial system was not meant to be permanently in place. It was ultimately an incomplete system in many ways. It required ongoing sacrifices; it was only a temporary atonement until the person sinned again; it was merely for external purposes, making the person ceremonially clean; it didn’t necessarily change the heart of the person making the offering. So the Mosaic system was adequate and God-ordained for a time. But it was only a shadow, a hint of a better system coming along in God’s perfect timing. It was a necessary beginning to what turned out to be a perfect end. In the Old Covenant, the Mosaic sacrifice was necessary but insufficient. The best was yet to come in the fullness of time.
Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered Himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.” (Hebrews 9:13-14).
Out for Blood? Jesus was the perfect sacrifice hinted at in the animal sacrifice. He fulfilled all the requirements of the Old Covenant system… an unblemished, pure, innocent victim offering blood for atonement. Jesus completed the sacrificial system, so only one sacrifice, His, was needed. His blood brought forgiveness of all sins, by all people, for all time. At a superficial glance, it looks like God is out for blood. But God “doesn’t want blood, He wants life.” Only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can offer his blood for eternal life, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). In Jewish tradition, the discovery of an unblemished red heifer signals the coming of the Messiah. Truer words were never spoken. Jesus is the Red Heifer. The Messiah has come.
“Come now and let us reason together. Yahweh promises you over and over: ‘Though your sins stain you like scarlet, I will whiten them like bright, new fallen snow! Even though they are deep red like crimson, they will be made white like wool!” (1:18).
Reason Together about Purity. To reason together meant to have a sit-down, a pow-wow, a calm and rational discussion when people would deliberate about something important, a time set aside to talk it out and decide the next steps together. The Hebrew word here even suggests a courtroom setting where the people with differing opinions argue their case with each other to reach a final verdict, an understanding between them. And what did the Lord want to discuss that was so important? Redemption. Forgiveness. Purity of heart. Deep cleansing. It’s like this, says Yahweh… It’s like when something is double-dipped in a permanent red dye that could not possibly be removed from the material. You might think this scarlet red dye made a permanent stain, but it didn’t. Yes, you might be fooled into thinking the deep crimson red color will never come out, but I am here to tell you that, though it might look like your sins have permanently stained your heart, trust Me, it’s only temporary. The fact is, the red of my righteous blood will purify your heart from the red of your sins. I will whiten and cleanse you from the inside out, just like snow and wool that are naturally white! You will be purified as if the red stain of sin was never there, and you were always pure white.
“Everything happened as the Holy Writings said it would happen. And Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar of wine vinegar was nearby, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus shouted, “It is finished!” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:28-30).
I am thirsty! Sour wine was a cheap liquid refreshment used by the Roman soldiers on duty who had no access to clean water, and so drank this fluid, diluted with water and no actual alcohol in it, and was considered the same as vinegar. In this scene, the soldiers had a jar of the vinegar nearby for their use, heard Jesus croak out his thirst, and offered to Jesus on the Cross a sponge placed on a flowering hyssop branch that was soaked with the vinegar. Jesus sipped from the sponge after they had raised it to His lips. Jesus was thus able to shout, “It is finished!” so everyone within listening distance could easily hear it.
The Flowering Hyssop Plant. The biblical hyssop shrub, in Hebrew “Ezov,” is an evergreen flowery bush that grows wild in the Mediterranean region. It is an aromatic herb in the mint family, and is edible, often used as a garnish for desserts and salads, as well as a healing balm for coughs, earaches and asthma. As an antioxidant plant, there are numerous health properties to the hyssop plant. The hyssop produces beautiful blooms of violet, white, blue and red.
Deliverance and Cleansing. John mentioned the flowering hyssop plant in particular because of its historic significance in the Hebrew Scriptures and its prophetic importance regarding the Messiah. John was trying to make the point that hyssop had a bloody history of being used in the Passover deliverance and in ritual purification as described above. Both are spiritually connected to the momentous events happening on the Cross of Christ.
Passover. We were first introduced to the hyssop plant during the Passover event in Egypt. The Hebrew slaves were instructed by Yahweh to use the flowering hyssop as a paintbrush, splashing lamb’s blood across their doorposts. “Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go and select lambs for yourselves, and kill the Passover lamb.. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in your basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood… For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when He sees the blood on your doorposts, Yahweh will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.” (Exodus 12:21-24).
So the flowering hyssop has quite the story to tell as a key role in the Passover, the deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, the cleansing of lepers, the purification ritual with the red heifer, the purging of the guilty conscience, and the Cross of Christ that confirmed Him as the long-awaited Messiah. “Truly, by the watering of our Savior’s blood, made with the hyssop of the cross, we have been restored to a white incomparably better than that possessed by the snows of innocence.” (Father Francis De Sales, 1567-1622).