Hebrews 9:18a
"Whereupon, neither the first testament…"
Now again, let’s be careful. In my Bible, the word testament is in what? It’s in italics. And I’ve taught some of you, What does that mean? It’s added by the translator. So I like it better without it. Just leave it out. Verse 18 again.
Hebrews 9:18
"Whereupon neither the first was dedicated without blood."
Well, the first what? Covenant! Now what covenant is Paul referring to? Law! When Moses came down the mountain with the commandments written in stone, that was the Covenant of Law. And it was the first covenant. Or was it? Lets look and see Genesis chapter 15 verses 7-21 this is where we'll find the first covenant and keep in mind that each covenant of God for Israel is based upon the progressive revelation based on it. This is the first because it required God the Father (as furnace) and God the Son (as the lamp)passing through or between the pieces of the animals and birds blood. Now from here on each builds upon this one until Israel comes out of Egypt and He then gives them the Law as a corral to keep them in check and it become their tutor. But they loose focus or sight of the fact that He requires them to "Hear! Oh, Israel, the Lord your God is One" and because of covenant He's one with them. But they don't get it now do they or did they? NO! The first was dedicated with the blood of animals through which God the Father and God the Son passed and the blood of mans foreskin is cut off as a covenant remembrance, Genesis 17:14. See?
So, "Whereupon neither the first (that is the covenant before the Law) was dedicated without blood." It’s always involving blood. Now again, I’m sure every believer, sooner or later, is going to come to the point and ask this question, "Why does God put so much emphasis on blood when it comes to salvation?" Haven’t you? I have. And I think, I’ve got a little bit of the answer. Now you know, I’ve said so often that this salvation work of God is so profound, it is so complex, it is so deep that we can’t as mere men comprehend it all. And I don’t think anybody else can. We can just take a little bit of it that we can really understand, and we take it by trusting. But on the other hand as we’ve said so often, it’s so simple a child can receive it and then believe it and understand it. But to really get down and understand all of the ramifications of this, I just don’t think it’s humanly possible. But, let’s take a stab at it.
Come back with me to Genesis chapter 9. And of course, we know that God had already instituted the blood sacrifice when He dealt with Adam and Eve back in chapter 3. And we certainly dealt with it with Abel who offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain because it was an animal sacrifice involving the shed blood. He even used it after the flood of Noah because Noah had carried the extra clean animals with him through the death of the flood to be offered as sacrifices or worship before God. So now we come to chapter 9 and this will be the first time that we have anything definitive about the blood. All right, chapter 9, right after the flood, verse 4,
Genesis 9:4-6a
"But flesh (God says to Noah) with the life thereof, which is the blood, ye shall not eat. (and the whole idea was that in verse 5) And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed:…"
The secret to the whole thing, I think, is up there in verse 4. Why the blood? Because ‘life is in the blood.’ The blood is the source of all living. All right, then of course, you come on over to Exodus and the lamb that was supposed to be without spot, without blemish. And then you come all the way up through the Old Testament sacrifices. It was constantly the animal sacrifices and the shedding of its blood, the giving of its life in substitute for mans because mans has greater value than that of any animal before God. Why? You see Adam was first created a spirit being without form in Genesis chapter 1 then in chapter 2 we see where God creates an earthen body to house that spirit being that is One with his creator. When Adam was placed within that body God breathed the breath of life or birthed into it the fluid, which is red, His eternal Life which is what holds or gives the spirit within that body strength or at first God's nature (image and likeness, called Christ). And made man as a receptive being, that is why man could receive the nature of the evil one at his being separated from God in death due to sin, lawlessness. Man from that moment on became a son of Satan or a Satan-child because sin was then in mans flesh through which death came upon man and ultimately over took Adam after 900 plus years.
The Temple Mount and into the Dome of the Rock where this huge rock comes up (some of you have been there) out of the basement, so to speak – where supposedly Abraham offered Isaac. But, according to legend (and of course that’s all they go by), right about in that very spot is where the priests were sacrificing all of these animals. By the hundreds, day in and day out.
Well, that involved a lot of blood. And they had discerned that the blood would go down deep into the crevices and then find its way out to the Kedron Valley. Well it makes for a good story, what I wanted to make a point of was about this constant shedding of blood. You know, a lot of times the Jewish family had to offer up a lamb that was really a family pet. And that would just make it all the more devastating that that little pet lamb had to give its blood for the sins of its owners. It’s the same way with Christ. When Christ died and shed His blood it was to make such an impact upon the human race, whom He loved, that it would make them conscience of the horrible price of their sin.
Many never thought of that before. But isn’t that true? You see, as that Jewish family would bring that precious little lamb, and they would see that lamb give its life and its blood because of what? Their sin. And if it had its right effect, it would devastate them to think that their sin caused the death of that precious little animal. And I imagine, too, that’s why God chose sheep as the primary sacrificial animal. They’re not a rebellious type. They’re not the kind that’s going to fight and buck and everything else. But, they’re so docile and it’s so easy to be touched by simplicity.
Well, it’s the same way when Christ died. The Lamb of God that took away the sin of the world. He suffered, He died, and it was brought about by only one thing. And what was it? Man’s sin. That’s all. And so He went to that Cross in payment for man’s sin; and in God's eyes we were in Him otherwise He would have never had to do it. How? you ask, because He was in our skin or flesh as the son of man, He spilled our blood for us.
But, getting back to what we were talking about, the blood – life was in the blood. And even in biology, unless a seed falls into the ground – and Jesus used the analogy Himself in John chapter 12:24. Unless that seed falls into the ground and does what? Dies. It abides alone. But, if it die, then what? New life.
It’s the same way with the shed blood, see? When Christ shed His blood, it wasn’t just that alone, but it was the fact that His life was poured out and the shed blood epitomized that life (the power of an Endless Life) and it became death and then out of that death came what? New Life! The power of an Endless Life was released. And that’s where we are. We have access to eternal life because of that death of Christ. And not just as I’ve always stressed so often over the years, not just His death, burial and resurrection but we can never shun the efficacy of His shed blood. Because blood was the price of mans redemption as God had mandated from day one, that life is in the blood. And mans blood alone could be the price of redemption. Its when we accept and receive this all by way of inspiration and revelation within us that it becomes the working of the Spirit and sets us free. By our taking it in and trusting its Truth.
Alright, come back to Hebrews again, chapter 9, verse 18:
Hebrews 9:18
"Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood."
No comments:
Post a Comment