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Welcome. I'm Cliff Hedges. This is Pastor Cliff's Notes. This is a podcast where we are studying the Bible. Today is episode 1637, and we're looking at Numbers chapter 19, verses 1 through 10. So God had brought the Israelites to the edge of the promised land, but they rebelled. God's response was to send them back into the wilderness to remain there until this faithless generation died off at 40 years. Then there was another rebellion led by Korah, a Levite. He challenged the priesthood that God had established. Fire consumed the two hundred and fifty men who tried to offer incense, and the earth swallowed the families of the leaders of the rebellion. Then a plague broke out and was stopped only when Aaron, the proper priest, offered incense. Then the Lord made it abundantly clear, make sure that they understood that Aaron was his chosen high priest by causing Aaron's staff to bud and produce almonds. So we've had this demonstration by God of who the priests were. Then we've had some instructions into chapter 18 about priests and Levites, and then continuing that into chapter 19. So we pick it up now. Numbers chapter 19, verse 1. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron. This is the legal statute that the Lord has commanded. Instruct the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red cow that has no defect and has never been yoked. Okay, we had him speaking to Aaron, then speaking to Moses. Now he's speaking to Aaron and Moses, and he's bringing up a new command for them. He says it's a legal statute, and it hinges on an unblemished red cow with no defect and has never been yoked. So we're used to things that have no defect. Any animal brought to sacrifice is supposed to not have any defect, never having been yoked, meaning it's never been used as a work animal. It's never had to pull a plow or anything like that. But it's to be a red cow. Now, before all of the cattle that have been part of sacrifices have been male cows, bulls. This is the first time we see a female cow, because it's specifically the feminine. In fact, you hear a lot in the news about red heifers and biblical prophecy. So, new command: get a red heifer. Verse 3, give it to the priest Elieazar, and he will have it brought outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. So Eleazar is the oldest son of Aaron, and he is next in line to become the high priest when Aaron passes away. Because Aaron's an old man at this time. He's in his eighties. Verse 4. The priest Eleazar is to take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. Now, this is all being done outside the camp. So it's taken away from everything. So it's not near the tent of meeting, but the animal's going to be slaughtered, and he's just going to dip his finger in the blood and flick it seven times toward the tent of meeting, which will be way off in the distance. Verse 5. The cow is to be burned in his sight. Its hide, flesh, and blood are to be burned along with its waste. So several things are different in any kind of animal sacrifice we've seen before. One, it's being done outside the camp. Two, it's uh a female cow where all the cattle have been males. It's being burned up, and there's no preparation really, like there is for even the burnt offerings where the uh waste material is removed from the animal. That's all burned up along with it. And it's not have its blood removed. All the other animals that they're bled out, and the blood is sprinkled at the altar, not this case. Verse 6, the priestess to take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson yarn and throw them into the fire where the cow is burning. So these are things associated with cleansing. Often the hyssop is dipped into the blood and used to sprinkle things. Crimson yarn is used in purification, and it's logical cedar wood. So these are items used in purification. We see them in Leviticus 14, 4, verse 7. Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. After that he may enter the camp, but he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening. Because the high priest is supposed to avoid anything that would make him unclean. So here Eleazar is going to do it, but he will be made unclean. I asked to do some things to become clean again, wash his clothes, bathe his body. He still will remain unclean until evening. So the process of doing this makes the priest unclean. He can go through the process then to be made clean again. Verse 8. The one who burned the cow must also wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. He will remain unclean until evening. So the man assisting the priest, the one who is actually doing the burning of the cow, he becomes unclean also in this process. Verse 9. A man who is clean is to gather up the cow's ashes and deposit them outside the camp in a ceremonially clean place. The whole purpose of this burning of the red cow is to get its ashes. And so somebody's got to come now and collect the ashes. He must be clean in order to do this. And then the ashes will be kept outside the camp, but in a clean place. Continuing in verse 9, the ashes will be kept by the Israelite community for preparing the water to remove impurity. It is a sin offering. So this is all in order to prepare this purification water. So it's water that's going to have the ashes from this red cow added to it, and that will become the purification water. And only somebody who is ceremonially clean can collect these ashes and put them in a container and store them. Verse 10. Then the one who gathers up the cow's ashes must wash his clothes, and he will remain unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the alien who resides among them. So even the guy who was clean and but collects the ashes, he becomes unclean in doing that. So this purification water, which is necessary to cleanse people, it seems anybody who handles it becomes unclean in the process. So it's going to be used, we'll see next time, for purification of somebody after they've had contact with a dead body, where you remain unclean for seven days. And part of the process to be clean again is to use this purification water. And they just had a lot of death that they've had to deal with. Remember, with the plague that broke out after the rebellion of Korah, there were like 14,000 people who were killed in the plague. So they've had to handle a lot of dead bodies. They've been dealing with a lot of uncleanliness. I pointed out some of the oddities about this whole thing. It's a female cow, because only bulls are used for sacrifices. It's red. It's the only place where it matters what color the animal is. All the animals brought for sacrifices at the altar, the defining characteristics is without defect. This one's without defect, but this one has to be red. The only one that matters what the color is. And it's slaughtered, not sacrificed. And it's done outside the camp, and its blood is not sprinkled at the altar. The blood is burned up and then becomes part of the ashes. And that's important that the blood is in the ashes. Now, according to rabbinical tradition, there have been nine red heifers who've been slaughtered since this time, Numbers 19. Because you get a bunch of ashes from a burned up cow and this purification water that lasts a good long time, it seems. So they say from this point here, Numbers 19, through modern time, there's only been nine times that one of these cows has been processed this way to get the red cow ash as the special active ingredient in the purification water. And about 1200 AD, there was a rabbi named Maomides who taught that a tenth red heifer would be sacrificed by the Messiah himself. And since then there's been all kinds of prophecies about red heifers. And the appearance of a red heifer is a sign of the coming of the Messiah, because the Messiah will be the one to slaughter this red heifer to make the purification water necessary to purify the area to rebuild the temple. Now, remember, right here, Numbers 19, it's the only place in the Bible that mentions red heifer, red cow. And if you Google red heifer, you will see page after page after page from a Christian perspective and from a Jewish perspective about the prophecies about the red heifer. But this is it. This is the the we'll see next couple times the use then of the purification water. But that does not it's not like it appears in any of the prophecies later in the Bible. So this is all the Bible has to say about the red heifer. So we went through the process of getting the ashes from the red heifer. Next we'll look at the actual use of the water purification. Thanks for joining me. Join me again next time as we continue working through numbers.