About that Heifer...

The laws concerning the red heifer don't make a lot of sense to us, and God didn't put a lot of ink in Scripture to explain it. He told us what to do, but not why. I can think of four reasons for this off-hand:

1. The spiritual mechanism behind the red heifer might be beyond our comprehension. Explaining them might be impossible or just confusing.
2. Some knowledge might be deliberately withheld from mankind because it's too dangerous for us to have. The Torah concept of witchcraft appears to be related to accessing or using forbidden knowledge and the hows and whys of the red heifer might fall into this category.
3. God just wants us to trust him on some things, to obey without knowing why. It's a test.
4. It could send us off on irrelevant bunny trails. Leaving distracting information out keeps us focused on what's important.

Also check out this video from Jon Behrens on the mystery of life and death in the red heifer:

Jesus can never be a Levitical priest

There are different kinds of priests: Aaronic, Melchizedek, familial, all believers... There can be overlap between some of these priesthoods. For example, a believer in Yeshua can also be a Cohen (rabbinical opinions are irrelevant to the fact). However, each priesthood has a different functional domain, and, although the activities within those domains might overlap, the membership of some of the priesthoods probably do not. I doubt that a Levite can ever be a priest in the order of Melchizedek and vice versa, because the kingship in Israel belongs to Judah, not Levi, and a Melchizedekian priest must also be a king. Therefore, within Israel, only a king from the tribe of Judah could be a Melchizedekian priest. Someone like Yeshua.

Some priesthoods can be bestowed. Others can only be inherited by blood. The Aaronic Priesthood isn't open to just anyone. You absolutely must be a genetic descendant of Aaron. It isn't just a spiritual calling. It's a physical, genetic one. Neither Yeshua, Paul, Christian priest, nor Jewish rabbi are qualified to act as an Aaronic priest.

Read Paul as Paul

People who reject Paul's letters because they seem to be counter to Torah are victims of one of two groups of false witnesses concerning Paul:

1. The same who accused Paul of teaching against Moses in the first century. They were wrong then and they're wrong today. They have misunderstood Paul's rejection of anti-Torah traditions as a rejection of Torah itself.
2. Antinomians and Marcionists who themselves reject Torah and twist Paul's writings in support of their own errors.

Don't do that.

Read Paul as if he was a Jewish rabbi more or less in line with the Pharisees of his day, because that's how he defined himself. You will be amazed at how the apparent contradictions between his letters automagically resolve themselves.

Witch Doctors and Faith Healers

Sometimes I get the feeling that people discussing divine healing are like shamans discussing cancer. A shaman might stumble on an effective treatment and invent a theory as to why it worked, plausible sounding, perhaps, but not even remotely accurate. When it doesn't work for someone else, he can blame it on curses or interference from a strange rock formation near where an herb was found, or on a planetary alignment.

Likewise, a faith healer might lay hands on one person who is healed and blame a lack of faith or a familial curse when another person isn't, and be just as wrong as the shaman. Every explanation I've heard about why healing doesn't happen the same way every time just sounds like so much hand waving to me.

Why aren't people healed when they ask for healing? Did they use the wrong tone of voice? Should they have commanded instead of asking? It doesn't seem to make any difference as far as I can tell. I believe God can heal. I believe he does heal. So why doesn't he heal every time or at least more often? I wish I knew.