Spiritual Dictionary Section R1
Red, Heifer – Sacrificial ceremony described in Numbers 19:1-10
1. The heifer must be red. V. 2 Jesus was covered with blood from head to toe as a result of all the beatings that He took for us. Isaiah 50:6; 52:13-15; 53:2-8; Matthew 26:67(convicted before Caiphas); Matthew 27:26 (scourged by Pilate’s soldiers); Matthew 27:29 (crown of thorns); Luke 23:7-11 (Herod’s trial); Psalms 22:16 (pierced His hands and feet at the crucifixion); John 19:34 (soldier pierces His side and blood came out). Jesus’ church must be covered with blood as well. Revelation 7:14; Hebrews 12:4
2. The heifer shall be without spot or blemish. V.2 Jesus was without spot or blemish or sin. Hebrews 9:14 Jesus’ church (the heifer) is without spot or blemish as well. Ephesians 5:27
3. The heifer shall have never been yoked. V. 2 Jesus has never served sin but His Father only. Romans 6:16; John 8:28-29. When the church has been recreated and is a new creation it only accepts the yoke of Jesus. II Corinthians 5:17; Matthew 11:28-30
4. Shall be slain without the camp. V. 3 Jesus was slain outside the gate. Hebrews 13:11-12. God’s church will go outside the gate with Him and they too were slain. Hebrews 13:13; Hebrews 11:37; Revelation 6:9
5. The high priest shall sprinkle her blood before the sanctuary of the congregation 7 times. V.4 Jesus sprinkles His blood for His church. Hebrews 9:11-15, 21-28; I Peter 1:2. Jesus’ church would shed her blood in sacrifice as well. Romans 12:1; Revelation 6:9; 16:4-6
6. All shall be burned with fire along with cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet. V. 5-6 Jesus suffered the fire of the trial of His faith. I Peter 1:7 Jesus’ church will be tried in the fire as well. Malachi 3:2-3; Matthew 3:11-12; I Peter 1:7
7. The priest and his helper shall wash and be ceremonially unclean until the evening. V. 7-8 Jesus was washed in water and in Spirit. Leviticus 16:4; Matthew 3:13-17 Jesus’ church is washed in water and in the Spirit as well. Exodus 19:10; Isaiah 4:4; 5:24; John 13:1-17; I Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 5:25-27; Hebrews 10:22; Revelation 12:11
8. The ashes shall be gathered for the congregation. They shall be for a water of separation. V. 9 Jesus told us to gather up every reminder of Him to prepare us for His work. Matthew 14:15-20; I Corinthians 11:23-26. Jesus’ church shall keep His death as a remembrance of Him through the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is one of those concepts that separate us from the world. Matthew 26:17-30; I Corinthians 11:23-29
9. The ashes were to be for purification of sin. V. 9 Jesus purified us from sin through His sacrifice. Hebrews 9:22-28. Jesus’ church is purified through His experience. Ezekiel 36:25-37; Daniel 3:14; 12:9-10; I Peter 1:22-23
Red, Heifer –
“The children of Israel were anciently commanded to make an offering for the entire congregation to purify them from ceremonial defilement. This sacrifice was a red heifer and represented the more perfect offering that should redeem from the pollution of sin. This was an occasional sacrifice for the purification of all those who had necessarily or accidentally touched the dead. All who came in contact with death in any way were considered ceremonially unclean. This was to forcibly impress the minds of the Hebrews with the fact that death came in consequence of sin and therefore is a representative of sin. The one heifer, the one ark, the one brazen serpent, impressively point to the one great offering, the sacrifice of Christ.
This heifer was to be red, which was a symbol of blood. It must be without spot or blemish, and one that had never borne a yoke. Here, again, Christ was typified. The Son of God came voluntarily to accomplish the work of atonement. There was no obligatory yoke upon Him, for He was independent and above all law. The angels, as God's intelligent messengers, were under the yoke of obligation; no personal sacrifice of theirs could atone for the guilt of fallen man. Christ alone was free from the claims of the law to undertake the redemption of the sinful race. He had power to lay down His life and to take it up again. "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."
Yet this glorious Being loved the poor sinner and took upon Himself the form of a servant, that He might suffer and die in man's behalf. Jesus might have remained at His Father's right hand, wearing His kingly crown and royal robes. But He chose to exchange all the riches, honour, and glory of heaven for the poverty of humanity, and His station of high command for the horrors of Gethsemane and the humiliation and agony of Calvary. He became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, that by His baptism of suffering and blood He might purify and redeem a guilty world. "Lo, I come," was the joyful assent, "to do Thy will, O My God."
The sacrificial heifer was conducted without the camp and slain in the most imposing manner. Thus Christ suffered without the gates of Jerusalem, for Calvary was outside the city walls. This was to show that Christ did not die for the Hebrews alone, but for all mankind. He proclaims to a fallen world that He has come to be their Redeemer and urges them to accept the salvation He offers them. The heifer having been slain in a most solemn manner, the priest, clothed in pure white garments, took the blood in his hands as it issued from the body of the victim and cast it toward the temple seven times. And having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."
The body of the heifer was burned to ashes, which signified a whole and ample sacrifice. The ashes were then gathered up by a person uncontaminated by contact with the dead and placed in a vessel containing water from a running stream. This clean and pure person then took a cedar stick with scarlet cloth and a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkled the contents of the vessel upon the tent and the people assembled. This ceremony was repeated several times in order to be thorough and was done as a purification from sin.
Thus Christ, in His own spotless righteousness, after shedding His precious blood, enters into the holy place to cleanse the sanctuary. And there the crimson current is brought into the service of reconciling God to man. Some may look upon this slaying of the heifer as a meaningless ceremony, but it was done by the command of God and bears a deep significance that has not lost its application to the present time.
The priest used cedar and hyssop, dipping them into the cleansing water and sprinkling the unclean. This symbolized the blood of Christ spilled to cleanse us from moral impurities. The repeated sprinklings illustrate the thoroughness of the work that must be accomplished for the repenting sinner. All that he has must be consecrated. Not only should his own soul be washed clean and pure, but he should strive to have his family, his domestic arrangements, his property, and his entire belongings consecrated to God.
After the tent had been sprinkled with hyssop, over the door of those cleansed was written: I am not my own; Lord, I am Thine. Thus should it be with those who profess to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. God is no less exacting now than He was in olden times. The psalmist, in his prayer, refers to this symbolic ceremony when he says: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free spirit."
The blood of Christ is efficacious, but it needs to be applied continually. God not only wants His servants to use the means He has entrusted to them for His glory, but He desires them to make a consecration of themselves to His cause. If you, my brethren, have become selfish and are withholding from the Lord that which you should cheerfully give to His service, then you need the blood of sprinkling thoroughly applied, consecrating you and all your possessions to God.” 4T 120-122
Redemption- "Redemption is that process by which the soul is trained for heaven. This training means knowledge of Christ. It means emancipation from ideas, habits, and practices that have been gained in the school of the prince of darkness." DA 330
Redemption plan - "The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the whole book clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God." ED 125
Reed - Matthew 11:7 - "The tall reeds that grew beside the Jordan, bending before every breeze, were fitting representatives of the rabbis who had stood as critics and judges of the Baptist's mission. They were swayed this way and that by the winds of popular opinion… He (John the Baptist) was no trembling reed, swayed by the winds of human praise or prejudice." DA 218
Reform - true spirit of - "…the Puritans had joined themselves together by a solemn covenant as the Lord's free people, "to walk together in all His ways made known or to be made known to them." Here was the true spirit of reform, the vital principle of Protestantism." GC 290
Reformation- "Reformation signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices. Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the spirit. Revival and reformation are to do their appointed work, and in doing this work they must blend." 1 SM 128
Refreshing –
A faithful messenger and supporter. Proverbs 25:13; I Corinthians 16:17-18; II Corinthians 7:13; II Timothy 1:16; I Samuel 16:23; Romans 15:32
Equated with scriptural truth. Isaiah 28:9-13
Keeping the Sabbath. Exodus 23:12 & 31:17
Pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Acts 3:19 See Latter Rain.
Refreshing – times of – “The angel who unites in the proclamation of the third angel’s message is to lighten the whole earth with his glory. A work of worldwide extent and unwonted power is here foretold….
The work will be similar to that of the Day of Pentecost. As the “former rain” was given, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the opening of the gospel, to cause the up-springing of the precious seed, so the “latter rain” will be given at its close for the ripening of the harvest. (Hosea 6:3; Joel 2:23; Acts 2:17, 21 quoted.)
The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. The prophecies, which were fulfilled in the outpouring of the former rain at the opening of the gospel, are again to be fulfilled in the latter rain at its close. Here are “the times of refreshing” to which the apostle Peter looked forward when he said: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus.” Acts 3:19, 20” GC 611-612
Regeneration- "What is regeneration? It is revealing to man what is his own real nature, that in himself he is worthless." Supplement to TM 103
Relics – See images.
Religion- “Pure and undefiled religion is defined, to visit the widows and fatherless in their affliction, and to keep unspotted from the world.” James 1:27; II SG 230
Religion- "Pure religion is an imitation of Christ." 6BC 1101
Religion – “The apostle showed that religion does not consist in rites and ceremonies, creeds and theories. If it did, the natural man could understand it by investigation, as he understands worldly things. Paul taught that religion is a practical, saving energy, a principle wholly from God, a personal experience of God's renewing power upon the soul.
He showed how Moses had pointed Israel forward to Christ as that Prophet whom they were to hear; how all the prophets had testified of Him as God's great remedy for sin, the guiltless One who was to bear the sins of the guilty. He did not find fault with their observance of forms and ceremonies, but showed that while they maintained the ritual service with great exactness, they were rejecting Him who was the antitype of all that system.” AA 451-452
Religion- "Religion is as a golden cord that binds the souls of both youth and aged to Christ." MYP 30
Religion- "Religion is something more than a profession, something deeper than an impulsive feeling. It is doing the will of God." TMKH 113
Religion- "Religion is to walk by faith, as well as by sight, trusting in God with all confidence, and resting in His love." OHC 214
Religion – “True religion brings man into harmony with the laws of God, physical, mental, and moral. It teaches self-control, serenity, and temperance. Religion ennobles the mind, refines the taste, and sanctifies the judgment. It makes the soul a partaker of the purity of heaven. Faith in God’ love and overruling providence lightens the burdens of anxiety and care. It fills the heart with joy and contentment in the highest or the lowliest lot. Religion tends directly to promote health, to lengthen life, and to heighten our enjoyment of all its blessings. It opens to the soul a never-failing fountain of happiness….” PP 600
Religion of Christ- "…means more than the forgiveness of sin; it means taking away our sins, and filling the vacuum with the graces of the Holy Spirit. It means divine illumination, rejoicing in God, It means a heart emptied of self, and blessed with the abiding presence of Christ." COL 420
Religion of Christ- "To have the religion of Christ means that you have absolutely surrendered your all to God, and consented to the guidance of the Holy Spirit." MYP 30
Religion, soul of- "Do not neglect secret prayer, for it is the soul of religion." II SG 264