Friday, December 7, 2012

The Red Heifer

This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel,
that they bring thee a red heifer without spot,
wherein is no blemish,
and upon which never came yoke:
And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest,
that he may bring her forth without the camp,
and one shall slay her before his face:
And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger,
and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times:
And one shall burn the heifer in his sight;
her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn:
And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet,
and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.
Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water,
and afterward he shall come into the camp,
and the priest shall be unclean until the even.
And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer,
and lay them up without the camp in a clean place,
and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation:
it is a purification for sin.
Numbers 19:2-7,9
 
@ Red Heifer without spot or blemish - But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 1 Peter 1:19
@ Totally Consumed - When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. John 19:30
@ Sacrificed outside the gate ("without the camp") - Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Hebrews 13:12
@ Burned with wood - And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, John 19:17,18
@ Burned with hyssop - Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. John 19:29
@ Burned with scarlet - And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. Matthew 27:28
@ Purification for our sins - In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10 HNV
 
WARNING
FALSE doctrines about the Red Heifer
The "Secret Rapture" Crowd (dispensational pre-mellinials) believe that the red heifer will be born in Israel in modern times. That it will be sacrificed as the 10th red heifer  in Jewish history (since supposedly only so far 9 had been sacrificed since Moses). And that the temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt to do this. And that the Jewish 12th century scholar maimonides claims so.
Also, a genltman in Nebraska has been breeding for red heifers and sending them to Israel. The dispensationalists claim that one meeting the criteria has finally been born in Israel in 2010. They are all excited about it.
One gentlman of a TV ministry is an advocate of this belief-Mr. Irvin Baxter (BTW, this is not an attack on Mr. Baxter-although he is wrong in his interpretation-I personaally think that he is more sincere in his beliefs than the vast majority of the TV ministers today).
Notice that the main FALSE DOCTRINE the rest of this all hinges on for them is the idea that literal Israel is what the prophecies refer to--when in reality it is spiritual Israel-God's people...the Jews as a race are no longer God's people-they rejected Him & crucifed the Messiah....
Lesson of the Red Heifer in dipensational doctrine: One False Doctrine leads to another, and another, and another, etc....