Welcome
Prayer
Song
Silence
We left off with animals being sacrificed, and Moses taking half of the blood and sprinkling it on the altar and the other half on the people.
I am not in control of the way the Spirit works and when we have enough items sort of congregate or present themselves as a theme, I find myself putting our weekly scriptural travels on temporary hold and trying to speak to the parts . . . as a whole.
Let me explain some of the factors that have come together for me in the past few weeks that should now be addressed.
First, where we just left off which was where Moses took the blood from animals and put it all over the altar and the other half on the peoeple.
What did Moses use? Blood.
There are 378 verses in scripture where blood is mentioned.
The first blood “implied” in the text is found in Genesis 4:4 where Abel offered animals to the Lord.
A few verses later, we read a second over mention of Blood when Cain slew his brother and Elohiym says to Cain,
“What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.”
Does the voice of blood cry out literally to God? What is blood and what is the nature of it relative to the Living God, who is Spirit, and Man, who is flesh containing this unusually unique substance?
They say the hardest thing to replicate in Hollywood is human blood, and they have all sorts of amazing scientific studies on its properties and purposes.
Brother Grady tells me that in fighting studies have shown an advantage occurring when someone is seen with blood on them and so as a result some warriors with blood their faces with their own blood to take that advantage.
Why do children, when they see their own blood almost always FREAK out and is there a power from spilling it in this realm?
What about the amazing cycle of blood females endure in terms of the lives they are equipped to give?
Blood. Is there power in the blood? Even today?
We remember reading about when Noah landed back on dry ground in Genesis 9 where it says,
Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
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.
6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
From here, we have indirect connections to blood relative to “covenants” as the Hebrew term for covenant is “berith “ and how that means “to cut,” and speaks specifically in the covenant God made with Abraham which was established by the cutting of an animal and of a cutting through circumcision, and the cutting of animals here at Sinai, blood was a central element of the material covenants that God would make with his human creations – especially the Nation of Israel back in the day.
I suggest that blood is an emblem of “mortal life, of material existence,” while additionally being “the very essence of all living things in this world except sea anemones, Jellyfish, and coral.
All other living things have some sort of blood.
We noted in the miraculous plagues of YAHAVAH upon Egypt that the first was changing water into blood and we commented on how blood has very little use or purpose outside of keeping its host alive.
We might almost see blood like we see motor oil – it needs to be inside something for it to “fully express” its meaning, purpose and function.
Outside it’s host, blood has little use it seems in most other places in the world.
Thinking of motor-oil we might as ourselves, “how much would we use in the heavenly realm? Because it’s a completely spiritual realm motor oil would be utterly obsolete, right?
Likewise with blood. Frankly, I don’t think it serves any purpose in heaven and I would say that even relative to Yeshua the Messiah and the precious blood He spilled once and for all.
Like the lack of oil in an engine, loss of blood in a living creature means “DEATH.” The scripture tells us why, all the way back in Leviticus 17:11, saying,
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
Interestingly, it was the blood or the life of the animals sacrificed (in the first Passover) that was actually put on the doorposts and lintels of the Nation which caused the Spirit of Death to Passover their firstborn, showing that the sacrificed blood of animals, again, the SACRIFICED blood of the animals, provided people “protection” in an age before God would provide His final sacrifice for all through the offering of His Son and His blood.
Scripture plainly states that, without blood there is no SACRIFICE FOR SIN, as the writer of Hebrews plainly says, but LISTEN CAREFULLY –
Hebrew 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood (again, in the LAW) is no remission.
Why would that be? Because the Law is just. It is frankly, “perfectly just,” and that means there is nothing wrong with it and all that God commanded of the Nation under it.
You knock out a tooth, you lose a tooth. You take a life, you lose a life.
His Law operated on the perfect justice of God. LISTEN – This is because the Law had perfect application to material life.
Life is in the blood, scripture makes plain. Take from someone a smidgen of life (like a tooth) you have to offer up the exact same smidgen of life from yourself (like a tooth).
To steal something takes life from the owner. All sin takes “life” from people, which God has freely given and under the perfect LAW of God, which the Nation is receiving, “blood,” which represents EARTH LIFE/EXISTENCE must be shed (which automatically means that its host must die) for the act to even be TEMPORARILY covered until the authorized actual pure blood of a worthy human walked with us.
This is what the shedding of the blood of animals that we have been introduced too (and are going to be introduced to in Leviticus) a temporary offering of animals owned by the sinner for their sin.
Why temporary? The writer of Hebrews tells us, saying,
Hebrews 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Of course, we know the blood required for taking away sin – which we will return to in a moment.
Years ago, we concluded (some of us) that the living God has fulfilled everything through the finished work of His incarnate Son, that it happened in that day and age and that we, today, because of His efficacious finished work are now all human beneficiaries that have been returned to the Garden of Eden spiritually and that we are all now choosing, like our first parents did, whom we will serve – YAHAVAH or Self?
This has ultimately has meant that all material allegiances, needs, (meaning ALL religious efforts are over, right?
THINK ABOUT THIS FOR A MOMENT.
I was parked at a super busy store early this morning getting a refill of Diet Dr. Pepper and when I got into my car I was for some reason astounded by the rules I obeyed and followed without thinking.
I put my foot on the brake, started the car, put my seat beat on, looked in my rearview mirror, slowly backed out a few feet, paused looked both ways, then proceeded backward, stopping when it was obvious that it was clear to move forward, shifted into Drive then proceeded toward the exit.
All of that.
I thought about how much I detest rules, policies and demands, but realized that in this world, I was utterly willing and ready to learn and assume the rules of driving a car. They are material. They are important.
When I lived in southeast Asia (Sri Lanka for a while) I witnessed first hand what a society with cars looked like without the structure of rules, laws, orders, and policies and I thought of all of that when I pulled out of the parking lot and realized something about myself,
I am willing to embrace and comply to rules and orders and governments relative to THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD – they are important.
Surgery room procedures.
Rules of accounting.
All the things that pertain to this life – listen – to the things we can SEE, that are MATERIAL.
But when it comes to the things of the Spirit, the things we cannot see, the things NOBODY can see, I am only willing to be lead BY the LAWS, RULES And POLICIES of . . . the Spirit.
Think about this idea relative to blood today.
After the incarnation of the Word made flesh who dwelled with us, and after living the Law, from under which there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood, all the references and types we have (and will read about relative to blood), were fulfilled, completed, by and through the shedding of a wholly innocent Human being by unworthy hands once and for all and for the whole world.
In the Old Testament and under the Law, the hands that shed blood had to be purified but ironically, in the ultimate and complete perfect sacrifice for sin we have the most pure blood imaginable shed through the most corrupt religious means on earth (the Jewish leaders) through the most corrupt execution (by filthy Roman hands).
That King, our “God with us,” that Word made flesh, was then buried as dead, then rose again, as witnessed by well over 500 souls.
When his apostles saw Him, we remember that He said,
Luke 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
We note that He did not mention blood and might ask, “why?” (READY?)
It was offered for sin.
All of it?
When Thomas was unbelieving and made this clear, Yeshua came to Him and said,
Joh 20:26-27 “And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.”
We might ask, “Was the Resurrected Christ, standing before Thomas still bleeding when Thomas reached His hand into His side? Was He a bleeding mess even after “sweating as it were great drops of blood,” or from the stripes inflicted upon his body, or the wounds in His hands and feet and this wound in His side.
We might wonder, was His heart still in His chest beating and pushing blood in and through that Body of Flesh and Bone? “My reply is obviously not.”
Instead, I believe that our Risen Lord stood in a body exsanguinated of that element to earthly life and as a result we too, as His disciples, live by the power and source that raised Him up from the grave – the Spirit.
Really, really think about the possible importance of this, folks.
Blood is the earthly representation of “mortal Life.” To take it is to extinguish MORTAL LIFE – whether it be in animals or human beings. To take it from the very Son of God was to atone for all that steals life – which is sin.
The shedding of His blood was certainly that, but so, so, much more – if you will allow it.
Yeshua the anointed, born of a woman, born under the Law, offered Himself – meaning His life – up for His own people under the Law.
They had rejected Him, but He willingly gave His very life blood to pay in the wages of sin because sin comes by the Law. They were under the Law. Payment was required.
As our second Adam, He shed His earthly life-force for earthly, material sin and not only for His own but for the world.
Blood is earthly, the sin propitiated was and is earthly. (Listen) but the sin that is spiritual, the stuff “not brought on by Adam,” the sin that is not earthly, but spiritual, is left to each individual.
We will get to that before we wrap up today.
But back to this life, and the sin we all are subject to which WAS entirely paid for by Yeshua’s shed blood, let’s get this downt by reading from Paul in Romans 5 where he wrote,
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Notice the language, we are justified by His blood – made whole and saved from what Paul calls “wrath.”
This wrath was from God promised to come upon the Nation for their refusal to submit to all that God offered them.
Justification from sin was had for the world when Christ shed His precious blood for all the sin Adam introduced to us. Got that?
But now listen –
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
Again, our justification and/or God’s reconciliation to the world was by and through the shed blood of His Son – for all – period . . . but listen closely . . .
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, (being JUSTIFIED, BEING FORGIVEN OF THE WAGES OF SIN we incurred, Paul adds)” we shall be saved . . . by his life!
Because Paul has been talking about His death for sin, which included the shedding of His life-source, blood, I maintain that the life Paul is speaking about is found in His resurrection!
What is being said here?
SINCE the world has been reconciled by the death of His Son, MUCH MORE – MUCH MORE, HAVING BEEN RECONCILED, “we” (Paul says, referring to those who have looked to and trusted in Him) shall be saved by His Life!
What life? His raised Life. What raised Him? The power of God. What courses through Him. The Spirit.
He is bloodless but He will never die again. He lives – listen – NOT BY BLOOD coursing through His veins.
Blood is not heavenly. He was raised by the Spirit. Exsanguinated of that material essence that is emblematic of this earthly material mortal life.
Blood is only applicable to earth. It only gives life on earth to earthly creations. Blood has no power in heaven or in His heavenly economy. Blood is of the earth. It is an earthly product fully representing earth-life itself.
When Thomas reached his hand into the side of the resurrected Lord, with wounds still intact, he wasn’t reaching into a bloodly, bleeding mess. If he had, I think it would say so.
The resurrected Lord, exalted man, I maintain, was now and forevermore, living by, through and upon the Spirit.
It’s a perfect type for us who look to Him in faith.
Why is this important? Because Blood and all that the 350 plus scriptures that talk about it, and the presence of it, and the shedding of it, the purpose of it . . . ought to just be part of the historical narrative of believers, recognized with grand appreciation, but it is not the operative item in what Christ gives today.
It was a one and done with the application of it being in reference to the Law and material religion.
The Christ, Lord, King, Messiah or God that we look to is the one who died then ascended, doing so entirely of the Spirit, literally SHIFTING from Him being a human of blood in this world, to being actually exsanguinated, then ascended to His father BY THE SHEDDING – the getting rid of – that blood literally and actually – and has forever been empowered and raised by the SPIRIT, we too walk and (IF YOU ARE WILLING) we see another reason for the absolute end of all material religion.
Blood is of the Law. Blood is of this earth. Blood is material and had its application in the Law. He took all of such emphasis and drained the life out of Himself, transforming it from the Hebrew material to the completely spiritual, from earthly to heavenly, from brick and mortar to the spiritual kingdom where the shedding of blood has forevermore been removed.
And the Blood is no longer cleansing anyone – it cleansed. The world died with Him.
Blood, because it affords material life to the possessor, is an emblem of all material earthly religious pursuits.
When He shed His blood FOR the world once and for all, all earthly metaphorical efforts to appease or please God finished, the veil (where literal blood was taken behind and offered) was torn in two. And His Kingdom shifted from anything and everything material, to a kingdom with unseen Laws written on the hearts of those who are His.
The VERY blood letting, blood offering, blood shedding of Our King ought to go a long way in proving to us that His kingdom is NOT found in such things anymore – to the point that even we, His followers, disciples and children, walk by the Spirit, and not the (things) of the flesh! Any things of the flesh.
Did you know that there is a large group of believers, very large, who, unable to make sense of this, actually take the scripture and because they ignore the fact that all of God’s promises were conditional to the Nation of Israel, believe that another temple has to be built in our future and that Christ Himself is going to return and offer blood sacrifices AGAIN!
Do you know how repulsive this is in light of His final offering of His own life and the power of His one and done shed blood was?
The imagery we derive from the actual blood-shedding of Yeshua before He ascended to His Father typifies the fact that blood (and the humans that bear it) have never, ever been capable or able to rightly please God.
Have you ever considered this? That the shedding of Blood by “God with us” could and should serve to show that flesh and blood on earth has never been enough to please the Living God? That even His own son had to lose His material Blood before reentering the presence of His Father and that it was fittingly replaced by the Spirit forever more?
Have you ever considered the fact that there has NEVER been anyone ever whos blood obeyed God perfectly?
Not one soul – and so the message is the only soul we should EVER follow is the ONLY soul who perfectly obeyed, who offered up Himself, who shed His blood entirely, and who now tells the world to listen, follow, and only obey HIM – who is actually thriving on and in the Spirit and shares that with His children?
Adam failed.
Noah failed.
Abraham failed.
Every single old testament vessel of human blood failed.
Every single Apostolic Record vessel of human blood failed.
The only vessel with human blood to succeed on behalf of His Father and others was His Son – and He shed it.
Before we wrap up, this brings us to the only things that His shed blood does not cover, does not pay for, nor is effective in making mediation between the individual and God.
The world has been justified by the shedding His blood, which caused Him to die, which was the direct solution for all that Adam gave us (sin).
But there are two items – two traits – that I believe God equipped every human being with and that were present with Adam and Eve before the Fall.
The capacity to trust in God (faith) and the capacity to love Him (and others) more than themselves.
When Adam and Eve were given instructions, they had the capacity to have faith in the giver of the instructions even if they did not understand them.
Additionally, I believe that because they were made in His image and because God said that they were Good, that they also had the innate capacity (and the freedom), to love Him and each other too.
They ignored these capacities – they traded them in for self. The Fall ensued.
We have keen insight into the atonement of Christ and see His death as the justification for everything out of our control – the effects of the Fall, natural proclivities, nature, nurture – everything.
But the choice of non-faith and non-love are, in my estimation, self-denying acts as all have been equipped, from the foundation of the world, to trust and love and therefore all will be personally accountable for what they did with these innate, Godlike capacities and not.
It stands to reason then that Faith and Love would be the ultimate commandments of God and that while Yeshua took care of all the rest, we are all of us responsible now, ever one of us, for what we choose relative to faith and agape love.
Again, we return to Paul’s words in Romans 5 where we read,
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life!
His risen life! We, by faith in Him, are not just justified blank slates who have died with Him!
We have taken our capacity for faith, looked to Him, and not just His death BUT MORESO TO HIS RESURRECTION as viable, and are sanctified through it!
In this we walk in the Spirit and not the flesh, not in our tainted blood.
“Justified by His death and shedding of Blood.
“Sanctified, made holy, by Him who rose, exsanguinated, and ascended to His Father as such.
Those of chosen faith walk by the very same spirit that raised Him up from the grave, and as we choose to walk by that same spirit, we too are sanctified.
This is the difference “between all justified” and the few souls who today choose to allow themselves to be sanctified.
Its still all in and through Him, but they are two radically different things – never having the second without the first, but always responding to the past fact of the first by choosing the second.
Paul continues in Romans 5 and speaks more about the gift of His shedding His human blood and adds at verse 11,
11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Im gonna skip verses 13 – 17) because this isn’t a study in Romans and continue at verse 18 where he adds)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
His obedience makes His life, death and resurrection applicable to any and every recipient.
For those who choose non-faith and non love, His shed blood reconciled them to the Father once and for all.
They remain accountable and rewarded by the faith and love they choose to exhibit for God crafted them as bearers of such.
But for those who stand on His life, sacrifice, death, and resurrection, He, AGAIN, empowers them to walk by all elements of His victory, filled with His spirit, are able to then live by His perfection and spirit.
I don’t think we could add anything more clarifying to this whole discussion than for us to conclude today with a reading of Hebrews 9.
Here we go.
1 Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary.
2 For a tent was prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence; it is called the Holy Place.
3 Behind the second curtain stood a tent called the Holy of Holies,
4 having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, which contained a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;
5 above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the outer tent, performing their ritual duties;
7 but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people.
8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary is not yet opened as long as the outer tent is still standing
9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper,
10 but deal only with food and drink and various ablutions, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
12 he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
13 For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh,
14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.
16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.
17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.
18 Hence even the first covenant was not ratified without blood.
19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.”
21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own;
26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27 And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment,
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
If you remember anything from today, please hear the words of Peter who wrote in 1st Peter 3:18
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
We look to the same quickening, to receiving the same operating system as our King, that quickening spirit devoutly and literally removed from the things of the flesh, the things of this world, and to walk as children of the Spirit that raised Him up and accompanied Him into the presence of His Father.
Questions/Comments
PRAYER
Lets Talk about Blood
February 4th 2024
