“Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.” Numbers "19":2
While all Israel’s other sacrifices were offered to meet current needs, the red heifer alone was different. It was offered to provide for future eventualities. The whole heifer was to be burned. Then the ashes were collected and stored so that as the need arose, they could be mixed with running water and sprinkled on an unclean person to make him clean.<br/><br/>In those ashes was embodied all the efficacy of redemption. Whenever a man was defiled, he had no need to slay another heifer; he needed only to be sprinkled with this water. Putting this in Christian terms, a believer today does not need the Lord Jesus to work for him a second time; he has the incorruptible ashes and living water of Christ’s finished work for his cleansing. The atonement which God has wrought for us in Christ is always at once available for our need.