The Blood of the Bull and Goat
16: 14-19
The blood of the bull and goat DIG: Why did the high priest need to slaughter a bull for his own purification? What was different about the Yom Kippur purification offering than the regular purification offerings? What was the best the Levitical cleansing could do?
REFLECT: Is there anything that has become a “holy cow” in your life? How can you get back to worshiping the “holy Messiah?” What is the difference between external and internal cleansing in your life? Do you know someone who needs to hear this?
This was the only occasion in which blood was brought into the Most Holy Place,
which underscored the singular solemnity of that most important day.
The blood of the bull (16:14): Before offering the incense (to see link click Ct – Incense in the Most Holy Place), the high priest had slaughtered the bull for his purification offering (see Al – The Purification Offering: Purified by Blood). Its blood was handed to an assisting priest who stood near the bronze altar (see the commentary on Exodus Fa – Build Altar of Acacia Wood Overlaid with Bronze) stirring it to prevent coagulation, while the incense service was being performed (Yoma 4.3). After the incense service, the high priest emerged from the Sanctuary to retrieve this blood. Then he took it into the Most Holy Place, where the cloud of incense was still billowing up.
The high priest took the blood from the one who had been stirring it. Then he entered a second time into the Most Holy Place and stood in the same spot. Then he sprinkled some of the bull’s blood, one time upwards and seven times downwards. But he did not intentionally splash it upwards or downwards; he did it like one cracks a whip. And thus he counted, One, one on one, one and two, one and three and one and four, one and five, one and six, one and seven.” Then he went out and set down the container of blood on a golden stand [near the altar of incense] in the Sanctuary (Yoma 5.3).
He sprinkled some of the bull’s blood in front of the mercy seat with his finger seven times (see the commentary on Genesis Ae – The Number Seven). This transporting and sprinkling of blood in the Most Holy Place was the most unique feature of the Day of Atonements.
First, the high priest was to take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat toward the east. The placement of the blood before the place of atonement on the Day of Atonements was no accident. Elsewhere with the purification offering (4:7, 18, 25, 30, 34, and 8:14-15) the blood is placed at the base of the bronze altar in order to sanctify it. The purification offerings of Yom Kippur were different from the regular purification offerings (see Al – The Purification Offering: Purified by Blood) in that they were to make atonement for the Most Holy Place (16:33). So the high priest purified the Sanctuary.282
The blood of the goat (16:15-19): Following the sprinkling of the bull’s blood, the high priest slaughtered the goat designated as a purification offering for all Isra’el. He immediately took the blood of the goat into the Most Holy Place and sprinkled it in the same way that he had sprinkled the bull’s blood. Next, he is to slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, bring its blood inside the curtain and do with its blood as he did with the bull’s blood, sprinkling it on the ark-cover and in front of the mercy seat. This was his third entrance. No one is to be present in the tent of meeting from the time he enters the Holy Place to make atonement until the time he comes out, having made atonement for himself, for his household and for the entire community of Isra’el. Under both the TaNaKh and the B’rit Chadashah there is but one mediator between God and man (First Timothy 2:5).
This was the only occasion in which blood was brought into the Most Holy Place, which underscored the singular solemnity of that most important day of the Jewish religious calendar. The Mercy Seat covered the Ark of the Covenant and contained the Ten Words (see the commentary on Deuteronomy Bk – The Ten Words), a gold jar containing manna, and Aaron’s rod that had budded (Hebrews 9:4). The narrative accounts surrounding these items stress the rebellion of the Israelites. Therefore, the cherubim looking down upon the mercy seat only saw evidence of Isra’el’s unfaithfulness. The blood on the mercy seat indicated that Isra’el’s sin was atoned for by a substitutionary death, foreshadowing the Messiah.283
Backing out of the Most Holy Place, the high priest then took the remaining blood of the bull from the stand in which he had left it and sprinkled it seven times on the inner veil (see the commentary on Exodus Fq – The Inner Veil of the Sanctuary: That is Christ, His Body) and then did the same with the blood of the goat before ADONAI and make atonement for it. Then he mixed the blood of the blood of the bull and the goat together and put the combined bloods on all the four horns of the golden altar (see Exodus Fp – Altar of Incense in the Sanctuary: Christ, Our Advocate with the Father) that stood before the inner veil to make atonement for it. He is to put some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, thus purifying it and setting it apart from the impurity of the people of Isra’el (16:18-19).
Having finished inside the Sanctuary, the high priest came out to the bronze altar and performed similar rites to cleanse and consecrate it. The remainder of the blood was poured out at the base of the bronze altar in the courtyard (see Exodus Ex – The Courtyard and Gate of the Tabernacle). This made the bronze altar fit for use, so the Israelites could confidently draw near to the LORD with their sacrifices throughout the coming year.284
The blood rituals were purification gestures. We have seen the seven-fold sprinkling performed in connection with the purification rite of the purification offering (see Al – The Purification Offering: Purified by Blood), and in conjunction with the leper’s purification (see Ci – The Concluding Purification Ceremony). Therefore, we are to understand the seven-fold sprinklings as accomplishing purifications from the impurity (and sin) of the priesthood and the people. The blood covered (atoned for) the impurity. This is made explicit in 16:16, a passage which ties together the concepts of sin, impurity, purification, and atonement. He will make atonement for the Holy Place because of the impurity of the people of Isra’el and because of their transgressions – all their sins; and he is to do the same for the tent of meeting which is there with them right in the middle of their impurity.
In Leviticus there was a cleansing, but not enough cleansing. The writer to the Hebrews reminded them that under the Levitical priesthood the best they could hope for was a limited holiness (Hebrew: kedushah), for the blood of goats and bulls could never really accomplish deep internal cleansing. The Tabernacle was a symbol for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered there were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper (Hebrews 9:9).
In addition, there was an extraordinary form of ritual cleansing Moshe was given a regulation that became an increasingly significant part of Isra’el’s worship experience. Numbers 19 describes the ceremony a perfect red cow (Hebrew: parah adumah), which had never been yoked, was slaughtered outside the camp of Isra’el (see the commentary on Numbers Df – The Red Heifer). After sprinkling its blood seven times in front of the Tabernacle, the animal was consumed by fire and its ashes stored for mixing with water. This water of cleansing (Hebrew: me niddah) containing those ashes was applied to those who had been defiled as a result of coming near or touching a dead body. The high priest was no exception; he was sprinkled with the purifying waters twice during the week immediately preceding Yom Kippur (see the commentary on Exodus Go – The Day of Atonement), just in case he unknowingly became ceremonially defiled.
Oddly enough, this is the only sacrifice where God commands that the ashes of the burnt animal be kept. And this was for a unique purpose as the red cow was the key sacrifice for purifying the priesthood and their sacred utensils from sin and impurity. As the Passover lamb was essential to bring the Israelites into covenant relationship with YHVH, the red cow was that which kept them cleansed in their service to God.
After the destruction of the Temple and its bronze altar in 70 AD, the water for these washings could no longer be made. According to the Oral Law (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ei – The Oral Law), the last priest to kill a red cow was the high priest Ishmael ben Phabi ten years before the destruction of Jerusalem. And twelve chapters of the Oral Law (an entire tractate called Parah) are devoted to this ritual!
The Samaritans, who viewed Jerusalem’s Temple indifferently, continued slaying red heifers until the fourteenth century, using those ashes for generations afterwards. Maimonides (a twelfth century scholar) believed that the red cow ritual would be resumed with the coming of the Messiah.
The problem is that this, like so many of Isra’el’s rituals, dealt with the externals of religion. The sometimes elaborate and impressive procedures could not touch the inner defilement that prevented fellowship with the Holy One of Isra’el.285
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise and thank You from an overflowing heart for Your gracious gift of salvation. For if by the one man’s transgression, death reigned through the one, how much more shall those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Messiah Yeshua. (Romans 5:17). Also, what a wonderful promise of indwelling by the Holy Ruach. And if the Ruach of the One who raised Yeshua from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Messiah Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Ruach who dwells in you (Romans 8:11).
Father, I want to live my life in grateful worship of Your great gift that cleanses internally! Heaven will last for all eternity and now I have the opportunity to give back my life to You as a love gift. I delight in living for You now and in gifting You by bearing great amounts of fruit for You! Yeshua said: I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing (John 15:5). I love You! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection! Amen
Speaking to the unbelievers in the Messianic congregation the writer says: The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of red [cow] sprinkled on those who are ceremonially clean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean (Hebrews 9:13). Some of the Hebrews in the Diaspora continued to look to the blood of bulls and goats as a means of gaining a right relationship with ADONAI. But that sprinkling only achieved the purifying of the flesh, not the cleansing of the conscience.
There is considerable excitement about the red cow in Isra’el today. There is an organization called the Temple Institute that is dedicated to establishing the Third Temple. Its long term aims are to build the third Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount, on the site currently occupied by the Islamic Dome of Rock and reinstate the Levitical sacrifices. Members of the Temple Institute have been working on this for decades.
In order to carry out this project, the Temple Institute has joined forces with an experienced Israeli cattle rancher who is an expert in the science of animal husbandry, under the halakhic supervision and guidance of the rabbis of the Temple Institute. The cattle rancher is utilizing the technique of implanting the frozen embryos of the Red Angus cattle, which originally come from North America and Israeli domestic cattle. The end result of this program will be the introduction of the Red Angus breed into Isra’el. But before we get too carried away, we need to realize that even if the Temple Institute can produce a perfect red cow, it would still only produce an external cleansing!
While many seem to be caught up in the recent commotion, a question is posed to those of us, Jews and Gentiles, who believe in Yeshua Messiah. What does all this mean to us? On the one hand, I am sure many believers are also excited that things keep moving closer to the end of the present age. As we see some of these events of the Scriptures come into focus, we realize anew that Mashiach is coming! Yet, I believe we miss an important point if we feel the need for a red cow in order to be cleansed before God. In fact, such excitement about the red cow seems to imply that Yeshua is not the Messiah and that the Jews must have the cleansing of their sins through the sacrifices of the rebuilt Temple. The New Covenant scriptures remind us of the opposite truth; namely, that Jesus Himself fulfilled the ministry of the red cow in His first coming to Jerusalem. Significantly, the writer to the Hebrews states: Then how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Holy Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14). The blood of Jesus does exactly what the blood of the red cow could not do – it cleanses the conscience.
Indeed, the death of Yeshua Messiah is a beautiful fulfillment of the symbolism associated with the red cow. He was sinless and without defects. Like the red cow, Yeshua’s death took place outside the camp. The ongoing effect of His sacrifice, similar to the ashes of the cow, cleanses His people for priestly service. As interesting as all the recent events are, it seems Messianic believers, whether they be Jew or Gentile, have even a better reason to be excited. Instead of getting caught up in the “holy cow“, I hope we are more caught up in the “holy Messiah“! Are you ready for His return? Are you fulfilling your calling as a priest cleansed to serve the Living God?
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