What More Could He Do?
Dorothy Dalton
Midland SDA Church
April 19, 2014
The last quarter of this past year, our Sabbath School studied “The Sanctuary” and lessons that are relevant and applicable for today. We were able to see how Jesus was present in everything; including the materials used in the structure and its contents, the participants and all activities related to the Tabernacle. If you recall, we had a week of study on the sacrifices. The life of every sacrifice, from the first one offered at the gate of Eden down to the cross, was a type of Christ. This morning we will look at an occasional sacrifice offered to purify from ceremonial uncleanness those, who for any reason touched the dead. Now before you tune me out and say this doesn’t apply to me let us see if I can change your mind.
The ceremony of the red heifer deserves special consideration. It differed in many respects from the regular sin offerings: yet it served the same purpose. The red heifer sacrifice is one of the most significant and yet least understood. It was given to the children of Israel to be a “perpetual statute unto them”. (Num 19:21) The RH was similar to, yet different from, the other offerings for sin.
It comforts me to know that God knows the way that I take. Job 23:10 declares “God knows the way that I take, and when he has tested me, I will come out like gold.” In other words; I don’t need to know the way, I need only trust my guide. I would hate to think that the God I love would be as shocked as I have been when major problems occurred in my life. I would hate to come to God and say “I didn’t know this was going to happen.” And “He would say, me either.”
That is the implication of the text we are studying this morning. There are going to be times when a priest is going to touch the dead or the dead are going to touch the priest. According to the Leviticus law he is going to be unclean. But, God, says I will not declare you unclean and not make provision for you to be clean again. I will not make a law so strict that you get trapped by the law I give you. I will give you a way of escape, if this happens. I don’t want you to touch anything dead but if this happens this is what you must do. You must sanctify yourself. You must have a red heifer. There were only four born in several hundred years. So this was a rarity!
Rarity suggest value. The less often or less frequently you have the opportunity to present something the more valuable it becomes. If you want something to cheapen in value let it become common and plentiful. What makes something valuable is when it is limited. That is why some dishes, certain cars, and outstanding art work are labeled “limited editions”
The Red Heifer (RH) was a “limited edition”. The birth of one was an occasion for elaborate celebration. They would use care in how they raised it; they would be careful that no disease would come upon it and they protected it from harm. The second criteria: there was to be no blemish on the RH: no spots no imperfections, no disease, no affliction, and no lameness. It had to be holy, spotless and perfect. The third criteria was that no man ever rode upon it and that it had never been yoked. God did not want what could no longer be used. He didn’t want hand-me-downs. God said, “This must be entirely mine or I will not accept it!” Other sacrificial victims might be any color, this one must be red and completely red. The rabbis believed that if her horns or hoofs were black, or if two black or white hairs grew from the same follicle, she was rendered inadmissible.[i] The Israelites were instructed to give the RH to the priest and he must offer it up.
Verse 3 tells us the RH must be given to Eleazar the Priest, who is to take it outside the camp where it is slaughtered in his presence. With the RH you must bring some cedar wood, some hyssop and also some red scarlet wool. For you must use all this in the ceremony. When you bring the RH to the priest, the priest must burn that RH up, all of it, from head to toe, burn everything. Blood, bowels, dung – everything! Set it completely on fire and it must be burned simultaneously with the cedar wood, the red scarlet fabric and the hyssop. It must all be burned together. And when it is burned together it cannot be burned where other sacrifices have been offered. It cannot be burned on the brazen alter. The brazen alter is inside the camp. If it is burned at the brazen alter it destroys the typology. If it is to be a pure picture of what God wants his people to understand then take the heifer outside the camp and burn it outside the camp, not inside. And once it is burned outside the camp he who burns the heifer will be unclean.
I know when I look at the RH it is teaching me about Jesus. I know it is teaching me the rarity of the opportunity to know who He is. To know who Jesus is: is a blessing. The gospel is hid from those who are lost and have not accepted him. They cannot know Him (1 Cor 2:14 NAS) God has allowed you to see Jesus for who He is: the Son of God. And you ought to thank Him, not for you house, not for your car, not for your clothing or family but for the knowledge of who Jesus is and what He is able to do in your life. There are some people who will never see the glory of who Jesus is. The OT Saints only saw him afar off in shadows and types. But they saw Him plainly as the spotless RH. The RH was a shadow of the spotless Christ, who would take away the sins of the world. No bones broken in His body: the Heifer was never to be yoked. “The Lord of Glory freely stepped down from His throne to volunteer for the work of atonement. There was no obligatory yoke upon Him, for He was independent and above law.[ii] 2 Cor 5:21 (NAS) He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The heifer was to be separated from the herd. Jesus was separated from his brethren when he was taken from The Garden and taken to Annas. The heifer was taken to the Priest. “This was a very imposing ceremony. Unlike most other offerings the heifer was taken outside the camp to a rough valley that had never been cultivated or sown. The priest clothed in pure white garment led the heifer and was accompanied by the elders of the city and the Levites. When they reached the rough valley, they paused, and the elders came forward and killed the heifer. The priest then took the blood and with his face toward the temple, sprinkled the blood with his finger toward the temple seven times. After this the heifer’s entire body including the blood was burned”[iii] We see reference to this in the book of Hebrews, when it says “Jesus died for our sins outside the camp. Heb 13:12 (Amp) I wondered about that phrase and have learned why He didn’t die inside the camp. It was so Israel would not own Him and for me being a Gentile so there would not have a wall between me and the Savior. So, for my sake He said, I can’t leave Dorothy out there and die in here and so He died outside the camp. His death was for you also, if you invite Him into your life.
Attempts to arrest Jesus had occurred before and had they been successful without the assent of the priest they would have ruined the sacrifice. Murdering him would not have redeemed the world! God’s plan indicated he must be offered up. And in order for Him to meet the criteria of the RH He had to go through rigorous examination. Jesus was examined by Annas and Caiaphas, the chief priests and elders of the Sanhedrin, by Herod and twice by Pilot. Pilot did not know what He was saying when He said, “I find no fault in this Man.” (John 18:38) (Lk 19:6) and then said, “bring me some water that I might wash may hands for I am innocent of this man’s blood”. (Matt 27:24) Pilot does know that he is clearing Him for sacrifice. Pilot could clear Him but he couldn’t offer Him because Pilot was a Roman. And had Pilot offered him up he would have cancelled the sacrifice. So, Pilot says to the Jews, You decide what to do with Him. He is in your hands. Do you want Jesus or Barabbas? You decide what to do with Him. He is in your hands. And it was only when the Priest nodded his head that Jesus’s cross went from execution to sacrifice.
The Romans’ executed many people on a cross. Jesus was not the only one. Their schedule of execution was so rigorous that they were executing two other people on the same day that Jesus was being crucified. For them it was an execution but because the High Priest offered up Jesus He went from being executed to being a sacrifice for our sins. He proclaims to a fallen world that He has come to be their Redeemer and urges all to accept the salvation He offers them.
“The body of the heifer was burned to ashes, 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. This clean and pure person then took a cedar stick with scarlet cloth with a bunch of hyssop and sprinkled the contents of the vessel upon the tent and the people assembled. This ceremony was repeated several time in order to be though and was done as a purification from sin.
The priest was to carry the cedar wood to the place of sacrifice. Jesus had to carry the cross to Calvary. Cedar when you burn it sets of a smell and Paul says that Christ’s sacrifice to God “is a sweet smelling savor.” Eph 5:2 (KJV) Jesus, when on the cross, may have been thinking about the RH when He said “I thirst” and a Roman soldier brought Him a sponge with vinegar on a branch of hyssop” John 19:29 The only thing missing is the scarlet wool. Let me suggest that if you look at the bottom of the cross you will find Roman soldiers gambling for His robe and I suggest that robe was saturated with His blood. Jesus Paid It ALL!! What More Could He Do?
He is there outside the camp and has removed all barriers preventing you from getting to Him. The thing that interests me the most, when the RH, cedar, the hyssop and the red wool are burned up. It is more valuable in its death than it is in its life. In its death it changed form from the physical to the ashes. You are forbidden to touch dead things. The Bible says you are priests unto God. “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (Pet 2:9)
When death comes you suffer loss and need a period to adjust and accept. As a priest you are forbidden to touch dead things. Now, we don’t go around looking for dead things. But, have you ever driven down the road and seen a dead animal. Maybe a rabbit, deer, or possibly a cat? You see it ahead of you and you pass and then it is amazing but you immediately look in the rear view mirror. Why? Do you think driving pass will restore life? Are there things in your life that are over, are you clinging to dead things? Dead things are those things from the past that cannot be changed and yet consume much of your thoughts. Things that are over from the past. The things you keep going back to and visiting are cancelling out your future. Your history is killing your destiny. God is calling His people away from the dead things of this world. He wants us to have a fresh experience with Him, daily. God says, “if my priests touch a dead thing, if they will save the ashes from the RH sacrifice they can purify themselves from the dead things they touch. God knew that every now and then no matter how sincere you are you will touch something that is dead. A dead relationship, a dead friendship, a dead job and in your desperation you are going to cleave to something dead. God says, don’t look back, but if you do you have the RH ceremony to remind us that our miracle is just ahead. Your best days are in front of you. Your miracle is not in the Heifer but in the ashes. Your miracle is what you have left when the fire stops burning. Whatever the fire took from you – you don’t need it. Your power, your strength, your tenacity, your fight, your vigor, is in what you have left. God doesn’t perform miracles through what you lose.
The Bible says “forget those things which are behind you because as a priest you are forbidden to handle dead things. Let the dead bury the dead! That unforgiveness is killing you, taking away your peace, destroying you sleep. As a priest you are to live above dead things. Remember how David prayed to God for His baby born by Bathsheba to live? As long as the Baby was alive he prayed and lamented; but when the baby was dead he made a sudden change. He got up washed his face, changed his clothes and went to the house of God? God is calling is people away from the dead things of their world to have a fresh experience with Him
God has always been calling for sacrifices and He is still doing it today. Romans 12:1 (NASB) States “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of Worship
Remember the Widow of Zarephath who had only a handful of meal and a little oil and the Lord provided for her during the famine. And we have the little boy with 5 fishes and two loaves of bread that fed 5,000 and had 12 baskets left over.(John 6:9-13) Your miracle is not in what you lose it is always in what you have left. Now here is the problem. People who value what they have left look forward. People who place a high value on what they lost look backward. Which kind of person are you? Are you someone who is looking through the windshield of hope and opportunity or are you someone who is looking at corpses in the rearview mirror?