The Cross – A GLORIOUS BEGINNING and not the end!

The bible talks about a rare red heifer in the book of numbers. 

“Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke…Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.“

The bible went on to give more gory details, and you can read it for yourself. The priest is to burn the slaughtered cow in fire, along with cedar wood, a plant called hyssop, and a scarlet wool. He then had to collect its ashes, and use it as the Water of purification.

You might ask why they have to go to such length? This is the requirement given to the Israelites to purify themselves when they touch a dead body or anything dead. In those days, he who touches the dead body or even a dead bone was deemed as unclean. He should be cut off from everyone unless he purifies himself with this water of purification.

Why God had to give such a stringent requirement? Because DEAD THINGS has no life in it, but has the power to destroy you and rob your life! Dead things represent your past pain, past failures, and past life.

“Your past life is very powerful that it can steal your present.”

Some of you reading this blog keep touching your past life and you don’t have strength to live in the present.

THE PAST – ADDICTION

THE PAST – BROKEN RELATIONSHIP

THE PAST – DEATH OF YOUR LOVED ONES

THE PAST – FAILURES

THE PAST – MISTAKES

THE PAST – WORDS SPOKEN BY SOMEONE

You keep going back to it and getting hurt. But the bible warns us to stop touching dead things!

Some of you know that you want to get out of your past but you can’t come out of your past. You couldn’t move forward. You couldn’t erase those thoughts. You do several things to distract the thoughts about your past. You go on holidays, you spend money, you party, you drink and you try to forget your past. But your past keeps haunting you, and you cannot erase the past from your memory. It pulls you back. It hinders your progress. You are helpless.

What makes it worse is that people ruin their life trying to get out of their past. They become addicted to alcohol while trying to forget their past pains and hurts. They become addicted to pornography by trying to overcome their broken relationships. They become angry and bitter by trying to overcome the memory of death of loved ones. They spoil their health by making bad choices because of their past hurts and pains.

People don’t know how to come out of their past!

None of the things you try will erase your past, and none of the things you try will cleanse your memory of the past.

The red heifer was a beautiful picture of Jesus on the cross. The bible says Jesus was a lamb without blemish or defect:

1 Peter 1:18 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

Jesus was spotless and without blemish. He was slaughtered to death. Someone described Jesus on the cross this way: “He was just a lump of flesh hanging on a tree.”

Not only that, the red heifer should be burnt outside the city. Look at what the bible had to say about Jesus’ death, “So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

Golgotha was “outside the city” and he also carried his own cross which is the picture of “cedarwood”.

The Bible says, “Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.”

Here, we can see the “hyssop” coming into the picture. They also gambled for his clothes near the cross, which is the picture of the “scarlet wool”!

A beautiful picture of the cross portrayed thousands of years before even the crucifixion ever came into practise.

Only the blood of the lamb without blemish and without defect can cleanse you from your past. Only the blood of Jesus will cleanse you from your past.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Cor 5:17

When the enemy reminds you of the cross, you need to SHOW HIM THE CROSS. TELL HIM THAT OUR GOD IS THE GOD OF SECOND CHANCE and LET IT GO.

Where sin shouts, the cross thunders. God will not just empty you but fill you with good things… new joy, new hope, new health. Cross is not the end but the beginning. It’s a glorious beginning. God didn’t stop by saying, “Stop touching dead things…”

The bible says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now, it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

The Cross stands for GLORIOUS BEGINNING. It gives you a clean slate so that you can start afresh.

God will bring back to life, all things that are dead which should have been alive. Your dead dreams, your dead hopes, your dead health, your dead relationships.

Embrace what Jesus has done on the cross, and let go of your past. Don’t keep touching dead things, and God will bring your present to Life!

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *