The Sacrifice of the Red Heifer - A Picture of Christ

[Music] actually during mr. Brady's he's he was a coughing fit had to leave but during his thing I was reminded of a passage that we read a couple weeks back that is very very important I just didn't know if I had enough time in a Sunday School lesson to expound it completely I'm just gonna read it for you Leviticus 13 verse 40 where the Bible says a man whose hair has fallen off his head he's bald yet he is clean and he that has this hair fallen off the from the part of his head toward his face he is forehead bald yet he is is he clean very very important passage of Scripture there amen right so but you're probably thankful that I skipped over that one as we're skipping through the Bible keeping up with our reading in the coming week we're going to come to numbers chapter 19 where we'll read about the the sacrifice of the red heifer and it's kind of an interesting thought it's a different type of offering sacrifice from all the rest of the sacrifices but I think there's something in there that we can understand to be helpful to us plus as it turns out the Old Testament references it directly and connects it to Christ so we know that the offering of the red heifer is a picture of Christ as as is almost everything else in the Old Testament especially in the sacrificial system the Levitical system that the tabernacle all that pictures Christ to us but quickly this morning we're going to try to look through these things and we'll be looking at numbers chapter 19 as we as we read through this week will be coming up - as we come up to numbers chapter 19 and I think chapter 30 12 13 14 something like that the people of Israel in the second year of their wanderings comes to the come to the border of the promised land and they send the spies into the land remember 12 men went to spy on Canaan and they're they're ready to enter the land and yet we don't have time to go into this but they come out and they they tell Moses they report to Moses that everything is great it's just like God said it's a perfect land but ten of them say but there's giants there and those ten turn to the people of Israel and say it's an awful land it eats up the people that are there and the Giants are there so they just straight-up bold-faced lie to the people about what they saw because of their lack of faith and the people decide that they don't want to go in they don't trust God and God says okay then and so then and we don't have but but this is important to what we're talking about God says everybody who decided that they don't want to go in because they're afraid they're gonna die their carcasses will die in the wilderness and the children that you are afraid that they would be killed by these giants they are the ones that will go in and I'll give the land to them so we're going to have in 38 years 600,000 men and their wives of you know everybody 20 years old and over or over 20 20 and older are going to die in that amount of time it is an increased death rate than normal it's not tremendously increased but it is an increased death rate there's gonna be more death per day than there normally would be so there's more death and then in number 16 we have the rebellion of Cora Cora rebels against Moses and them and God kills 16,000 swallows them the earth swallow some of them up kills a bunch of the rest you so there's a lot of dead people around there's death is around dead bodies are around now they're not sitting there for weeks and weeks and weeks but there's there's going to be increased death around and so the the ordinance or the law or the sacrifice of the red heifer is given to the children of Israel in that context and I think that'll make sense to us as we go through it in verse one then the Lord spoken to Moses and Aaron and under Aaron saying this is the ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded saying speak unto the children of Israel that they bring the a red heifer without spot wherein is no blemish and upon which never came yoke and you shall give her under Eleazar the priest so there's there to get a red heifer a female and it's to be brought by the whole congregation so this is an offering not by an individual the whole congregation and I don't know how you know everybody pitched in I don't know how they did that but the whole congregation brings a red heifer and the everything about this red heifer characterizes full vitality something that has as much life in it as possible red characterizes that it's interesting as they you know as the Jews traditions grew and it may have been at that point even they would search this thing over and make sure that there wasn't two hairs of another color beside red on there especially not next to each other I mean they would just you know search this whole heifer over that's a lot of hair to search over it you know I'm assuming it wasn't a bald heifer so it was red so it so they're searching it over it's red no hairs of another color that the red characterizes full vitality it's a female which characterizes life and bringing forth life no yoke has been upon it so it has not been worn out or worn down by working in the fields and of course then there's no blemish in it and this red heifer then is to be given to Eliezer verse three give her to Eleazar the priest that he may bring her forth without the camp you know whenever lots of times when you see without it's the opposite of within okay so as we're reading the scriptures when you read without many times it's the opposite of with we don't talk about things being without we talk about them being outside okay so this should help you as you read the scriptures in a ways out without lots of times when you read without you can just say think outside outside the camp but you understand there's within we use within is inside we understand that but without we don't use so much but it's the same as being outside so Eleazar the priest is gonna um I'm sir bring her forth outside the camp and one shall slay her her before his face so somebody else is there in fact there's a couple other people there somebody else slays sacrifices um the red heifer before the face of eleazar eleazar is not the high priest Aaron is the high priest but he is the next in line he will be the high priest what when Aaron dies he's the next in line but the hype this this the high priest will not is not defiled by this sacrifice let's just put it that way and we'll move along an Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of congregation seven times now the Tarrant congregation is a long way away because they're outside the camp there's six hundred thousand men plus wives children families circled around the tabernacle so he's outside the camp he takes the blood of this sacrifice and sprinkles it toward the tabernacle toward the door of the tabernacle when the people of Israel moved into the land of Israel they would perform this sacrifice when necessary on the Mount of Olives which was slightly low uh yes lightly lower than the temple grounds and so the the walls around the temple were slightly lower on the eastern side so that the priest could see the the doors of the of the temple when he sprinkled the blood toward it anyway so he sprinkles blood seven times toward the tabernacle the flaming spot in one shell and then one shall burn the heifer in his sight her skin her flesh and her blood and her dung shall he burned so the the whole sacrifice every single part of it is burned so this is the purse that the person that killed it is burning it then the priest Eliezer shall take cedar wood so in the fire of this of this that this of this heifer he's going to add cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer so we don't have time to look at everything that's pictured here but cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet also can picture life and life-giving things long life so these three items real items are put into the fire with the heifer and the the ashes are mixed together they traditionally they tried to keep the ashes separate from the ashes of the wood that burned the sacrifice but which makes sense but anyway so these things are cast into the midst of the burning of the heifer then the priest shall wash his clothes and he shall bathe his flesh and water and afterward he shall come into the camp and the priest shall be unclean until the even so Eliezer this first time but the priest that performs this ceremony ritual is unclean just by performing the ceremony and verse 8 he that burns her burn ahthe her shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his flesh in water and shall be unclean until the even so the person that burned him burned up the heifer that performed that part is unclean until the even and has to wash and it says and a man that is clean so there's a third person there it's part of the ceremony a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up without or outside 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 we're going get an explanation of that as we proceed through the chapter but then we see and he that gathereth or he that gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the even and it shall be unto the children of Israel and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them for a statute forever so we have this offering this sacrifice that's given it's very it's it's basically the same type of sacrifice as a sin offering would be given in the tabernacle by the bronze altar brazen altar but it's performed outside the camp on a heifer on a red heifer but it's basically everything involved in it is a sin offering except its location and then there's up these extra elements of it brought into this offering but everybody that has any part in this offering becomes unclean and it's not any particular person who's bringing the offering this is an offering brought by the whole congregation of Israel so why do wait why are we doing this offering verse 11 gives us some more some more some more reasons more understanding first so in verses 1 through 10 we have just the process of preparing these ashes there is this sacrifice but the important part of the sacrifice are the ashes that remain that they've taken apart from this sacrifice and it would be quite a few ashes you know you have a whole heifer is I don't know how they what they did with them traditionally many years later once there was a temple they stored some in three in two different places in Jerusalem and then portions of it would go to all the different towns of Israel because as we'll see anybody who touched a dead body and people would die all over the place has to have a ceremony performed on them with these ashes and it might take three days to get anyway so so these ashes are the key part of this sacrifice verse 11 says he that touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days okay so remember death is happening all around them and God says if you just touch the the body of a the dead body of any man unclean seven days he shall purify himself with it referring back to this these ashes on the third day and on the seventh day he shall be clean but if he purify not himself the third day then the seventh day he shall not be clean whosoever touches the dead body of any man that is dead and purifies not himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord and that soul shall be cut off from Israel because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him he shall be unclean his uncleanness is yet upon him I forgot to mention in the excuse me in the introduction after that after the time of Korah the people of Israel came to Moses and said how can we ever come to how can we come to the to the tabernacle because we're unclean from all these dead bodies basically but this is something they reminded me of that so anybody that touches a dead body has to purify himself on the third day and then he's clean on the seventh day and neglecting this ritual reflecting this ceremony ordinance law defiles the tabernacle so you can't go to the tabernacle if you've not cleansed yourself from touching a dead body and there's dead bodies all over the place in a sense and it cuts you off from the congregation of Israel if you can't part if you can't go to the tabernacle and you've done this you're cutting your alienating yourself from fellowship in your own country so then we proceed into verses 14 through 16 where we see who what how is it that we become unclean in this manner he says if you touch a dead body but look at verse 14 this is the law when a man dies in a tent all that come into the tent and all that is in the tent shall be unclean seven days so not you know not just if you touched buried that body touched it if you were just in his house when he died if you're in the person's house when he died you are unclean seven days so everybody in the house is unclean seven days and every open vessel which has no covering bound upon it is unclean and then whosoever touches one that is slain with a sword in the open field so you go to battle your comrade is killed you bury him you're unclean sword in the open fields or a dead body or a bone of a man or a grave shall be unclean seven days so if someone dies in a tent at home everyone in the tent is unclean or everyone in the home once you have a home to live in everyone that comes in to the tent while the dead body is there is unclean so you can imagine this in a certain in a certain hygienic sense God's law encouraged the quick burial of the dead it discouraged grotesque rich rituals with dead bodies which still exist in pagan countries to this day you have a body in a tent and you know the body fluids are flowing out of it around and they've got like seven days of wailing over this gross situation but it's what you do in pagan community to honor or whatever mourn the dead anyway this law would greatly discourage that let's just put it that way it doesn't say that you can't do it but if everybody who comes in you know - in the house where a dead body is is unclean for seven days you want to bury the dead quickly as Lazarus was right so anyway any open vessels in the tent is unclean anyone who touches somebody slain in battle is unclean anybody who touches a dead body is unclean anybody who touches the bone of a man whether he's dead or not they say is unclean anybody who touches a grave which is why it was bad to just neglect a grave so much that people wouldn't know that they were walking over it or buy it or something like that so what is the point here the point is and I think this is important for us to see because they're like what is all of redheffer the point is that death is awful especially in the eyes of God death is awful why is death awful though because it's because it's caused by sin okay the death is just the result of sin it's not the sin itself it's the result of the sin okay so the sin of course is awful but in the eyes of God just the results of sin is awful the connection with it is awful we want to be separated from it we want to be cleansed from it so then so then so then the manner of purifying we see in verses 17 through 19 and for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer so they have these ashes that they've saved and unbelievable tradition and I mean it unbelievable they say that this first red heifers ashes lasted for like a thousand years but then after that point from the time of Ezra to another time they had six or seven of them so it's just kind of unbelievable that one lasted for a thousand years and they needed six or seven for another 500 years either way but they would take these ashes this was it the result of the sacrifice was what was important for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes just a little bit of the ashes of the burnt half hour of purification for sin and running water shall be put there in their - in a vessel say they put the ashes in a vessel and they put clean running water fresh water into that vessel with those ashes and a clean person shall take hyssop notice that a clean persons I'll take hiss up which is a branch where that you could apply things with and dip it in the water and sprinkle it upon the tent and upon all the vessels and upon all the persons that were there and upon him that touched a bone or one slain or one dead or a grave and the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day on the sand on the seventh day he shall purify himself and wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean at even all right so this person the person that needs purification comes to someone else and they take the issues they perform that the ashes and water and perform this ceremony on the person and on everything else but then the person that performs the ceremony on the seventh day the second application they themselves also are unclean all they did is administer the right but they are unclean ritually unclean and then so then we see the punishment for those that neglect the risk ritual in the last three three three verses but the man that shall be unclean and shall not purify himself that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation because he is defiled the sanctuary of the Lord the water of separation has not been sprinkled upon him he is unclean and it shall be a perpetual statute unto them that he that sprinkles the water of separation shall wash his clothes and he that touches the water of separation shall be unclean until even and whatsoever the unclean person touches shall be unclean and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until even so I'd like us to turn just as we finish up to Hebrews chapter 9 where this sacrifice is mentioned in the New Testament but the problem so why do we have this and and there's no Express that God's doesn't say this is why you're gonna do this but as we look at Scripture and try to understand it and look at the rest of Scripture it seems here that there's a simpler I don't deny that what God had the people of Israel do had hygiene or health consequences but I do deny that the sole reason he had them do that was for those purposes so this was not just to force them to bury their dead quickly to keep them out of contact with that just the the off the bad things health-wise that that grow in dead bodies that was not the reason this sacrifice was given did it help with that it seems like seems evident it did the problem here is a residual uncleanness know somebody goes and buries someone else they didn't sin to do that all of this is an uncleanness that happens as a result of death and death happens as a result of sin so you see we're God to me he's showing the far-reaching effects of sin it doesn't just affect us immediately it's it's its tentacles go far it reaches far the effects of sin does so it's a residual uncleanness and that's pictured by just being around the final results of sin which is death makes one unclean even even the clean people that perform the sacrifice the priest the person that burnt that burnt the sacrifice the person that gathered the ashes the person that takes the ashes and put some water in it and sprinkles all the clean people involved there are unclean for the day so there's so even the clean man cleansing the unclean becomes unclean death our sins Reach is far it's way farther than we can even imagine and so it seems to me that that's what we're that we should learn from this and then if we read your in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 13 for if the blood of bulls and of goats so the blood of bulls and goats those were I'm probably didn't make that this extra clear last week or the week before but those were the two sacrifices in particular when you said the blood of bulls and goats you're referring specifically or especially to the sacrifice is made on the day of atonement the highest day of sacrifice in the in the Land of Israel so if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer so there's only one sacrifice that that's referring to right the one that we're talking for about the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh what we see 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 here's one application that I think is helpful for us and we could probably go whenever we're we look at Christ and what the Bible has to say we can't just go endlessly in our fancy but God is he's infinite we cannot we also cannot comprehend him completely simply when we're saved God saves us Christ we're saved by the blood of Christ by the sacrifice of Christ by the life of Christ all of that but even after salvation there are residual effects of sin in our life especially guilt and our conscience we think back to the way we were we have we have patterns in our life that are set and we we continue to do those things that the residual effects of sin are also covered and taken care of by the work of Christ through who through what does the verse say I lost it through the Eternal Spirit offered himself so that that's a very difficult phrase and to to understand in the scriptures I think it's the only time it's used in the scriptures but I think just mentioning the spirit helps us understand that the Holy Spirit is given to us in salvation to help us battle to help us have victory to help us to have confidence against the residual effects of sin in our lives and so Christ offers himself for our sins but he's also there for that what comes into our lives what we experience in our lives even after salvation it's he's there to cleanse us through the washing of the word there's so many phrases that might come to our minds as we think about that but the point that I want to leave us with this morning is that here in Hebrews we see that Christ's sacrifice Christ is better how much more does Christ cover our sins than those who sins were covered by the sacrifices of the day of atonement which was a national sacrifice and whose consciences were cleansed I've touched this dead body whose consciences were cleansed by the ritual sacrifice of the red heifer which was also a national sacrifice Christ atones himself for our sins and Christ himself and through his spirit cleanses our conscience also

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Keywords: Fairhaven Baptist Church, Fairhaven Baptist College, Fairhaven Media, Fairhaven Classes, Fairhaven, Fairhaven Church, Fairhaven Baptist, Chesterton IN, IN, Pastor Steve Damron, Red Heifer, Sacrifice, Picture of Christ, Jeff Voegtlin

Id: L_sT0wQMg7o

Length: 27min 50sec (1670 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 17 2020