The prophecy clock advanced on August 28 when a red heifer was born in Israel. The heifer was bred, examined, and is being raised under the guidance of the Temple Institute's Raise a Red Heifer program. The red heifer is important to prophecy because its ashes are needed to cleanse the Temple and its instruments. In explaining to his disciples the chronology of events of the last days in Matthew 24:15-16, Christ warns, "When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." This means that there is a fully operational Jewish Temple in Jerusalem prior to the Messiah's return.

 

The ordinance of the red heifer is found in Numbers 19 where the Lord commands Moses to bring a "red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke" to be slayed outside the camp, and burned with cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet. A clean man is to gather up the ashes of the heifer "...and store them outside the camp in a clean place. They are to be kept for the community of the people of Israel to prepare water for purification of sin (verse 9)." Anyone who touches the heifer in the process is rendered unclean. This ordinance is considered a "chok" by the Jews, a statute decreed by God that cannot be understood by human reasoning, because the true meaning is beyond our intellect.

 

Daniel 11:31 prophesies that In the end of years the armed forces of the king of the north (beast/antichrist) "shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that makes desolation." This is what Christ is referring to in Matthew 24. Therefore, prior to the Messiah returning there are daily sacrifices taking place in the Temple in Jerusalem. According to Jewish tradition, there can be no official Temple in Jerusalem without the red heifer's blood being sprinkled on the temple and the temple's instruments cleansed according to God's instruction in Numbers. This is why the red heifer is so important to end time prophecy. No red heifer, no Temple.

 

The "chok" of the red heifer is that it is used for cleansing and purification, yet those who touch it become unclean. Think about the symbolism. The red heifer, examined by the priests to have no blemish, is slayed outside the camp and Its blood and ashes are used for purification of sin. Christ, examined by the priests to have no blemish, was crucified outside the camp and risen for the propitiation of sin. Those priests were most certainly unclean. But even the blood of Christ could cleanse them from their sin. Hebrews 9:13-14 concludes: "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"  Bill Wilson, Daily Jot