Red Heifer

First I shall present extracts from a SDA's 'vision';

then my own _preliminary_ findings ...

FOR CRITIQUE and not as a dogma

In two sentences,

The SDA understanding is the heifer' sacrifice made atonement for sins;

My opinion is the heifer's sacrifice and blood meant nothing for reconciliation or atonement; but its burning to ASHES meant utter REJECTION.

 

James Tierney,
“… a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, a brother in Christ”,

“…Jesus fulfilled the mysterious Red Heifer sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane.
… a forgotten sacrifice illuminating an added dimension to the complete knowledge of the plan of salvation.”

“… the spiritual death of Jesus fulfilled the sacrifice of the Red Heifer. I will attempt to show how Jesus of Nazareth not only died the physical death on the cross, but He died the death that we all deserve; the one after the judgment, the second death. Not only did He fulfill the sacrifice of the Red Heifer, it happened at the exact spot on earth that was prophesied through the symbol of the Red Heifer. ”

“The Miphkad altar on the Mount Olives (see illustration) is the only Altar outside the “gate” of Jerusalem used for any part of the temple service. Not only is it where the Red Heifer was sacrificed, it was where the body of the goat for the Lord in the atonement and all unburned sacrifices was burned.
This altar is also on the same spot as the gate to the Garden of Gethsemane which is just down the hill from the altar. When the priest flung the blood of the Red Heifer in the direction of the temple seven times (see; atonement)”

“In the service of the Red Heifer, which had to be endured if you had touched the dead otherwise you couldn’t take part in the Atonement; after the 7 day cleansing, “a sign was put over your families tent which read ‘I am not my own, Lord I am thine’ {RH, January 9, 1883 par. 9}”.

“the significance of this guilt offering/ cleansing ceremony”

“The temple does not need to be rebuilt and they do not need to find another Red Heifer, because it’s already been sacrificed in the Garden of Gethsemane.”


“Major point of interest; the word ‘Gethsemane’ literally means ‘Olive Press’.”

[SD:
Young’s AC, “wine-press” and “olive farm”.]

““This heifer was to be red without spot, which was a symbol of blood… He (Jesus) chose …
There in the Garden my sins were placed on Him, and His righteousness on me.”

“‘The psalmist, in his prayer, refers to this symbolic (red Heifer) ceremony when he says, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." The blood of Christ is efficacious ………….’ {RH, January 9, 1883}”

“Ezekiel 36:24-27 “For I will take you out of the nations… 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.”

“The body of the heifer was burned to ashes (Including the blood; very important!), which signified a whole and ample sacrifice. The ashes were then gathered up by a person uncontaminated by contact with the dead and placed in a vessel containing water from a running stream (clean water). This clean and pure person then took a cedar stick with scarlet cloth and a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkled the contents of the vessel upon the tent and the people assembled. This ceremony was repeated several times in order to be thorough and was done as purification from sin.”
{4T 121.3}

“Again in Isaiah, 51:17 says “Awake, awake (sleeping disciples), stand up, O Jerusalem, which has drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.” In fulfillment, Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 20:23 “Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with”. This is the cup of the new and everlasting covenant that was symbolically offered to the disciples in the upper room before He entered the Garden to drink it. Over and over Isaiah talks of drinking the cup, first by Christ, then His people, then finally in Isaiah 51: 22-23 it is taken out of the hand of God’s people and given to “them that afflict thee”, unmixed with mercy.”

 

GE:
Re:
“… given to “them that afflict thee”, unmixed with mercy.”

Compare ‘red heifer’ in Isaiah 15:5 with reference to fugitives and judgment without mercy or forgiveness.
Compare ‘red heifer’ in Jeremiah 46:20 with reference to Egypt’s destruction and judgment without mercy or forgiveness.
Compare ‘red heifer’ in Jeremiah 48:34 with reference to Moab’s failing winepresses and destruction and judgment without mercy or forgiveness.
Compare ‘red heifer’ in Jeremiah 50:11 with reference to Chaldea’s spoil and destruction, and judgment without mercy or forgiveness.
Compare ‘red heifer’ in Hosea 4:16 with reference to Israel’s backsliding,
nevertheless
“the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.”
BUT!
“Ephraim is joined to idols: LET HIM ALONE! Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually…” destruction and judgment without mercy or forgiveness.
Compare ‘heifer’ in Hosea 10:11 with reference to Ephraim as taught, but passed over; but “Judah” (for Christ) shall plough, and Jacob (Israel) shall break his clods. Sow to yourselves in RIGHTEOUSNESS, reap in MERCY; break up deep your fallow ground: for it is TIME TO SEEK THE LORD TILL HE COME AND RAIN RIGHTEOUSNESS UPON YOU.”
Forgiveness, despite, “Ye have ploughed wickedness, have eaten the fruit of lies, didst trust in thy own way, in the multitude of thy mighty men …” and followed destruction, and judgment without mercy or forgiveness. Verses 14,15.


But on the other hand …

Compare ‘heifer’ in 1Samuel 16:2 with reference to David for to seal covenant with the view to Christ,
“I will shew thee what thou shalt do: and thou shalt ANOINT UNTO ME WHOM I NAME unto thee. … PEACEABLY I AM COME, TO SACRIFICE UNTO THE LORD.”

Compare ‘heifer’ in Genesis 15:9 with reference to Abraham for to seal covenant with the view to Christ, “And when the sun had gone down … and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. … Thy Seed shall be a Stranger in a land not (his), and (He) shall serve them; and they shall afflict (Him) … When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces (of the heifer and other animals, verse 10). In the same day the LORD made Covenant with Abraham, Unto thy Seed give I this land …” and judgment and destruction without mercy or forgiveness on the ungodly nations, verses 19-21.

Now we can think about Numbers 19:2,5,9 and Deuteronomy 21:3,4, and 6.

First of all notice that not Aaron the HIGH priest, but Eleazar the ordinary “priest” was “given” this “red heifer”.
Then notice that “another” than the “priest”, “slayed” the heifer “before his face”.
The heifer was slain “without the camp”.
Eleazar the priest sprinkled its blood “in the direction of the sanctuary of the congregation”. No blood of the heifer was brought into the sanctuary; not even into the camp.

Then there where it was slain the heifer was burned in the priest’s sight, again by another person than the priest. The priest shall only add to the fire of the heifer’s burning.

The priest, before he could enter the camp, had to wash himself and put on clean clothes, and the one who burned the heifer, had to do the same.

Then yet another, “clean man”, “shall gather up the ASHES of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp … and it shall be kept for the congregation for a water of separation- (or sanctification-) purification of sin.

Even this man that “gathered the ashes” and “carried it out into no man’s land without”, was defiled by it and had to wash himself and put on clean clothes before he could enter the congregation again.

NO atonement for sin was achieved through the sacrifice of the red heifer!
Its sacrifice and burning was not done on any altar of the LORD;
Nothing of the heifer reached as far as into the sanctuary where alone, atonement and reconciliation were made.

Notice that the heifer had never worked; it had not ‘earned’ even the fodder it ate.
YET it was sacrificed “to be counted … as the INCREASE of the theshingfloor and of the winepress” and as “REWARD for work / service” in the Church and the holy things of the LORD.
“Ye shall bear no sin by reason of it when ye have HEAVED FROM IT THE BEST of it” … SELF-GAIN!


The heifer was sacrificed for UNKNOWN, and DENIED, sins, Deuteronomy 21. NOT for repented and confessed sins. “Lay not INNOCENT blood unto thy people!” With sacrificing this heifer we “put away the guilt of INNOCENT blood from among (us)”.

Why then did the LORD command such an offering of sacrifice?

To test the people’s HONESTY and consciousness of their sins and SINFULNESS.
To teach his People that “THE LORD”, not ourselves, “IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”, “EVEN YOUR SANCTIFICATION”, AND SALVATION;
to teach God’s People the lesson of Abraham that “righteousness is of grace by faith alone”;

The heifer symbolized man’s vain attempts at self-justification and self-righteousness; man’s FUTILE works of sanctification or holiness of his own salvation.

This is what Hebrews 9:13 in context of verses 12 and 14, declares.
In this New Testament Scripture the blood or spotlessness of the heifer found no place,
but only its ASHES, showing forth
the WORTHLESSNESS OF HUMAN ENDEAVOUR AT HOLINESS AND SALVATION,
AND THE ONLY BLOOD AND SANCTUARY THAT WAS ABLE TO
“OBTAIN ETERNAL REDEMPTION FOR US …
THE BLOOD OF CHRIST WHO THROUGH THE ETERNAL SPIRIT
OFFERED _HIMSELF_ WITHOUT SPOT, TO GOD.”

 

A sacrifice symbolic of REJECTION through Christ's blood rather than reconciliation through Christ's blood?

 

I like your humour; but what about a little of that rarity, seriousness?

I have observed through the years, humour and seriousness more or less correlate with respectively inattentiveness and attention paid to the Scriptures and faith.