Precious Blood

Hi Everyone,

From the beginning of the Old Testament, we see that God considered blood precious. In Old testament law, animals were sacrificed to cover the sins of the people. The Israelites were not to eat of an animals blood. They were set apart in God's eyes and not to behave as the nations with pagan practices without God around them.

Leviticus 17:10-14 "'Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood—I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, "None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood." "'Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off."

When the Israelites ate the passover, on the night that the firstborn male cattle and firstborn males were to be killed because of Pharaoh's hardened heart and refusal to let the Israelites go as the Lord commanded, they were to put blood on the posts of their doors among many other things, and the angel of death would pass by them, sparing those in the household from destruction.

Exodus 12 gives the account of all of this. Because of the length of the passage, I am just going to quote some of the verses.

Exodus 12:3-7 and 12:12-13 "Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs." "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt."

There are a lot of examples that happened that I could give, but when we get to the New Testament and the New Covenant, we see that a sacrifice for sin was still required---precious blood was to be shed, but it wasn't that of goats and lambs, because the blood of animals could not tale away sin.

Hebrews 10:1-10 "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, 'Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, O God.' " First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

But as the passage that you just read above explains, Jesus Christ was the one and only perfect sacrifice for our sins----and His precious blood was shed in our place.

He was the only one that could have fulfilled the requirement of being the perfect sinless sacrifice to make us right before God.

So when people say that there is "more than one way to God" (WHICH ISN'T TRUE), not only are they refusing to TRULY appreciate the sacrifice that Christ made for sins once and for all, but they are also saying that Christ;s blood shed basically meant nothing to them because His death and resurrection would be null and void if there were "many ways to God."

I Peter 1:17-21 "Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 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 forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God."

The blod of Christ is precious---He IS the spotless Lamb of God! And again, those of us who have TRUSTED Christ should live accordingly and out of gratitude to Him.

Is the blood of Jesus Christ precious to you?