Red Heifer
Summary
The red heifer was a sacrificial animal whose ashes, mixed with water, provided purification for those defiled by contact with the dead, typifying Christ's atoning work.
☩The Ceremony
The ritual of the red heifer is described in Numbers 19. An unblemished red heifer that had never borne a yoke was to be brought outside the camp and slaughtered in the presence of the priest. The priest sprinkled its blood seven times toward the tabernacle, then the entire animal—hide, flesh, blood, and dung—was burned. Cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet were cast into the fire, and the resulting ashes were gathered and stored in a clean place for use in the water of purification.
☩Purification from Defilement
Contact with a dead body rendered an Israelite unclean for seven days. To be purified, ashes from the red heifer were mixed with 'living water,' and this mixture was sprinkled on the unclean person on the third and seventh days. Without this purification, the defiled person remained unclean and was cut off from Israel. This ritual addressed the most severe form of ceremonial uncleanness—that associated with death itself.
☩Typology of Christ
The writer of Hebrews references the red heifer when contrasting the old covenant ceremonies with Christ's superior sacrifice. If the ashes of a heifer could ceremonially purify 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?' The red color may symbolize blood; the burning outside the camp foreshadows Christ suffering outside Jerusalem; the unblemished condition represents His sinlessness.
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Red Heifer," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. VIII (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Red Heifer," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. IV (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Red Heifer," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).