The Waters of Purification Print E-mail
Written by Victoria Radin   

“Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come. …take it outside the camp, and it shall be slaughtered before him....Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight....And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet and cast them into the midst of the fire burning the heifer....Then a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and store them outside the camp in a clean place; and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of purification; it is for purifying from sin…He who touches [a] dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean.” (Excerpts from Numbers 19:2-12)

Most people are totally unaware of the significance of the Red Heifer in the unraveling of biblical prophecy. The instructions for the Red Heifer Sacrifice indicate that its ultimate purpose is to take away the defilement of death––that which separates man from G-d. Its ashes were to be gathered and stored for use in mixing with water to form The Waters of Purification that had to be sprinkled on everything and everyone connected with the performance of all Temple rituals.

As part of the groundwork for the current plan to rebuild G-d’s Temple in Israel, therefore, the Jews must prepare The Waters of Purification. They must raise a completely red cow that meets all requirements of the Law and slaughter it in its third year. The writings of the Jewish sages state that there have been only nine red cows burned in the history of Judaism and that the tenth heifer will be burned in the time of the Messiah. Thus, the current preparation in Israel for the burning of the tenth Red Heifer is a harbinger of the coming of the Messiah.

The mysterious mandate for this sacrifice was and continues to be a riddle to the rabbis. Knowledge gleaned from the New Testament, however, lifts the veil of obscurity surrounding this puzzling ceremony. All the biblical sacrifices, we have learned, pointed to different aspects of the atonement procured by the Messiah in His first appearance. The burning of the Red Heifer is no exception.

The Red Heifer was led through the Eastern Gate over an arched roadway that spanned the Kidron Valley to the “Place of Burning” on the Mount of Olives. The Heifer would be bound and thrust into a pit filled with firewood prepared for the ritual.

In August of 2019, Breaking Israel News printed an article on new findings concerning the burning of the Red Heifer:

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/135387/exclusive-burning-red-heifer-takes-place-preparation-third-temple/?mc_cid=0ac84ca11f&mc_eid=564ead3d1c

The author, Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz said that in their preparations for building the Third Temple, they secretly conducted an experiment to determine the correct place and way to obtain the necessary ashes to hold Temple services. He emphasized that the heifer used in the experiment was not red and its ashes not ritually pure.

“A simulated experiment of burning a red heifer was conducted to investigate several research questions, such as: How much wood was required to burn a red heifer completely to ashes and how much ash actually remained after the burning? How is it possible that ashes from immolating one heifer, as it appears in the sources, can supply ritual purposes for many years?”

From the beginning of the experiment until its end, the correlation to Yeshua in His crucifixion was and is unmistakable. According to Jewish tradition, the burning of the tenth Red Heifer will occur during the era of the final redemption.

“I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your fetishes.”(Ezekiel 36:25)

The experiment began with the excavation of a rectangular pit carved into the bedrock in which the pyre was built of a tower of dried wood of the pine, oak, and fig trees according to the Oral Torah. It actually resembled a tomb carved into rock such was Joseph’s tomb used to bury Yeshua.

  • After slaughtering the heifer, "The cow was lifted onto the pyre by 12 men using a [makeshift] litter."
  • Cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet-dyed wool were thrown onto the burning carcass according to biblical instructions.
  • "The process of burning lasted some nine hours, and the heifer's ashes together with the wood used to burn it yielded several tens of kilograms of ashes.

They found that it took several days before the ashes cooled enough to be collected and used. And finally, they discovered that the amount of ash needed to prepare the ritual water was a minute amount sprinkled over the water. 

“Ritual purification requires only one drop to be sprinkled on each person or object. For the purposes of the experiment, Prof. Amar used bunches of three branches of common hyssop dipped into one centimeter of water. He then sprinkled the water into a container ten times. Using this method, he determined that one sprinkling required one-tenth of one millimeter of water. On this basis, Professor Amar determined that 66 kilograms (145.5 lbs.) of ash would be sufficient for at least 660 billion sprinklings.”

According to scientists, there are less than 8 billion people in the world today of only 108.2 billion who have ever been born. That would be six times more purification water available from one Red Heifer than would be necessary for all the people ever born.

In relating this to Yeshua and His crucifixion, Yeshua was the final Red Heifer to which all others pointed.

Yeshua’s ordeal began at sunrise (6 am - Matthew 27:1-2) when the chief priests bound him and ended nine hours later at 3 pm when He took His last breath according to Matthew 27:45-50.

                In the experiment, the burning of the red heifer took 9 hours.

Yeshua was led out of Jerusalem to be sacrificed after His third year of earthly ministry - Mark 15:22 

                The heifer had to be sacrificed outside Jerusalem in its third year. (Numbers 19:3)

Yeshua was lifted up onto a wooden stake (pyre) and was destroyed (crucified) 

                The Red Heifer was lifted onto the pyre of wood and destroyed.

Yeshua was crucified in the presence of the Priests of Israel (Matthew 27:41-43)

                The Red Heifer had to be burned in the presence of the Priest (Numbers 19:3)

The pit, or grave [Hades] received Yeshua for three days before He was resurrected.

                In the experiment, the Red Heifer’s ashes had to be cooled for days before being ‘resurrected’ out of the pit to be used in the purification process.

Yeshua appeared to His disciples after His resurrection (John 20:19-22) and breathed on them saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit"; Yeshua’s blood mixed with the water (John 19:34) at His death, was poured out for all who would be sprinkled with the true waters of purification manifested in the outpouring of His Holy Spirit on repentant individuals from that day until forever.

                After several days, Red Heifer’s ashes were ready for use in the Waters if Purification 

“… Yeshua stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive…” (John 7:37-39 quoting Isaiah 44:3)

In accepting Yeshua's purification, we are no longer separated from Him by death. Instead, Christians go from this life directly to eternal life.

Some biblical scholars believe that Yeshua may have been crucified on the Mt. of Olives. The crucifixion at the site known as Golgotha (Matthew 27:33), whether referring to a site on the Mt. of Olives or elsewhere, would agree with the clear teaching that Yeshua was led from the Temple area, where he was brought after being arrested, to a place “outside the camp” for crucifixion (Hebrews 13:11-13). Golgotha may have been called the place of the skull (Matthew 27:33) because it was the place where sin offerings were burned (Leviticus 4:11-12), having many animal skulls strewn about. The roadway in the Kidron valley between Jerusalem and the Mt. of Olives was a well-traveled road that was believed to be the site of many crucifixions; the Romans wanted all passersby to witness how Rome punished criminals.

Eternal separation from G-d begins with being sent to Hades, the place where the unsaved dead await resurrection. The time will come when Hades will ‘release’ the dead at the last resurrection to face G-d’s White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:10-15). Death and the place of its residence, Hades, will be thrown into the Lake of Fire along with those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life. Some will be resurrected unto everlasting life and others unto everlasting damnation (Daniel 12:2).

Defilement from death, that which separates man from G-d, is removed when an individual is ‘sprinkled’ with The Waters of Purification––the Holy Spirit [water] mixed with the Word of G-d [the ashes of the Red Heifer]. This ‘mixture’ keeps us clean and undefiled before G-d from day to day.

As the Jewish community of Israel prepares to sacrifice the tenth Red Heifer of Israel’s history, pray that G-d may open their eyes to see Him in this sacrifice in all His glory.

 

 

 
 
 
 
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