This book is for me the culmination of some twenty five years of study and prayer but for the last ten years, I have also had a huge emotional interest in the mystery that climaxes this book, the ritual of the red heifer’s ashes.
In 1994, at ‘the uttermost part of the earth’ from Israel, in Wellington, New Zealand, a very close-knit Christian family entered a nightmare. The father and youngest son were working together in their offices when they were shot down in cold blood. The police were quickly on to the murderer. The evidence of his guilt was overwhelming but, due to a very able defence lawyer, it took three trials before a jury reached unanimity and convicted the man. As a result, the family faced the agony of almost two years in a courtroom, having to hear over and over again the awful details of the deaths of their much loved men.
At the time, I was shepherding a church and I became aware that the mother of the family needed support in her ordeal so, as often as I could, I joined her in court. Sometimes when the load grew too heavy for her, we would slip out and find a quiet place to call on the Lord for strength and He would meet with us. I grew to really love and respect this beautiful and dignified woman of God, and then her family as Trudy and I got to know them too.
For some time I had been studying Numbers 19 and the red heifer’s ashes simply out of curiosity but one day it dawned on me that this ritual was God’s provision for ancient Israel to deal with the defilement of death. I had not really thought about that before but I could see my friends were facing a daily ordeal. Sure that there had to be some provision here too for Christians, some spiritual application to deal with death’s defilement, I prayed more and more that God would "open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Thy law" (Psalm 119:18). He responded and gave me understanding which I applied as I felt He said, to bless and encourage my friends.
After the trials, we returned to our usual, busy lives. Trudy and I went to work for three months in Nepal as the pastoral couple to a medical mission where I began really trying to communicate some of the mysteries God has shown me over these twenty five years. By definition, mysteries are not easily grasped and I am still learning how to teach them. I have also found many Christians simply uninterested in the Old Testament, so I have often wondered what to do with all that I have found, praying that God would use it somehow.
Then, in June 1999, I was donating blood at a blood bank and thumbing through old magazines when I came across an article in The New Yorker (July 20, 1998). It was headed: "Why do a Pentecostal cattle breeder from Mississippi and an Orthodox rabbi from Jerusalem believe that a red heifer can change the world?" Amazed to have at last found someone, anyone, interested in the red heifer, I devoured the article. My astonishment only grew as I read about Clyde Lott and Rabbi Chaim Richman trying to introduce Red Angus cattle to the land of Israel so that the Temple can be rebuilt. I had absolutely no idea of the present-day significance of the heifer to Israel.
All I could think about was that the article didn’t actually explain the mystery. I searched Encyclopedia Judaica and explored the Internet, certain that there must be many others who understand it but, if there are, they aren’t saying much because I couldn’t find any thorough explanations. On a trip to the States a month later I met with Clyde in Mississippi where we quickly became firm friends and he asked me to write this book.
So, out of the terrible tragedy of a double homicide, God is able to bring even more than the "sure and certain hope of the resurrection", when this lovely family will again be reunited - He is also bringing to light understanding of the mystery of the red heifer to bless His people Israel.
In 1994, at ‘the uttermost part of the earth’ from Israel, in Wellington, New Zealand, a very close-knit Christian family entered a nightmare. The father and youngest son were working together in their offices when they were shot down in cold blood. The police were quickly on to the murderer. The evidence of his guilt was overwhelming but, due to a very able defence lawyer, it took three trials before a jury reached unanimity and convicted the man. As a result, the family faced the agony of almost two years in a courtroom, having to hear over and over again the awful details of the deaths of their much loved men.
At the time, I was shepherding a church and I became aware that the mother of the family needed support in her ordeal so, as often as I could, I joined her in court. Sometimes when the load grew too heavy for her, we would slip out and find a quiet place to call on the Lord for strength and He would meet with us. I grew to really love and respect this beautiful and dignified woman of God, and then her family as Trudy and I got to know them too.
For some time I had been studying Numbers 19 and the red heifer’s ashes simply out of curiosity but one day it dawned on me that this ritual was God’s provision for ancient Israel to deal with the defilement of death. I had not really thought about that before but I could see my friends were facing a daily ordeal. Sure that there had to be some provision here too for Christians, some spiritual application to deal with death’s defilement, I prayed more and more that God would "open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Thy law" (Psalm 119:18). He responded and gave me understanding which I applied as I felt He said, to bless and encourage my friends.
After the trials, we returned to our usual, busy lives. Trudy and I went to work for three months in Nepal as the pastoral couple to a medical mission where I began really trying to communicate some of the mysteries God has shown me over these twenty five years. By definition, mysteries are not easily grasped and I am still learning how to teach them. I have also found many Christians simply uninterested in the Old Testament, so I have often wondered what to do with all that I have found, praying that God would use it somehow.
Then, in June 1999, I was donating blood at a blood bank and thumbing through old magazines when I came across an article in The New Yorker (July 20, 1998). It was headed: "Why do a Pentecostal cattle breeder from Mississippi and an Orthodox rabbi from Jerusalem believe that a red heifer can change the world?" Amazed to have at last found someone, anyone, interested in the red heifer, I devoured the article. My astonishment only grew as I read about Clyde Lott and Rabbi Chaim Richman trying to introduce Red Angus cattle to the land of Israel so that the Temple can be rebuilt. I had absolutely no idea of the present-day significance of the heifer to Israel.
All I could think about was that the article didn’t actually explain the mystery. I searched Encyclopedia Judaica and explored the Internet, certain that there must be many others who understand it but, if there are, they aren’t saying much because I couldn’t find any thorough explanations. On a trip to the States a month later I met with Clyde in Mississippi where we quickly became firm friends and he asked me to write this book.
So, out of the terrible tragedy of a double homicide, God is able to bring even more than the "sure and certain hope of the resurrection", when this lovely family will again be reunited - He is also bringing to light understanding of the mystery of the red heifer to bless His people Israel.
