THE ASTONISHING SIGNIFICANCE OF RED HEIFERS IN OUR DAY
You may have heard rumors about red heifers in Israel: hushed whispers of cattle kept in secret locations and clandestine sacrifices near the Temple Mount… or perhaps you even saw the statement by Hamas a little while ago that it was these red heifers that precipitated “Operation Al Aqsa Flood”. That’s right, apparently the mere existence of some red cows in Israel triggered the October 7 massacre according to a Hamas spokesman.
The Middle East is a wild place, and this is about as mad as it gets, but when we take a closer look at the biblical origins of this whole heifer debacle, you’ll see why it’s all so significant. Significant enough to start a war.
Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come”. (Numbers 19:1-2)
God’s law, given to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, included the requirement of perfect red heifers. No defects, no blemishes. The unyoked, flawless heifers become “unkosher” once hairs are spotted that are not uniformly red. They have to be perfect. What happens to these red heifers? Their fate is not good, at least from the cows’ point of view. They are incinerated in complete totality, even including their dung. However, their death brings life. The ashes of the red heifer were required for proper priestly sacrifices to be made, in order to make atonement for sin.
It’s important to note that the ashes of the red heifer can be gathered and kept without a time limit. There’s no use-by date for the ashes, so no rush to use them right away, but the cow must be perfect at the time of its slaughter. This leads to a discussion in the Talmudic tractate on the subject to raise about how long one should wait before slaughtering the cow. A red heifer might be flawless one day but grow a stray white or dark hair overnight. Catching them at the right moment before imperfections develop is the critical issue, and within 1-5 years old is the acceptable timeframe.
Finding perfect red heifers with absolutely no hairs of any other color is easier said than done. Without such cows the priests cannot be ritually pure and therefore cannot offer sacrifices according to the biblical law. There has been no way of purifying the priests to offer sacrifices according to the law laid out in the Bible. The people of Israel may be back in the land and free to follow Jewish law, but sacrifices have not been possible without a perfect red heifer.
They have hunted high and low to find a suitable candidate for years, but with no success…
…until now.
THE INCENDIARY EFFECT OF THE RED HEIFERS IN ISRAEL
On Thursday afternoon, September 15, 2022, at 5 pm, five flawless red heifers arrived in Israel. They were originally spotted in Texas and were flown all the way from the USA. The Temple Institute, dedicated to the restoration of a Jewish temple, reported:
“A modest ceremony was held at the unloading bay of the cargo terminal at Ben Gurion airport, where the new arrivals were greeted and speeches were made by the incredible people who have put their hearts and souls and means into making this historic/prophetic day become a reality.”
That’s right, they’ve found some perfect red heifers. They are being kept under careful watch, and not all in the same place. Three are in Shiloh, and can be seen by the public, but others are being kept safely elsewhere. More than that, preparations are being made to burn any that are still perfectly red, probably at Passover or perhaps 50 days after that at Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. It’s all happening! But as exciting as this may be for those dedicated to the law of Moses, it’s proved nothing short of a severe provocation to Israel’s enemies.
A spokesman from Hamas gave this speech, 100 days into the war precipitated by the massacre of October 7:
“We look back 100 days to remember the educated, the complicit, and the incapacitated among the world powers governed by the law of the jungle, reminding them of an aggression that reached its peak against our path (Al-Quds) and Al-Aqsa, with the start of its actual temporal and spatial division, and the bringing of red cows as an application of a detestable religious myth designed for aggression against the feelings of an entire nation in the heart of its Arab identity, and the path of its prophet (the Night Journey) and Ascension to heaven.”2
Yes, these red cows have hurt the feelings of Hamas apparently, and their presence has been interpreted as an intolerable act of aggression.
It must be remembered that the entire operation on October 7 was named “Al Aqsa Flood” (Al Aqsa being the grey-domed mosque on the Temple Mount). Like a red rag to a bull, news of the red heifers has signaled to the watching Islamic world that the Temple Mount might not be exclusively theirs forever. Concerns about the “desecration” of the Temple Mount plaza and the Al Aqsa mosque have been the cause of multiple outbreaks of violence, and this news is as incendiary as it gets.
The third temple will be built, but it will also be desecrated, according to Scripture. However, at the end of this age, the Messiah will come and take His rightful place on the Temple Mount, on the throne of David:
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