NUMBERS 19:1-22:1
Mas'ei - The Red Heifer and Yeshua |
It seems strange that a sin offering of red heifer's ashes mixed with water is the appointed means, determined by God, to deal with the state of being ritually unclean as a result of contact with the dead. This is what is known as 'chok', i.e. any law in the Torah that has no rational explanation, it is often mysterious or beyond our ability to make a logical explanation.
It clearly speaks to us of the moment at Sinai when the children of Israel gave their answer to God, saying: 'All that the LORD has spoken we will do' (Exodus 19:8). And again, when they repeat this affirmation in Exodus 24:7, 'Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient."'
Judaism is a religion that one must practice even if one does not fully understand it. It is often accused of being somewhat legalistic where the emphasis is on what you do rather than what you believe. But, to obey what you do not understand is the very essence of faith: 'Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen' (Hebrews 11:1).
So, in the red heifer, the Jews were asked to perform a ritual that at first glance makes very little sense. They were, in fact, being asked to perform an act of faith. The question is: But what does a red heifer have to do with death and what is its significance?
We see that it's not any kind of cow but a red female that is required. It is also to be unyoked; in other words, one that has not been used for any domestic or common purpose. Red represents sin which we know leads to death. The play on the Hebrew word for 'red' provides some interesting insights. Isaiah describes sin as 'scarlet' and, again, as being 'red as crimson' (Isaiah 1:18).
First, he says your sins scarlet are like a cloth that has been died twice to ensure permanence of colour. He is stating the nature of sin - it's an indelible mark on the soul. Then, he says, they are red - a warm red whose Hebrew root is 'adam' - perhaps because Adam was made from the red earth as the rabbis suggest. And, finally, he calls sin crimson - the red dye from an insect - and, this time, he explains that through God's grace these sins which stain you can be washed away leaving you white and pure as wool.
Red is also the colour of blood - the colour of life, so perhaps the choice of a red (adam) heifer is to highlight what the individual is being purified from, namely, contact with death.
It is also often suggested that the red heifer was chosen to remind the Israelites of the impotence of the gods of Egypt which they had left behind. Red bulls were sacrificed to appease the evil demon Typhon and it has been suggested that the golden calf was made to look like the Egyptian god Apis who appeared in the form of an ox. There seems to be little doubt that the Israelites would have been familiar with worship of animal deities.
In the Rabbinic understanding of this passage, the red heifer points us back to the sin of the golden calf and perhaps even further. The children of Israel have said 'yes' to God and his Covenant; Moses is up the mountain and, after forty days, fearing that Moses was dead because he had been gone so long they revert to the spiritual practices of Egypt.
Rashi the famous C11th Jewish commentator said that Satan entered the camp and caused terror and confusion which leads the children of Israel to turn to Aaron and ask him to make them gods. Thus the link is made to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve led astray by Satan eat of the forbidden fruit, with the result that sin and death enter the world.
The golden calf, like the red heifer, is burned to ashes mixed and with water. Moses, after discovering the sin of the golden calf, makes the children of Israel drink this mixture. The Targum of Jonathan explains why: after drinking the mixture, whoever gave any gold towards the making of the calf, a sign appeared on his countenance so the Levites knew who to strike down and kill.
While the text doesn't actually tell us this, it is a tradition. It is also very similar to the 'waters of bitterness' that we read of in Numbers 5. This is where the woman accused of adultery is given a mixture of water and dust from the floor of the Tabernacle to drink - if she is guilty, a curse came upon her and her belly would swell and she would be in acute pain and cursed to all around her.
The drink is a test and on both these occasions the mixture points to sin and death so it is very interesting that a similar mixture is used to deal with the uncleanness that comes from contact with death.
There is a belief the Jewish People remain in a state of impurity because there is now no provision for cleansing. Ezekiel's prophecy about the restoration of Israel in the messianic age that says, 'God will . sprinkle pure waters upon you that you be purified and will purify you from all your impurities and from all your idols!' (36:25) is, therefore, connected in their understanding to the function of a 'tenth red heifer' which by tradition will be for the end times and the third temple.
The red heifer in Judaism is called the mitzvah of parah adumah and points to their hope and expectation of the coming of Messiah and Redemption. Maimonides (Rambam), the medieval Jewish philosopher, commenting on the Mishnah explains: 'Nine red heifers were prepared from the time this precept was ordained until the Second Temple was destroyed: the first was prepared by Moses our Master, the second Ezra prepared, and there were seven from Ezra to the destruction of the Temple. The tenth will be prepared by King Moshiach - may he soon be revealed, amen, may thus be (God's) Will!' (Hilchot Parah Adumah 3:4)
There is also another link in the text that points us to the sin of the golden calf in rabbinic understanding. It is the additional instruction to the established biblical principle that animals offered in sacrifice must be without blemish or defect. The heifer must be unyoked. It is a play on words. The Torah calls for obedience and in that moment when they asked Aaron to make them new gods, the rabbis say that they threw off the yoke of heaven that they had willingly chosen and accepted. In other words, they unhitched themselves from God.
The whole point of a chok is that, having chosen to commit ourselves to God, we are called to an obedience of faith ... and that faith, from the perspective of commitment to the Messiah Yeshua, points us to a deeper cleansing.
In Yeshua, God deals with the conscience, that internal voice that tells us what is right or wrong. But that voice is distorted and corrupted by the influence of sin. It is shaped by our family, education, and society, by the good and the bad things we experience. An un-cleansed conscience is a barrier to serving God. In the Messiah, God purifies it by sprinkling it not with the ashes of heifers or the blood of goats and bulls, but with the blood of Yeshua and it becomes an instrument through which God speaks to us by his Spirit (see Hebrews 9:13-14).
True faith is 'chok' ... it is not rational, it is a mystery. But, when it finds its source in Yeshua, it enables us to walk in obedience to the ways of God and it fills our hearts with hope even when we don't fully understand as in Hebrews 11:1. |
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