Parah (Cow)

(Yesterday was a special Shabbat called Shabbat Parah. I wrote and posted this in my previous blog on 03/11/2007.)

TORAH: Bemidbar (Numbers) 19:1-22

HAFTARAH: Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 36:16-38

Shabbat Parah is the third of five special Shabbats (Sabbaths) before Pesach (Passover) for which there are additional Torah and Haftarah readings.

The instruction about the red heifer is known as a chok in Hebrew. A chok is a commandment or instruction which is mysterious and doesn't seem to make any sense, but we do it anyway because Abba YHWH says so. But those who are familiar with Yeshua Messiah are able to see the Messianic significance of the red heifer procedure.

The ashes of the red heifer were used for purification after contact with a dead human being. The heifer had to be red. Yeshua wears a red robe:

Rev 19:13 and having been dressed in a robe dipped in blood – and His Name is called: The Word of YHWH.

The red heifer is perfect, without blemish. Yeshua is perfect, unblemished and spotless:

1Pe 1:19 but with the precious blood of Messiah, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless,

The red heifer had to be slaughtered outside the camp. Yeshua was taken outside of the city to be slaughtered:

Mar 15:22 And they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.

Included in the red heifer procedure was cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet. Yeshua was crucified on wood, and hyssop was used to lift a sponge up to His mouth just before He died:

Joh 19:29 A bowl of sour wine stood there, and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and held it to His mouth.

After His death, a ribbon of scarlet was manifest:

Joh 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and instantly blood and water came out.

Even though the gathering of the ashes of the red heifer made one unclean, the paradox is that the sprinkling of the ashes of the red heifer in living water cleanses one from death. When Yeshua touches the unclean, He does not become unclean, but instead the unclean are made clean. When Yeshua touches the dead, He is not defiled, but instead raises the dead to newness of life.

The portion from Yehezqel (Ezekiel) points to the red heifer and the promise of Messiah:

Eze 36:24 "And I shall take you from among the gentiles, and I shall gather you out of all lands, and I shall bring you into your own land.

Eze 36:25 "And I shall sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean – from all your filthiness and from all your idols I cleanse you.

Eze 36:26 "And I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I shall take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I shall give you a heart of flesh,

Eze 36:27 and put My Spirit within you. And I shall cause you to walk in My laws and guard My right-rulings and shall do them.

Eze 36:28 "And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. And you shall be My people, and I shall be your Elohim.

The red heifer sprinkling was to take place on the 3rd and the 7th days:

Num 19:19 'And the clean one shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day. And on the seventh day he shall cleanse himself, and shall wash his garments and bathe in water, and shall be clean in the evening.

There are seven moedim (appointed times) or High Shabbats in the Scriptural calendar every year:

1. The first day of HaMatzot (Unleavened Bread).

2. The seventh day of HaMatzot (Unleavened Bread).

3. Shavuot (Weeks), also known as Pentecost.

4. Yom Teruah (Day of Blowing/Shouting/Trumpets).

5. Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

6. The first day of Sukkot (Tabernacles/Booths).

7. Shemini Atzeret (Eighth-Day Assembly).

The third of these High Holidays, Shavuot/Pentecost, is when the Torah was given on Mt. Sinai and also when the Ruach HaKodesh (Set-Apart Spirit) was poured out on the disciples some 1500 years later.

In the first case, 3000 died because of the sin of the golden calf, but in the second case, 3000 were saved:

Exo 32:28 And the sons of Lewi did according to the word of Mosheh. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day.

Act 2:41 Then those, indeed, who gladly received his word, were immersed. And on that day about three thousand beings were added to them.

The seventh of these appointed times is Shemini Atzeret. The meaning of this day is like that of a King who invites His people to a week-long feast (Sukkot), but He is enjoying their fellowship so much that He wants the people to continue to abide with Him. This eighth day is representative of abiding in eternity with Him.