The Lord told Moses and Aaron that they must bring a red heifer and slaughter it so that the sins of the people may be forgiven. Then the blood is to be sprinkled toward the tent where they meet, and the remains of the heifer burned.
In chapter 18 God tells them that the cow, sheep and goat are holy animals... more holy than humans. How is it fair that the unholy humans get to slaughter the holy heifer and their sins are forgiven? The heifer deserves better than that!
In our bible study last week the questions came up, what does God really need to forgive humans? Does God need a slaughtered heifer to forgive the Israelites? Could you imagine getting to heaven and God asking you how many heifers you slaughtered? No.
God can forgive because God wants to forgive. The Israelites have just gone through a rebellious stretch and are now fearing God. They need something that they can point to and say "because of that we know that we are forgiven." That is why the Israelites need the heifer.
Jesus is holy, set apart from all creation. He is sacrificed by the unholy, for the unholy. Did God need Jesus to be sacrificed for us to be forgiven?
No.
But we needed to sacrifice Jesus so that we could point to something and say "because of that we know that we are forgiven." There is a reason so many people wear crosses around their neck.
In turn, God showed the world just how deep His love really goes. It's a win-win.
Except for the heifer and Jesus.
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