In the worship of the Old Testament, where everything was SYMBOLICAL, that is, where spiritual realities were conveyed through outward signs, every physical defilement would point to, and carry with it, as it were, a spiritual counterpart. But especially was this the case with reference to death. Death, which cast its icy shadow from the gates of Paradise to those of Hades, pointed to the whole dread realm of sin, sorrow, and separation from God, the ghastly nightmare through which man has suffered for six painful milleniums. Hence, defilement by the dead was symbolically treated as the greatest of all. It lasted seven days; it required a special kind of purification; and it extended not only to those who had touched the dead, but even to the house or tent where the body had lain, and all open vessels therein. More than that, to enter such a house; to come into contact with the smallest bone, or with a grave; even to partake of a feast for the dead, rendered one ceremonially unclean for seven days. Nay, he who was thus defiled in turn rendered everything unclean which he touched.

Through Moses the Lord commanded the people to bring a red heifer - one without spot or blemish - and present it to the High Priest. The High Priest in turn gave the red heifer into the hands of Eleazar the priest to be taken outside the Camp and slaughtered there in his presence. It was not one of the sin-offerings of the Day of Atonement - indeed, it was no "offering" at all, for no part of it was offered on the Lord's altar or eaten by the priests. It was sacrificed, but not in the same sense, nor in the same place, as these offerings - in the Court. It was not even killed by one of the priests, nor was its blood taken into the Tabernacle. The red heifer was taken outside the Camp of Israel, and was then killed and burned to ashes, except a little of the blood taken by the priest and sprinkled seven times toward the front of the Tabernacle. While the body of the heifer was being incinerated, Eleazar was to throw cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet threat into the burning fire. When all was consumed, the ASHES of the heifer were not brought into the Tabernacle, but were left outside the Camp, gathered into a heap, accessible to any of the people who had use for them. The Lord directed that a portion of the ashes was to be mixed with running water in a vessel, and a bunch of hyssop dipped into this water was to be used in sprinkling the person, clothing, tent, vessels, etc., of any one who contracted ceremonial defilement through touching or approaching a dead body. Thus, any one who became legally unclean through contact with death, was cleansed or purified by being sprinkled with water containing some of the ashes of the heifer.

"And the Lord spoke unto Moses, Command the children of Israel that they put out of the Camp...whosoever is defiled by the dead: both male and female you shall put out, that they defile not their Camps, in the midst whereof I dwell. Whosoever touches the dead body of any man, and purifies not himself, DEFILES THE TABERNACLE OF THE LORD; that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean" (Num. 5:1-3; 19:13). Here is a man who has come into contact with a dead body. Because he has been so defiled, he cannot stay in the Camp, neither can he approach the Tabernacle: he is prohibited from having fellowship with either man or God! The very presence of death caused all fellowship and worship to cease! Until the time he was sprinkled, he was kept out of fellowship with God, but when he had been duly sprinkled he was clean. He then proved his trust in the water of separation by boldly entering in and taking his position as a cleansed man. He was restored to his people and to the presence of God. Ah, though we have committed no act of sin, yet, because of our contact with the DEATH around us, the influence of the flesh, the world, and the devil, how often have we had the sense of being far away from the presence of God! It was not sins that separated us - it was, rather, the NEGATIVE INFLUENCES of a realm of DEATH upon MIND, EMOTION, and CONSCIENCE!

The cares of THIS WORLD have turned many people's lives into a pressure cooker. The strain of everyday living is steadily growing worse because of financial problems, higher taxes, inflation, recession, the disturbing world situation, adds responsibilities, sickness, hospital bills, rebellion in the home, pressures on the job, etc. The divisions and distractions of "this life" are too numerous to mention, we are all faced with them every day. There are those seemingly needful involvements of daily living, but when they so OVERWHELM us, so mar our lives with anxiety, stress, fatigue, and distraction that we find ourselves so fragmented and divided that we are not able to gather ourselves together to serve the Lord with all our heart, mind, and strength - then we have touched death and have been defiled by it, and need to be CLEANSED from these things and their NEGATIVE EFFECTS upon our lives. If we contract defilement, that defilement must be removed ere we know the free flow of HIS LIFE. But we cannot get rid of it by any effort of our own; it can only be by the use of God's gracious provision, even the WATER OF SEPARATION. "He shall purify himself with it the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean" (Num. 19:12). This sets forth the wonderful provision of God in Christ to meet our need in passing through a DEFILING WORLD of death on our way into the full redemption of Christ, applied to our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.

"This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke" (Num. 19:2).

All the offerings in the Bible are bullocks and rams, but here there is an exception - a heifer, a female cow. Through Moses the Lord commanded the people to bring a red heifer to Him. Notice that it was NOT a bullock but a heifer. Sex has its significance in the Bible. All that pertains to truth and testimony is represented by the male sex, while all that speaks of experience and life is symbolized by the female sex. This is a principle in the study of the Bible. Abraham represents justification by faith, and Sarah stands for obedience. Faith is objective, truthful, a testimony; obedience is subjective and experiential. The Church as seen in the Bible is always referred to by the feminine pronoun because she represents the subjective work of the Lord upon men. The work of the red heifer is therefore subjective, not objective, in nature.

In the Old Testament days, then, when any was defiled by contact with death, the ashes of the red heifer were brought. It was a female sacrifice, and a female sacrifice free from any blemish, a red heifer taken in the time of that heifer's prime, when the heifer was not only alive herself but able to produce life. The more we study the Bible and the more we see its themes unfold, the more we will discover that its many truths are in fact but ONE TRUTH. They are like the sweater that has been knitted and has front, back, sides, collar, and sleeves, but when unraveled is seen to be but one single skein of thread. I now venture to propose that when God, in the beginning, formed the body of Adam from the dust of the ground, He did not make two persons, a man and a woman, for ADAM WAS BOTH IN ONE - after the image and likeness of God. The image of God is not a body with a torso, two legs with two feet and ten toes, two arms with two hands and ten fingers, and a head with two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth. The image of God is the NATURE of God. You see, the Bible states clearly that in the beginning there was only God - omnipotent, omniscient, immutable, holy, perfect...who is love. But because God had a Father Nature, He had to birth a Son: because when one has a father nature, the deepest craving of his nature is to beget and bring forth from his own being an offspring in the likeness of himself. Therefore, because God had a Father Nature, He had to birth a Son; but the problem was He didn't have a Wife. Now this would have been a problem for us, but it was not a problem for God, because He had His Wife in His own side, for in that beginning before human flesh was, God was both Male and Female in Himself. We know this to be true because everything in the whole vast universe has come out from God, and if God had not been Male and Female within Himself in the beginning, we could not have male and female in the earth today - in His image! "And God said, let us make man IN OUR IMAGE. So God created man in HIS OWN IMAGE, MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM" (Gen. 1:26-27).

The Word of God bears immutable testimony to this wonderful truth. Father Abraham heard the call of God and got him out of his own country, from his father's house and his father's kindred, and sojourned to a land that God showed him. God gave to him the promise of a seed and that in this seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. After many years of experience in Canaan, this man of faith, yet without the promised seed, and seemingly without hope, was visited by the Lord and we read in Gen. 17:1-2: "When Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the ALMIGHTY GOD; walk before Me, and be   perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly."

Now this name, GOD ALMIGHTY, is both interesting and touching. In the Hebrew it is "El Shaddai". God (El) means "might" or "power" and signifies the "Strong One". "Shaddai" is different, though it also describes power; but it is the power not of force, but of all-bountifulness. "Shaddai" primarily means "Breasted", being formed directly from the Hebrew word "Shad", that is, "the breast", or more exactly, a "woman's breast", and is so used in Gen. 49:25; Job 3:12; Ps. 22:9; S. of S. 1:13; 4:5; 7:3; 7:8; 8:1,8,10. Thus "Shaddai" means "the Pourer or Shedder forth" of life as a woman bears her child and then feeds and sustains it with the milk from her breast. God is the giver out of His own life as He bears out of His own Spirit-substance His offspring and then feeds and sustains and strengthens it with the "milk" of His Word. Can we not see that all natural things have spiritual counterparts and that "the invisible things of Him are clearly seen in the things which are made," as Paul said in Rom. 1:20.

By her breast the mother has almost infinite power over the child. Some of my readers perhaps have heard the old Greek story of the babe laid down near some cliff by its mother, while she was busy with her herd of goats. The babe, unperceived, crawled to the edge. The mother, afraid to take a step, lest the child should move further and fall over the precipice, only uncovered her breast, and so drew back the infant to her. It is this figure which God Himself has chosen in this name EL SHADDAI, by which to express to us the feminine element in His Almightiness! His Almightiness is of the breast, that is of bountiful, life-giving supply! Therefore He can quiet the restless, as the breast quiets the child; therefore He can nourish and strengthen, as the breast nourishes; therefore He can attract, as the breast attracts, when we are in peril of falling away from Him. Ah, this is the "Almighty" who appeared to Abraham and assured him that he would be blessed according to promise. How wonderful are these things!

Long milleniums after Abraham's encounter with God Almighty, El Shaddai, the "Breasted One", John the Revelator, in exile on the barren Isle of Patmos, heard behind him the voice of One who trumpeted into his ears this message: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, THE ALMIGHTY" (Rev. 1:8). As John turned to see the Voice that spoke to him, with astonished countenance he beheld the wonder of this One "clothed with a garment down to the foot, and GIRD ABOUT THE PAPS with a golden girdle" (Rev. 1:13). The word "paps" is the Greek word "mastos" used exclusively in Greek for the female breasts! "And it came to pass, as He spoke these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare You, and the PAPS (mastos) which You have sucked!" (Lk. 11:27). On Patmos we have the woman's dress and the woman's breast while yet the speaker is THE ALMIGHTY! It would not be possible to describe more vividly the dual nature of our God who is both Male and Female, the Strong and Mighty One, our Father, who is also "El Shaddai", our Mother, the Pourer-forth who pours Himself out for His creatures; who gives them His lifeblood; who draws them in tenderness to His bosom; who satisfies them with milk from His own breast; who sheds forth His Spirit and His Soul, and says, "Come unto Me, and drink": "Open wide your mouth and I will fill it": who thus gives Himself and His very nature to those who receive Him, that they may grow to become HIS SONS AND HIS DAUGHTERS, HIS MANCHILD AND HIS BRIDE! Can we not now see how it is that our Lord Jesus Christ must be, on the one hand, the bullock, the male cow, the sin-offering, forever justifying our SPIRIT before God, and, on the other hand, the heifer, the female cow, the water of separation to cleanse our SOUL from the defilements of the world, the flesh, and the devil?

All the offerings in the Old Testament are slaughtered and offered to God, but this offering of the red heifer, though killed and burned, is very different from the rest. While all other are offered to God to meet current claims - that is, the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, or the peace-offering according to the need of the day - the red heifer alone was not for the present need. It was offered to meet future needs. Here lies the uniqueness of the red heifer. Unlike other offerings, which had only their blood sprinkled before God, the ashes of the red heifer were kept for future use. Its efficacy was in the blood. The ashes which were collected from the burning of the red heifer together with the cedar and hyssop and scarlet were stored in a clean place. What was the purpose? It was that one day when an Israelite became defiled by touching something unclean, he might then go to the priest who would mix the ashes with the running water and sprinkle them upon the unclean person to make him clean. The ashes were used to take away defilement.

According to the Old Testament, an offering was required for every sin. But here it is different. Here is a man who has already presented his offering and then later on has touched a dead body. Because he has been defiled his fellowship with God is broken. What should he do? He does not go and offer another bullock for sin, but he should go to the priest for the water of separation that his defilement may be cleansed. This is quite a different type from the other offerings. The ashes of the burned heifer were kept for the cleansing of the many such defilements of future days. It was burned not for the sake of past sins, but rather to prepare for future defilements of flesh due to contact with uncleanness. In this we see another aspect of the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ, quite different from that of which the bullocks and rams of the Old Testament speak. All believers ought to know this aspect of the Lord's work, the aspect typified by the ashes of the red heifer. All the efficacy of redemption is embodied in these ashes! As the MASCULINE NATURE of God in Christ is made available to us for the quickening and justification of our SPIRIT, so, in the sacrifice of the red heifer, is the FEMININE NATURE of God in Christ made available to us for the cleansing of our SOUL from the negative influences of the death realm around us. The ashes of HIS WORD mingled with the running water of HIS SPIRIT effects a most powerful cleansing from all the external influences of the world upon our minds, emotions, and consciences, praise His wonderful name!

I must make one thing very clear. I speak plainly because it is necessary. I am a plain man and I speak plainly. There is absolutely no ground in Scripture for addressing God as "our Mother-God". Some today foolishly refer to God as "She" and "Her" and even intone prayers to "our Mother which art in heaven." Such conduct is utterly absurd and ridiculous. As Eve was contained in Adam and the two natures in one constituted MAN, so the feminine element of God is contained within His masculine nature and both are beautiful and precious realities within OUR FATHER. True, Eve was taken out from Adam, and the Bride is taken out from the Christ. But in the end all is "gathered together into one in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 1:10) that duality may be swallowed up into ONENESS.

It is significant to note that in most languages of earth ALL WORDS have endings which classify them in one of the three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. This means that not only are living things classified as male and female, but a great number of other things as well. Notice now that in the Hebrew and Greek languages, in which the Holy Spirit inspired the Old and New Testaments to be written, every word is in one of the three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. For example, the word "SPIRIT", and all that pertains to the life of that realm, all that is SPIRITUAL, is masculine. A whole group of words associated with spirituality is in the masculine gender, such as - MAN, BRIDEGROOM, SON, TEMPLE, OVERCOMER, etc. On the other hand, the word "SOUL", and all that pertains to the realm of that which is SOULISH, is in the feminine gender, such as - WOMAN, BRIDE, CITY, PENTECOST, etc. The Greek word for "BODY" is found to be in the neuter gender.

Thus, SPIRIT is masculine - the life giving force, essential being, substance, strength. SOUL is feminine - that which proceeds out of spirit: mind, desires, emotions, etc., as in the Garden we see Eve "taken out" of Adam. Spirit is BEING and soul is EXPRESSION. Spirit is objective, while soul is subjective. For the sake of understanding, the soul can be said to have five senses just as our physical body has the five senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. The soul comprises your INTELLECT - that is your mind with all its mental capacity for knowledge, understanding, and reason. Then you have your WILL - the mental power to choose and the forces directly urging you to action. Then there are the EMOTIONS - strong forces of personality and passion with many aspects such as love, hate, joy, peace, grief, anger, fear, etc. Then come the DESIRES - the faculty of wishing or longing or craving. Finally, there is the AFFECTION - heart attachments, the power to search out and cleave to that for which we have a natural feeling, passion, predisposition, or propensity.

Is it not the SOUL, with its senses, which is defiled by daily contact with the influences and pressures of world of death about us? A great portion of our tears of sorrow and sympathy are related to this world's system. Much of our emotional outburst is triggered by the pressures of the situations and circumstances imposed by this world. Our mental attitude is strongly influenced by this world's spirit. The world demands our time, pressures our will, beats upon the emotions, excites our desires, saps our strength, and cries for our attention. We do not like our emotions and impulses moved upon by this world. We do not like our thinking, attitudes, reasoning, or will bent to conform to this world's ways. How we DETEST it all, how we LOATHE the contamination acquired by contact with the corruption and death of THIS WORLD!

And, blessed be God! He has made a gracious provision. Not only did Jesus come as the blessed Son of God in the power of the SPIRIT to offer Himself as a sacrifice, a male sacrifice, fulfilling the typology of all the bullocks, rams, and he-goats of the Old Testament, taking away our sins, quickening OUR SPIRIT with HIS SPIRIT, giving eternal life; but He also poured out HIS SOUL unto death, the feminine nature of His being, becoming, too, the red heifer, the female cow, offering Himself as El Shaddai, the "Breasted One", the Pourer-forth who draws us to God's bosom and satisfies us with milk, quieting our soulish restlessness and agitation, as the breast quiets the crying babe; nourishing and strengthening as the breast nourishes and strengthens; wiping away our tears and healing our pain with the caress of love as only a mother can do! The Word of God is by no means lacking in its vivid descriptions of our Lord's redemptive work. CHRIST IS BOTH the bullock for our sin-offering, and the heifer, the ashes of which daily cleanse our soul-life from the corrupting and contaminating influences of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The specification of the Lord was "a RED heifer without spot," that is, without any white or black hair on its hide. Ancient Jewish authorities make the most incredible assertion that altogether, from the time of Moses to the final destruction of the Temple, only seven such red heifers had been offered: the first by Moses, the second by Ezra, and the other five between the time of Ezra and that of the taking of Jerusalem by the Romans. I only add that the cost of this sacrifice, which was always great, since a pure red heifer was very rare, was defrayed from the Temple treasury, as being offered for the whole people.

The heifer provided for this sacrifice must be of pure red color - a most rare and difficult thing to find in the world, among the thousands of cattle on its hills, one heifer answering completely to this description. The word for red in the Hebrew is "adumah" and the word for blood is similar, "dam". The word for man is "A-dam". There is a relation between the color red, the blood, and the man. "And God said, Let us make MAN (A-dam) in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). "Adam" means "ruddy; to show blood in the face; to flush or turn rosy".

The book of Genesis gives two accounts of the creation of man in its first two chapters. As I have studied the Word of God, many things have become very evident, one of which is that there are two distinct creations or works of God revealed in chapters one and two of Genesis. In Gen. 1:26-27 the first of these creations, in respect to man, is presented and as we consider the wonderful advent of man created "in the image and likeness of God" we can only conclude that this is a SPIRITUAL MAN brought forth out of the very Spirit-substance of God Almighty and bearing His own produced in man. The second work of God wrought upon man is related in Gen. 2:7 where we see this significant action taking place: "And the Lord God FORMED MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man BECAME a living soul." Reading this passage we have the definite assurance that, as man has been first "created" on the sixth day in the spiritual image of God, a further work is being carried forth and the man is now being "formed" into another expression: "F-O-R-M-E-D of the dust of the ground," and so "B-E-C-O-M-I-N-G a living soul" - manifest in the earth realm. The fist is the "created" man, the second the "formed" man. The first is a "spiritual" man, the second a "physical" man. The first bears the image of the "heavenly", while the second bears the image of the "earthly". The first is known unto God in the Spirit, the second is manifest to the physical world. The very fact that the Scripture states that ADAM "BECAME" A LIVING SOUL, reveals that there was a process of descending from pure spirit existence, into a lesser realm.

The point of special interest to us here is the fact that God first called man ADAM, or RED - SHOWING BLOOD IN THE FACE - when He created him a SPIRITUAL MAN. Man did not "become" Adam when he was "formed of the dust of the ground" - it was not the earthly man who was first characterized as red, or showing blood in the face - but the heavenly man! And this Adam was created "in the image and likeness of God". No poet or philosopher or prophet could possibly describe the glory and eminence of THIS MAN! I have long known that the "face" in symbolic terms bespeaks the outward expression and revelation of the deepest inward parts of man's being - the heart. All that a man thinks and feels and is inwardly is written and expressed outwardly upon the countenance, known and read of all men. Blood bespeaks LIFE. To "show blood in the face" is to show life in the countenance - to outwardly reveal the inner condition of life!

Ah, that spiritual man in the image of God, that heavenly man after the likeness of God was indeed set in the midst of God's magnificent creation to be the REVELATION OF GOD'S LIFE. He was indwelled by heaven's own divine life. In union with man God was the power of his life. Man was full of light, abounding in heavenly wisdom and knowledge, fearful in power and dominion, ethereal as a spirit and radiant with the nature and resplendent glory of God. Here, then, was man's terrible loss in the fall! He lost all. He lost his glory, his dominion, his wisdom, his knowledge, his dignity, his happiness, his purity and his peace - all was gone from him. And after four milleniums of sin, sickness, sorrow, depravity, perversion and the stupefying darkness of the carnal mind, where, on all this sin-cursed earth, could be found a man typified by the RED HEIFER - a man REVEALING THE LIFE OF GOD! Thank God. One was found. Only one! "In many separate revelations and in different ways God spoke of old to our forefathers in and by the prophets. But in the last of these days He has spoken to us in the person of a Son, Whom He appointed Heir and lawful Owner of all things. He is the SOLE EXPRESSION OF THE GLORY OF GOD - the LIGHT-BEING, the OUTRAYING OF THE DIVINE - and He is the perfect imprint and VERY IMAGE OF GOD'S NATURE" (Heb. 1:1-3, Amplified).

This Son is the out-shining of God's glory, and the express image of His person. How like Adam in the beginning! As we only know the sun by the light that shines from it, so is the Christ THE OUTSHINING, the revelation of GOD'S GLORY. As the light that shines from the sun is of the same nature with it, so the Son is of one nature with the Father. And as a son bears the likeness of his father, because he has his life and nature from him, so the Son of God is THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF HIS SUBSTANCE. He is of one substance with the Father - its express image - and has therefore life in Himself, even as the Father has life in Himself. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST" (II Cor. 4:6). This is the second man, the LAST ADAM with blood in the face, life revealed in the countenance, the GLORY OF GOD IN THE F-A-C-E OF JESUS CHRIST!

"...a red heifer WITHOUT SPOT, WHEREIN IN NO BLEMISH" (Num. 19:2). "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ASHES OF AN HEIFER sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who OFFERED HIMSELF WITHOUT SPOT to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Heb. 9:13-14). The power of Christ's blood consist in two things. The blood of Christ has its value, first, not from the mere fact of physical suffering and death, but from the inner life and disposition that animated the Christ who shed it. The blood of a man is of more worth than that of a sheep. The blood of a king or a great general is counted of more value than hundreds of common soldiers. The blood of the Son of God! - it is in vain the mind seeks for some expression of its value; all we can say is, it is His own blood, the precious blood of the Son of God who offered Himself WITHOUT SPOT!

The second element that gives the blood its value is the holy obedience of which its outpouring was the proof; the blood of Christ who OFFERED HIMSELF WITHOUT SPOT UNTO GOD. He came to live the life of man, such as God had meant him to be, in creating him. He gave up His will to God, He pleased not Himself but sought only the Father's pleasure, He yielded His whole life that God might reveal Himself in it as He pleased: HE OFFERED HIMSELF TO GOD! He took and filled the place man was meant to fill. And that WITHOUT SPOT. His self-sacrifice was complete and perfect, and His blood, even as the blood of a man, was, in God's sight, inexpressibly precious! The apostle shows that Christ was indeed the RED HEIFER, without spot. And now, praise God, in the power of the Holy Spirit the blood of Christ effects a mighty, divine cleansing, full of heavenly life and energy. The Spirit that was in Christ makes us partakers of its power. His victory over sin, His victory over the world, His victory over the flesh, His victory over the devil, His victory over death, His victory over all obstacles, and His oneness with the Father - the soul that fully knows the cleansing of the WATER OF SEPARATION in its power will know these blessings too!

"And you shall give her (the red heifer) to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her outside the Camp, and she shall be slaughtered before him. Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger and SPRINKLE IT TOWARD THE FRONT OF THE TENT OF MEETING seven times" (Num. 19:3-4, Amplified). The sacrifice having been killed, one of the priests (not Aaron, the High Priest, but Eleazar, his son) took the blood and sprinkled it "toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times," which is the place of communion, for the subject here is not justification, but communion. It was sprinkled seven times, not around about the altar, but TOWARD THE TABERNACLE, to represent our forward walk in God as we follow on to KNOW HIM in all His glorious fullness. The number "seven", as has frequently been observed, is expressive of perfection; and in the figure before us we see that the blood of Jesus is the ground for PERFECT FELLOWSHIP with God, and fellowship with God is the ground for our "going on TO PERFECTION." The two work together. Like the horse and carriage - you can't have one without the other!

"And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn: and the priest shall take CEDAR WOOD, and HYSSOP, and SCARLET, and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer" (Num. 19:5-6). How little we have appreciated the "ingredients" of God's grace that flow unto us who are partakers of His Spirit. All the redemptive ingredients of Christ's life and His death are included in the ashes of the heifer and are mingled together in the Spirit of Truth who has come to abide within His people, just as the ashes of the red heifer, and the ashes of cedar wood, and hyssop and scarlet were mingled together in the water of separation.

Every part of the heifer, including her blood and her skin and her dung - the whole sacrifice - was burnt. Into the midst of the burning body of the heifer, the priest cast scarlet thread, cedar wood and hyssop, because they set forth the character of the sacrifice and the nature of the elements which effect our cleansing from the defilements of the world. Remember always, in reflecting on these wonderful truths, that each ingredient of these ashes MUST REPRESENT SOMETHING BY WHICH WE ARE MADE CLEAN, for they are all realities resident in the Christ and now ministered unto us by the power of the Spirit for our cleansing.

SCARLET on the natural plane is the type or expression of human splendor, worldly grandeur, the glory of the kingdoms of this world. But in reference to our Lord Jesus Christ it embodies a higher meaning, bespeaking the splendor and grandeur and glory of the divine power and authority manifested in Him. It is impossible to speak with too much fervor or be too abundant in our praise and adulation of the Christ of God! His name is called Wonderful, the Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Christ is God and as God, Christ is King: the throne of the universe belongs to Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. O, you souls, redeemed by Christ, behold your God! Our Lord is the Mighty God. But He descended from that state. He humbled Himself, took upon Himself the form of man. And yet, while in humility and reproach, a Man among men, He was still the Mighty God, God manifest in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us! His disciples came to look upon Him as the Triumphant King; they who knew His power to be absolutely without limits. Had they not seen Him chain the lightnings, hush the thunders, still the storm, and say, "Peace, be still!" to the waves of Galilee, rebuking the prince of the power of the air, who stirred the little lake into so terrible a storm? They had seen His elemental powers; that He held the thunderbolts in His hands, the winds in His fists, and the waters were just as a drop in the hollow of His hand. They had seen Him raise the dead. They had seen Him open the eyes of the blind. They had seen Him touch the leper and make him clean.

They were greatly perplexed when He died. But then He arose the Conquering Christ! The fact of the Christ's resurrection is historic. The man who disputes it disputes the best established fact in history. He was seen by those who had despaired of His existence. He ate with them. He drank with them. He walked with them in a bloodless body. He talked to the despondent and broken-hearted apostles, the eleven, for nearly forty days. It was impossible to be deceived. He spoke, and was seen and heard on one occasion by five hundred, the most of whom were living at the time that Paul made the declaration that they knew Christ and had seen Him after His resurrection. He proved His resurrection by telling them that if they would go to Jerusalem and enter into an upper room, and wait for the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit's power would come. The promised outpouring took place. It shook the place where they were sitting. It shook Jerusalem. It shook Israel. It shook the Roman Empire until it fell, to rise no more. It shook the world. The Spirit's power came. The Christ returned in mighty Spirit-power. He came as an indwelling Life. Men who were weak became strong. Men who were wicked murderers and devils were transformed into men of virtue and power with God. Men who were illogical became great and mighty reasoners. Men who were feeble stood up, and in their spiritual majesty tower today over all the men of their time. All history substantiates the claim. Every philosopher and potentate of their time had to recognize them so that Peter, Paul, James, John and in their degree all of these men, and many of their immediate successors, became the mightiest Powers even in a heathen Empire.

Today is the second thousand years since He came into the flesh. The second thousand years is drawing to a close and, blessed be His name! He is the same. He pursues His mission still and reigns in majesty over His Kingdom by entering into these temples of clay, and filling our spirits and our souls and our bodies with His own eternal presence and power, making us one with Him as members of His very own body, of His flesh, and of His bone, and of His blood. He is redeeming a vast family of Sons into whom He is putting His mighty Spirit and inworking His glorious mind and nature so that we, who were destined from the beginning to be the revelation of HIMSELF to the creation, may complete His mighty work for the redemption of humanity. Ah, the Royal Majesty of Jesus Christ was cast as a scarlet thread into the fires of the Cross that consumed the body of the red heifer, and now, as our minds and emotions and consciences are sprinkled with the ingredients of those blessed ashes of His sacrificed life, raised again by the power of the Holy Spirit, there comes the omnipotent authority of HIS WORD WITHIN causing the agitated emotions, the carnal thoughts, the old frustrations, the natural weaknesses, and all the NEGATIVE INFLUENCES of the death realm to flee as darkness flees before the rising sun.

He comes to us as King - in Kingly authority. Scarlet thread! He dwells within as THE WORD, for the Word was made flesh, the Word made flesh was obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, and now the ingredients of His Cross are made available to us in the water of separation - by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are cleansed from the defilement of death by the indwelling Word of God. Speaking is the vehicle of fellowship. It is a proof that the speaker considers him he addresses as capable of fellowship with himself; a token that he longs for that fellowship. The influences of THIS WORLD would interrupt it. But God be praised, not for always!

The words of a man carry weight according to the idea I have of his wisdom, his veracity, his power, his love. This Word of God! Oh, who can express what it is worth to us! Each Word carries with it all the life of God, all His redeeming power and love. The words of men have often exerted a wonderful and a mighty influence. But the Words of God - they are creative, and they give what they speak. God speaks to that which is deepest, to the heart, that central depth within us whence are the issues of life. He makes us one with that Word, A BECOMING, where the omnipotent power of His Word becomes our STATE OF BEING. What a cleansing! What a power! The Christ speaks yet! He speaks powerfully within in the hour of our deepest need. When the world, and our own flesh, would tear us apart and smash our lives and our hope of sonship upon the rocks, He is there, the still small Voice, the deep, inner confidence that all is well, that He, the Lord of Glory is with us still, and all is safe in His loving hands, for He ordained our path and made provision for the hour.

"If any man love Me, he will keep My Words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him" (Jn. 14:23). ARE YOU HAVING DIFFICULTY IN YOUR WALK IN SONSHIP? Do you lose the victory and fall into the same old pit from which you were digged from? Are the problems and pressures of "this life" too much for you? The secret of your victory, or lack of it, is in LOVING CHRIST and KEEPING HIS WORDS. We cannot gainsay that. If, therefore, we are not living victoriously in His presence, we must conclude that we are not loving Him as we ought and we are not keeping His Words as we must. Our love for God is manifest in a love for the things of God. If we saturate our lives with corrupt reading, profane and filthy television, and worldly associates we will become exactly like these same corrupting influences. Spend every afternoon watching "As the World Turns" and you will inevitably TURN LIKE THE WORLD. Spend hours each week absorbing the filth of "The Edge of Night" and you will end with your life swallowed up by THE DARKEST OF NIGHT. At first it will bring only a "contamination" from touching death, but if you, like the man of Gadara, make your dwelling among the tombs of spiritually dead men and dead religion, it will end in death itself. Evil communications corrupt good manners. The reverse can never be true. If on the other hand we saturate our lives with the Word of God, seasoning it continually with prayer, obeying the insistent urging of the VOICE WITHIN, we will become like Christ, because Christ and His Word cannot be separated.

"If any man lave Me, he will keep My Words." But how can we keep His Words if we have not first hidden them in our hearts? Beautiful is the promise, "If any man love Me, he will keep My Words," yet I think no promise can excel that which follows: "My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him" (Jn. 14:23). The precious promise continues: "Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in Me...He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit...If you abide in Me, and MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, you shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you...As the Father hath loved Me. so have I loved you: continue in My love...These things have I spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (Jn. 15).

What power there is in obeying His Voice, in keeping His Words! What a cleansing! What victory! Blessed water of separation! Faith comes by hearing the Word of God and faith placed in the heart by the Holy Spirit reaches beyond all the pressures and powers of THIS WORLD to grasp the victory. Did not the Queen of Sheba come from afar to hear the wisdom of Solomon? And the harlot Rahab - did she not believe the word given her and perish not? The Syrophoenician woman, too! Can we not hear the beautiful Words of Christ, "O woman, great is your faith; so be it unto you as you will." Did not the Roman centurion find deliverance for his demoniac servant as the Word was sent unto him? And Cornelius also - did not God hear his prayer and send Peter to him with the Word that he might be saved and filled with the Holy Ghost?

Happy is the man indeed into whom Christ comes to abide with him forever. No longer will He be a guest in your heart, but you will honor Him as the Host of that spiritual temple which you are. You will take the crown of honor and glory and place it upon HIS worthy head that He may reign as King of kings in the Kingdom within you, shedding His light, teaching His ways and sanctifying you through His truth. This Lord of humility, who so gently knocks at your door, is the King of Glory, who is to become your greatest love. Your heart will burn within you as He opens His eternal truth and reveals the purposes which were in His mind before anything was. Ah, the Royal Majesty of heaven, the Scarlet Thread of history, has come into our souls by the Holy Spirit to carry us onward and upward into the fullness of His divine life! How we desire to be His Sons! How we long to know the fullness of His presence! How we hope to be like Him! How we yearn to speak deliverance to the creation! With what anticipation do we FOLLOW ON that we might know Him in all His glorious and eternal reality! Let this be the chief thing you live for - to know, to honor, to obey your God and King. So let us, in childlike faith, open wide our souls to the full experience of the WATER OF SEPARATION!

To be concluded...............

                                                                                                              Part 4

J. PRESTON EBY - P.O. Box 371240 - El Paso, Tx. 79937

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