What is the significance of a red heifer in the Bible? Let’s take a deep dive into your question.
God Commanded It
“The Lord has commanded, saying: Tell the children of Israel (to) bring you (the priest) a healthy red heifer…” (Numbers 19:2).
For Cleansing
God provided the red heifer rite to cleanse the ritually impure, those contaminated by death, or for washing war booty that the fires of purification would harm:
“Everything that can go through the fire, you will make it go through the fire, and it will be clean, but some of it will be purified with the water of purification (made from the ashes of the red heifer), and all that cannot pass through the fire you will make go through the water” (Numbers 31:23).
The Bible only mentions ‘the ashes of a red heifer’ twice, in Numbers nineteen and Hebrews nine. Scripture also calls it ‘the water of purification’ in Numbers 31 (see above). There haven’t been any Red Heifer sacrifices since the Second Temple’s destruction by the Romans in AD 70.
Why Now (1)?
But the priests are preparing for this sacrifice to use the cleansing water to dedicate the next Temple and cleanse the priesthood. Reports say that five Red Heifers — Texas raised — have arrived in Jerusalem.
God told the Jews this ritual was an ‘eternal’ statute:
“It will be an eternal statute to them” (Numbers 19:21).
What’s a Red Heifer?
A heifer is a young female cow between three and five years old. It had to be red/reddish brown, and, according to the priests, not have two or more white or black hairs next to each other (though priestly views vary on some specifics).
It’s Connection to Jesus
Unblemished
The heifer must be unblemished, just as Jesus was, and never yoked (some priests say or even leaned on) (Numbers 19:2):
“For you (were) redeemed … with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:18-19).
Unburdened
The yoke symbolizes the burden of sin. The chosen Red Heifer never carried a burden, and Jesus never carried His own sin. Instead, he carried ours.
Unattached
This sacrifice is related to the sin offerings, which the priests burned for the entire congregation, including this one, outside the camp (Numbers 19:5). Bringing it ‘outside the camp,’ i.e., outside the tabernacle or temple courtyard, symbolized that the priests took the contamination from within the assembly and removed it.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was also sacrificed outside the camp. He removed the sin of believers:
“For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest on account of sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also, so that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate” (Hebrews 13:11-12).
Why Then?
God instituted the Red Heifer ritual after He led them with mighty works out of Egypt to the borders of the Promised Land. However, when the Jews arrived, they refused to enter the land. God answered this failure to believe by sentencing them to forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Every Jew (except Joshua and Caleb) died in the wilderness during those years:
“In this wilderness your corpses will fall, and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me (God)” (Numbers 14:29-30).
What Contamination?
It provided cleansing from the contamination of death that the nation had contracted as the Jews died during their forty-year wanderings in the Wilderness. The Bible tells us how someone became contaminated (Numbers 19:14-16):
***“When a man dies in a tent. Each person who comes into the tent and all that is in the tent will be unclean seven days. Every open vessel which has no covering fastened on it is unclean.”
***”Whoever in the field touches one that is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave will be unclean seven days.”
Sprinkling the Blood
“Eleazar the priest will take from its (the slaughtered red heifer’s) blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood directly before the tent of meeting (which held the presence of God) seven times” (Numbers 19:4).
The blood represents death, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). This sacrifice removed the contamination from death, which is the result of sin. So, the heifer died in place of the people, as Jesus died for the sins of the world.
The priest sprinkled the blood from sacrificed animals toward the ‘tent of meeting’ to cover the sins of God’s people. When God saw the sprinkled blood, He accepted it as cleansing their impurity.
Added Ingredients
The priest added three elements to the burning sacrifice, so their ashes were added to the heifer’s:
“Then it (the heifer) will be burned in his (the priest’s) sight. Its hide and its flesh and its blood, with her dung, will be burned. And the priest will take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet and throw it into the midst of the burning of the heifer” (Numbers 19:5-6).
***The cedar tree may symbolize strength and protection.
***Hyssop was a plant that symbolized purification.
***The scarlet thread symbolized atonement or redemption through the blood sacrifice.
Besides providing its ashes, the priests used the hyssop to sprinkle the water of purification. The Jews had previously used it to apply the blood on the doorposts in the Passover ritual:
“They (the Jews) shall take some of the blood (of the Passover lamb) and (use hyssop to) put it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses in which they shall eat it…. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 13:7, 13).
The Finished Product
The priest gathered the heifer’s ashes and combined them with the cleansing water as needed (Numbers 19:9). The priests at the main Temple secured the mixture and provided it to the priests outside of Jerusalem.
When the supply of ashes ran low, they sacrificed another Red Heifer and added the new ashes to the remaining supply.
Refusing the Cleansing
Anyone who refused the cleansing ritual was cut off from the congregation of Israel:
“The man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person will be cut off from among the assembly because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean” (Numbers 19:20).
Why Now (2)?
Much of the current interest in the Red Heifers comes from its perceived prophetic significance. The Bible teaches that during the future seven-year tribulation, a Temple will again exist in Jerusalem and priests will offer sacrifices in it:
“I (the Apostle John in a vision from Jesus) was given a … measuring rod. The angel stood, saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. But exclude the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will trample on the Holy City for forty-two months (for three and a half of the seven years)” (Revelation 11:1-2).
A New Temple
Priests in Israel plan to build a new Temple with its instruments to prepare for the Messiah’s return.
Many Christians (including us) believe the rapture will occur before the seven-year tribulation. So, the recent interest in why the Jewish priests want to obtain a Red Heifer, has people interested in what the Bible says about end time events. You can read about those future events in Revelation Chapter six and following, and Daniel 9:27; 12:1-4.
The Jewish actions show their priests believe the signs are there suggesting their Messiah will return soon. People in general fear that Armageddon is right around the corner! Christians believe the scene is set for Jesus to return and take His Church (rapture) out of the coming tribulation and back to His heavenly home. Believing in Jesus now will save you from the horrors of the coming tribulation:
“Wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 4:13-18; 5:1-11).
What is the Significance of a Red Heifer in the Bible?
Summary
God instituted the Red Heifer ritual as ‘an eternal statute’ to purify the Jewish people from the stains of death.
The red heifer without blemish is a unique animal that the existing Jewish priests had shipped from Texas to Jerusalem to prepare for dedicating a rebuilt Temple.
The priest mixed the ashes of the Red Heifer with water to provide ‘the water of purification.’
The Red Heifer illustrated Jesus’ sacrifice in which He died ‘outside the camp’ in a cleansing action to remove the believer’s sins.
The current interest in the Red Heifer comes from its perceived prophetic end-time significance, which heralds the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple and the return, or (in the Jewish view, the appearance) of the Messiah and Armageddon.
