What are You Thinking
Moving along, we are in parasha Chukkat in the book of Numbers. It begins in Chapter 19:1-22:1. This is about a famous red cow. I'm sure you all are familiar with this cow, so let's just cover a couple of facts about it. The first thing we need to remember is the heifer had to be totally red and I mean "totally" red. Then it had to be a heifer that had never had a yoke put on it. In other words, it had never been used for work. Then it had to be brought to El-Azar the Priest, who would take it outside the camp to kill it. When it was done in Temple times, it was taken outside the Temple to the Mount of Olives to be sacrificed. We know this heifer was a picture of Yeshua. There is one fact in this part of Scripture that we overlook. This is, the Priest may have taken the cow out of the camp, but he was not the one who killed it. Notice it says one shall slay it before him (him being the Priest).
The Priest was the one who took the blood AFTER it was slain, but he did not do the killing. Its funny how we've read this part many times and yet never saw that. In verse 5 it says; And one shall burn the heifer in his sight. If someone is burning the heifer in the Priest's sight, that means it's not the Priest burning it! Also, notice in these chapters, that it tells you about how the Priest had to wash himself and his clothes afterwards and then it goes on to say the same details about the one who burned the heifer. Here's still another clue that it wasn't one and the same person. Another person who was spiritually clean had to gather the ashes for storage. By taking care of the ashes, he became 'unclean'. After the person had finished with the ashes, he had to wash his clothes and he was unclean until evening. What happened with the ashes? You always ask such good questions:. They were divided into three parts. One part was stored for future use. One part was divided among the divisions of Kohanim. The last part was kept in a place called the Chail, an area next to the Courtyard for safekeeping. (Rashi) Next we are going into some touchy material, so you've been warned, touchy material alert:. We are going to look at touching a dead body. In Numbers Chapter 19 verse 11, it says very plainly that anyone who touches a dead body becomes unclean for seven days. After that, there was a process they had to go through to become clean again. They had to be sprinkled with water containing the ashes of the red heifer on the third day of their uncleanness.
Also, they were sprinkled on the seventh day. If they skipped the third day, the seventh day was useless to them. Yeshua was in the ground three days and then arose. If you skip what happened to Him on the third day, then you are in trouble on the seven thousandth year! Think about the numbers as you read your material. Now we've dealt with this death issue in previous issues, but just in case you missed those issues, we'll go over it again:. When it says a man dies in his tent, everyone in that tent, everyone that comes into that tent and everything basically in that tent, is UNCLEAN. Can you tell me the difference between a tent and our modern day funeral homes? So guess who becomes unclean for seven days in this day and age when they step into a funeral home? People just do not stop and think about this! As a Messianic, you have no business being at a funeral home unless it's your family. People are so afraid of what someone is going to think of them at work if they do not go "to the funeral" of a co-worker or whoever, what about how YHVH feels about it?
Whose thoughts and opinions are more important? If you will read Chapter 19, you'll see that it says if you just touch a grave, you are unclean! STOP VISITING THE CEMETARY!!! Your loved one is NOT THERE. Visit someone who is alive, you'll be better off for it and so will they. It says you're unclean if you touch even the bone of a dead man. YHVH must have known today we'd have people wearing bone fragments of dead people on a chain around their necks for so-called good luck pieces. This is going on now with church people (I won't name the denomination), not just the worldly people. I could never understand how anyone could wear a dead rabbit's foot for good luck. It seems to me it didn't bring that rabbit much luck:. Of course we all know, there is no such thing as luck anyway. YHVH goes so far as to say even some of the vessels are unclean in the tent where the man died. That is, unless the vessel had an airtight lid on it. Even the vessels had to undergo a purification process. So let's continue on now with the death of Miriam. Notice she died in the first month. I would be willing to say she probably died on a Passover, but I don't have any proof of that. I just know that YHVH always does things of importance always on either a Sabbath or a Festival. Now there is not any water again. So here go the people moaning and complaining to Moshe (what's new). So YHVH tells Moshe to speak to the rock. What you notice here was that it was not just any rock. It says speak to THE ROCK, it doesn't say to speak to A ROCK. But being a bit miffed at the people anyway, Moshe struck the rock instead of speaking to it. Not only did he hit it once, but twice. But Moshe messed up another way besides striking the rock. He told the people, must WE (him & Aharon) fetch you water from the rock. He should have said, must YHVH fetch you water from the rock. Him and Aharon could not bring forth 'anything' out of a rock on their own behalf. Sometimes when we are upset with someone we speak before we think like Moshe did, not a good thing to do:. Now they are going to Mount Hor and there Aharon will die (he was 123 years old). Notice that YHVH had Aharon stripped of his Priesthood in private. YHVH told Moshe to take El-Azar and Aharon and himself up to Mount Hor and there put the garments on Aharon's son to be the next High Priest. The people mourned for Aharon for thirty days. I'm going to recount what the sages say about Aharon's death, I'm not saying this analogy is correct, but it's an interesting thought. They say Aharon died by the kiss of YHVH. They describe this as the most exalted form of death. It's like pulling a strand of hair from milk. The sages believe to the extent a person holds on tightly to this world, it becomes difficult for them to part this physical life.
For those totally attached to the things in this life, it becomes more like pulling embedded thorns from sheep's wool, ouch! But for one such as Aharon and Moshe, whose hearts are centered on the world to come, death is so easy. They are getting close to the time to enter the Promised Land now and they must battle some enemies. They tell Moshe they hate the manna, they hate this place, they basically hate everything, been there, done that:. It says they even spoke against YHVH. That's when the fiery serpents came in. Suddenly, after they are getting the manna bit out of them, they decide maybe they sinned again:. It seems like with these people, it was always a little too much realization a little too late:. As we've see a gazillion times (well maybe not that many) Moshe intervenes for them. So YHVH tells him to fashion the brass serpent on a pole. Whoever looked upon it would live from the snake bites. If you remember, brass stands for judgment. I thought it was interesting that in Numbers Chapter 21, verse 14, it actually mentions the War Scrolls. We have fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls on a book called the War Scrolls. I believe this would bear that book out as being valid. So we leave off in this parasha with Israel battling different groups of her enemies. They fought the Amorites and won. Now they are getting ready to take on Og and his boys. Those giants weren't that big after all it seems! So I'm sure if those people could look back at their fear later in life, they would say, what was I thinking, being afraid when the God of the whole universe was on my side. Miriam probably was thinking outside the camp for seven days, what was I thinking, criticizing Moshe. They say hindsight is always 20-20. So when it comes to believing that your enemy is triumphing over you, tell me, what are you thinking??? See you next time… Shalom
The Priest was the one who took the blood AFTER it was slain, but he did not do the killing. Its funny how we've read this part many times and yet never saw that. In verse 5 it says; And one shall burn the heifer in his sight. If someone is burning the heifer in the Priest's sight, that means it's not the Priest burning it! Also, notice in these chapters, that it tells you about how the Priest had to wash himself and his clothes afterwards and then it goes on to say the same details about the one who burned the heifer. Here's still another clue that it wasn't one and the same person. Another person who was spiritually clean had to gather the ashes for storage. By taking care of the ashes, he became 'unclean'. After the person had finished with the ashes, he had to wash his clothes and he was unclean until evening. What happened with the ashes? You always ask such good questions:. They were divided into three parts. One part was stored for future use. One part was divided among the divisions of Kohanim. The last part was kept in a place called the Chail, an area next to the Courtyard for safekeeping. (Rashi) Next we are going into some touchy material, so you've been warned, touchy material alert:. We are going to look at touching a dead body. In Numbers Chapter 19 verse 11, it says very plainly that anyone who touches a dead body becomes unclean for seven days. After that, there was a process they had to go through to become clean again. They had to be sprinkled with water containing the ashes of the red heifer on the third day of their uncleanness.
Also, they were sprinkled on the seventh day. If they skipped the third day, the seventh day was useless to them. Yeshua was in the ground three days and then arose. If you skip what happened to Him on the third day, then you are in trouble on the seven thousandth year! Think about the numbers as you read your material. Now we've dealt with this death issue in previous issues, but just in case you missed those issues, we'll go over it again:. When it says a man dies in his tent, everyone in that tent, everyone that comes into that tent and everything basically in that tent, is UNCLEAN. Can you tell me the difference between a tent and our modern day funeral homes? So guess who becomes unclean for seven days in this day and age when they step into a funeral home? People just do not stop and think about this! As a Messianic, you have no business being at a funeral home unless it's your family. People are so afraid of what someone is going to think of them at work if they do not go "to the funeral" of a co-worker or whoever, what about how YHVH feels about it?
Whose thoughts and opinions are more important? If you will read Chapter 19, you'll see that it says if you just touch a grave, you are unclean! STOP VISITING THE CEMETARY!!! Your loved one is NOT THERE. Visit someone who is alive, you'll be better off for it and so will they. It says you're unclean if you touch even the bone of a dead man. YHVH must have known today we'd have people wearing bone fragments of dead people on a chain around their necks for so-called good luck pieces. This is going on now with church people (I won't name the denomination), not just the worldly people. I could never understand how anyone could wear a dead rabbit's foot for good luck. It seems to me it didn't bring that rabbit much luck:. Of course we all know, there is no such thing as luck anyway. YHVH goes so far as to say even some of the vessels are unclean in the tent where the man died. That is, unless the vessel had an airtight lid on it. Even the vessels had to undergo a purification process. So let's continue on now with the death of Miriam. Notice she died in the first month. I would be willing to say she probably died on a Passover, but I don't have any proof of that. I just know that YHVH always does things of importance always on either a Sabbath or a Festival. Now there is not any water again. So here go the people moaning and complaining to Moshe (what's new). So YHVH tells Moshe to speak to the rock. What you notice here was that it was not just any rock. It says speak to THE ROCK, it doesn't say to speak to A ROCK. But being a bit miffed at the people anyway, Moshe struck the rock instead of speaking to it. Not only did he hit it once, but twice. But Moshe messed up another way besides striking the rock. He told the people, must WE (him & Aharon) fetch you water from the rock. He should have said, must YHVH fetch you water from the rock. Him and Aharon could not bring forth 'anything' out of a rock on their own behalf. Sometimes when we are upset with someone we speak before we think like Moshe did, not a good thing to do:. Now they are going to Mount Hor and there Aharon will die (he was 123 years old). Notice that YHVH had Aharon stripped of his Priesthood in private. YHVH told Moshe to take El-Azar and Aharon and himself up to Mount Hor and there put the garments on Aharon's son to be the next High Priest. The people mourned for Aharon for thirty days. I'm going to recount what the sages say about Aharon's death, I'm not saying this analogy is correct, but it's an interesting thought. They say Aharon died by the kiss of YHVH. They describe this as the most exalted form of death. It's like pulling a strand of hair from milk. The sages believe to the extent a person holds on tightly to this world, it becomes difficult for them to part this physical life.
For those totally attached to the things in this life, it becomes more like pulling embedded thorns from sheep's wool, ouch! But for one such as Aharon and Moshe, whose hearts are centered on the world to come, death is so easy. They are getting close to the time to enter the Promised Land now and they must battle some enemies. They tell Moshe they hate the manna, they hate this place, they basically hate everything, been there, done that:. It says they even spoke against YHVH. That's when the fiery serpents came in. Suddenly, after they are getting the manna bit out of them, they decide maybe they sinned again:. It seems like with these people, it was always a little too much realization a little too late:. As we've see a gazillion times (well maybe not that many) Moshe intervenes for them. So YHVH tells him to fashion the brass serpent on a pole. Whoever looked upon it would live from the snake bites. If you remember, brass stands for judgment. I thought it was interesting that in Numbers Chapter 21, verse 14, it actually mentions the War Scrolls. We have fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls on a book called the War Scrolls. I believe this would bear that book out as being valid. So we leave off in this parasha with Israel battling different groups of her enemies. They fought the Amorites and won. Now they are getting ready to take on Og and his boys. Those giants weren't that big after all it seems! So I'm sure if those people could look back at their fear later in life, they would say, what was I thinking, being afraid when the God of the whole universe was on my side. Miriam probably was thinking outside the camp for seven days, what was I thinking, criticizing Moshe. They say hindsight is always 20-20. So when it comes to believing that your enemy is triumphing over you, tell me, what are you thinking??? See you next time… Shalom