Contact with the dead causes spiritual impurity (i.e., tumah) because death, as the separation from life, is the ultimate expression and consequence of sin. People routinely deny the meaning of death, explaining it away as the result of some cause from which one might escape (“he worked too hard,” “she got sick,” “it was an accident,” etc.). People rationalize death because they refuse to see it as the effect of sin, the consequence of the original transgression of Adam and Eve that humanity as a whole has “inherited” (Gen. 2:17; 3:19; Rom. 5:12). Therefore the Torah states that the birth of a child results in impurity (Lev. 12:2,7). Full atonement comes from “digging up the root of sin” by being purified from its source, namely, the curse of death itself. The Red Heifer alludes to the sin of the Golden Calf, which finds its source in the original idolatry of Adam and Eve. Even the blood of the sacrifice was burned to ash “outside the camp,” putting a complete end to the “life of death” and its power to corrupt. The Red Heifer is therefore a special sort of “sin offering” (chatat) that cleanses from contact with death itself (Num. 19:9).
The “fall” of man implies that we have contact with death – both inwardly and outwardly. The sacrifice of Yeshua as our “Red Heifer” cleanses us from all tumah and lovingly makes us clean (tahor) before the Father. The “water and the blood” is part of the “olah sacrifice” of Yeshua for our redemption and purification before God offered at Calvary (John 19:34, 1 John 5:6). The water and blood flowing from His wounds are the means by which we are purified from sin and death… All this comes from the love (chesed) of God given in our Messiah and Savior. Just as the sacrifice of the Red Heifer cleansed from the effects of physical death, so the sacrifice of Yeshua cleanses us from the effects of spiritual death. For more on this subject, see the “Gospel of the Red Cow.”
Hebrew Lesson:
