And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” Exodus 24:8
WHICH COMES FIRST: Instructions or Love?
The other day I was playing frisbee in the street with my kids. As we were playing, a car crossed the corner and began coming our way. If I said to my kids, “There’s a car coming, stay in the middle of the road!”, then you would consider me a horrible parent! But if I said, “There’s a car coming, get out of the road!”, then you would consider me a loving parent.
We give instructions to our children because we want to protect them from danger. We want to teach them about what is right and what is wrong. We want to prepare them to face difficult circumstances and decisions. But ultimately we instruct them because we love them. Therefore, which comes first: our instructions to our children or our love for them?
BLOOD PROVIDED A WAY OUT
In Exodus 12 we read that the tenth and final plague to strike Egypt would be the death of every firstborn in the land, from Pharaoh’s firstborn to the captive in the dungeon’s firstborn. But for Israel, God provided a way out of death and judgment: the blood of a lamb. Because of His love for His people, God gave instructions, a promise and a seal of that promise: All who trusted in Him to save them from death should, according to His instructions, apply the blood of a lamb to their doorpost.
BLOOD PROVIDED A WAY IN
Once God had delivered Israel out of Egypt and out of death, Moses led them to Mount Sinai. It is here that God makes His covenant with the people of Israel. He instructs them in the ways of His heart and they respond that they will follow and obey (Ex. 24:7). But every covenant has a seal. So Moses orders sacrifices to be made and then takes the blood and throws some against the altar, but the rest on the people, literally. Moses called this “the blood of the covenant”. This blood represented a way in to covenant relationship with God. The stone tablets had not yet been given, but because blood had been shed and applied, the Law would be given to a people who had been brought in to a relationship with the creator and living God through the blood of a sacrifice.
THE BLOOD OF JESUS
Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). His blood on the cross provided not only a way out of sin, but also a way in to new life. Right before His death Jesus came together to eat a meal with His disciples. He took a cup and explained that it was “the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). In Jesus Christ, God has made a covenant that can never be broken, altered or destroyed. Through His blood God has provided for every sinner a way out of death and a way into eternal life with Him. When sinners hear, believe and confess that Jesus can save them from their sins and give them eternal life, they are no longer literally sprinkled with blood. Rather, whoever believes in Jesus receives eternal life because of His shed blood (Jn. 3:14-15). We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross and paid the penalty of sin once and for all (Hebrews 7:27). There is no longer any need for sacrifice, only to look upon The Sacrifice. In Jesus Christ God loved us first, before the foundation of the world, before we were formed in our mother’s womb.
May thousands hear and believe the Good News of what God in His great love has done for them in Jesus Christ, and may each of us desire and grow in a greater understanding and knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:17).
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