Have you heard Bible teachers in recent days talking about red heifers? If so, do we need to educate ourselves on the subject?
Do red heifers have anything to do with the return of Jesus?
Let’s start first with a definition of “heifer,” since not everyone may be familiar with the word. According to Dictionary.com, a heifer is “a young cow over one year old that has not produced a calf.”
As for the significance of a red heifer in particular, that goes back to the book of Numbers, where we read that the Israelites were to bring to Moses
“a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke.” It was then to be slaughtered outside the camp and burned to ashes, and the ashes were “to be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin” (Numbers 19:2, 9).
Under the Old Covenant, when an Israelite became ritually unclean, his rites included being purified by “the water of cleansing,” which was mixed with the red heifer’s ashes....
