120309 - Exodus 29 - Blood and Oil to Sanctify

Friday SOAP: Where are the songs about the blood today? They're almost absent from our worship. Hymns like "There is Power in the Blood," "When I See the Blood," "Are You Washed in the Blood," "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus" - we need to be sure we reconcile each next generation of believers with the understanding that sanctification is through Christ's blood. The High Priest's garments support such a picture of cleansing through the application of blood.

---------------------------------------------------

S: Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons' garments with him. He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons' garments with him. (Exodus 29:21)

O: So here I can make a confession. Whenever I have read this passage, I have missed an important point. Apparently all the artists who have attempted to picture the High Priest's clothing have as well. Before they were ever worn in service, they were splattered with blood. Furthermore, whenever a High Priest was consecrated, was he sprinkled while in the garments of the previous High Priest? There may have been as many as 82 High Priests, (See 1 Chronicles 6:2-15 for a list to the Babylonian Captivity), so until the garments completely wore out, they would have at least been far more bloody than they're ever depicted.

A: This reveals a very great divide between the modern mind's picture of blood as a contaminant and the ancient Jewish picture of blood as a means of sanctification. What could look more unclean to us than a bloody butcher's apron? In fact, as proof of that, even with as many unclean images as the Internet contains, I couldn't find a photo of a genuinely bloody butcher's apron, as common a sight as it used to be. They were all obvious fakes.

The High Priest's garment was supposed to be a thing of beauty (Ex. 28:40) yet his work was bloody. The understanding that when God sees the sanctifying blood He passes over us (Ex. 12:13) carries through clearly. The anointing oil is also very significant to us: in yesterday's SOAP, I noted the story of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-12), centered around the oil which was to be kept burning. Without the oil, the virgins were not recognized. For us to be truly sanctified, we need both the blood of Christ's sacrifice and the oil of His Holy Spirit.

P: Lord, truly, my sanctification was a costly, bloody price. The gift of the Spirit, earnest of my inheritance, came at such great price to my Lord. Thank you for this reminder that it is washing in the blood of the Lamb that makes me clean to you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We have all contracted the virus....

Last week and this weekend, I spent precious development time trying to rid myself of unwanted software on my coumputer called " Virtumonde ." Believe it or not, I'm pretty new to viruses and that kind of thing, coming from a background of developing on the Macintosh platform and using the Windows platforms to deliver product on. Well, this was a nasty wake up call to what Windows users have to deal with all the time. Virtumonde is called "Adware" and it's something that has sneaked on to your computer either by being installed along with some kind of trial software, or getting past your computer's defenses on the network. Its job is to watch what you do at all times with your computer, then occasionally pop up advertisements. In my case, most of the time, these advertisements were for anti-virus software. But they kept popping up an installation window for the software and beginning the installation even when I clicked, "no" for "do you w
Read more

2023—Week21: Ezra01-Nehemiah11; John19-Acts04

Ezra-Nehemiah 11 : In the Jewish Canon, Ezra and Nehemiah are one book, and, although the division in ours makes sense, it’s clear that they cover the same basic period. They form one answer to the question at the end of 2 Chronicles’ hanging question, “Therefore, who among the LORD's people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem.” (2 Chronicles 36:23, ISV) Yet despite their trust, the people are greatly weakened until the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah (and Haggai and Zechariah, Ezra 5:1) encourage them. Ezra’s trust is clearly represented in 8:22, where he is ashamed to request a protective guard for the fortune in treasures he carries, instead trusting in the hand of God for protection. Ezra’s prayer in Ezra 9, Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11, and the people’s covenant prayer in 9:5-37 are the outcome. Faith precedes confession, because we don’t fully understand how badly we fall short until it’s revealed to us. Even then, we ne
Read more

1 Samuel 28-29; Psalm 106; Romans 10

  June 4 : In Job 34:14 and Psalm 104:29, the authors make the point that if God withdraws His Spirit, we die and return to the dust. In today’s three passages, I see how crucial His continual presence is in my life. He withdrew His Spirit from Saul, and it upended his reign and legacy. He sent leanness to the souls of the Israelites in response to their repeated concupiscence and whining at Him about what He was providing. The religious leaders in Israel by the New Testament times had been purified to some extent of yearning for carnal pursuits and of literal idolatry by the captivity’s exposure to a carnal and idolatrous culture, but they had become religious relativists, taking their extreme fastidiousness about the Law as evidence of their holiness, while ignoring the purpose of the Law, which was to make them dependent upon God, to be ready for His salvation, to long for the true holiness they couldn’t find in themselves. As Paul has said, I have to avoid the ever-present temptati
Read more