Yahshua is my Red Heifer
John 19:34 (NASB) “But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.” You’ve heard of Yahshua referred to as our Passover Lamb, as in 1 Corinthians 5:7, sacrificed for our sins. But how often do you hear of Him referred to as your Red Heifer? The Holy Spirit quickened this Scripture to me this morning during our weekly Torah study. The water pouring out of the side of Yahshua is a picture of the ancient water sprinkling ceremony that used the ashes of a red heifer for purification from uncleanness.
Let’s look at the Torah portion that teaches us about the red heifer, Numbers 19:1-10 (NASB) “Then Yehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2“This is the statute of the Torah which Yehovah has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed. 3~’You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. 4~’Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5~’Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. 6~’The priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer. 7~’The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8~’The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until evening. 9~’Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin. 10~’The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the alien who sojourns among them.”
Is it not true that Yahshua had no defect, just like the unblemished red heifer? Was He not taken outside the city of Jerusalem to be executed? The priest that sacrificed the red heifer, the priest that burned the red heifer, and the priest that took up the ashes of the red heifer, all became unclean until evening from this sacrificial task. Was Yahshua not our High Priest when He was executed? Did Yahshua’s blood not take away our sins? Did Yahshua not become unclean from taking on our sins? Did the water that poured from Yahshua’s side not cleanse Him from our sins? I believe that’s exactly what it did!!
Yahshua told the Pharisee, Nicodemus, that he had to be born again, born of water and of the Spirit of Yehovah. Read this story again. . .
John 3:1-21 (NASB) “Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2this man came to Yahshua by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from Yehovah as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless Yehovah is with him.” 3Yahshua answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of Yehovah.” 4Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5Yahshua answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of Yehovah. 6“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7“Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” 10Yahshua answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? 11“Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we [the Trinity] know and testify of what we [the Trinity] have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. 12“If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13“No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. 14“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. 16“For Yehovah so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17“For Yehovah did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of Yehovah. 19“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20“For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21“But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in Yehovah.””
There are two water mikvahs that Nicodemus should have known and understood, the mikvah for cleansing the priests before service in the Tabernacle or the Temple. The other was the water birth cleansing using the ashes of the Red Heifer that had been put in water for sprinkling those who had become unclean from touching or being around a dead body. Yahshua was trying to tell Nicodemus that He was the red heifer that was going to be slaughtered outside the camp for the removal of sin for all those who believe in Him and what He would accomplish on the execution stake. Nicodemus did not have the Spirit of Yehovah, so he could not understand the spiritual implications of what Yahshua was telling him. Nicodemus had to believe that Yahshua was Nicodemus’ red heifer offering and be born again by the Holy Spirit and the washing of the water of the Word of Yah, Yahshua the Messiah.
Ephesians 5:25-27 (NASB) “Husbands, love your wives, just as Messiah also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her [the church] by the washing of water [red heifer ash in water sprinkling] with the word [Yahshua, the living Torah], 27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless [like an unblemished red heifer].” These word pictures found in the Scriptures come more clearly into focus when you see Yahshua fulfilling the Torah in His life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and Advent 2.0. In this passage Paul is specifically alluding to the red heifer offering and ceremony. This was a done deal, past tense event, because Paul knew that Yahshua was the Red Heifer offering that has cleansed the church.
You’ve been forgiven in the blood of Yahshua, but have you let Him wash you with the red heifer ash water?? Are you letting Him purify you from all your daily uncleanness and sin with the water that poured out of His broken and pierced body? You are forgiven and cleansed. Thank Yahshua today. He is not just our Passover Lamb, He is our Red Heifer. The Red Heifer was the type. Yahshua is the antitype and fulfillment of this Torah portion.
Hebrews 9:11-28 (NASB) “But when Messiah appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; 12and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish [our Red Heifer] to Yehovah, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living Mighty One? 15For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 16For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. 17For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. 18Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. 19For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Torah, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20saying, “THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH YEHOVAH COMMANDED YOU.” 21And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. 22And according to the Torah, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. 23Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24For Messiah did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of Yehovah for us; 25nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 26Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28so Messiah also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time [Yahshua Advent 2.0] for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”
By the time Yahshua returns, will you have been cleansed from the stink of death, sin, and uncleanness? Give your life to Him today and let Him wash you with His blood and with His water. There is no other way, you must be born from above, by the Holy Spirit of Yehovah, through believing in the sacrifice of Yahshua as your Passover Lamb and your Red Heifer. Do it today.
Gene Benjamin II
June 15, 2013 CE
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