"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion . . . . . according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. 1:1, 2.)--The sprinkling of blood! What sacred memories this brought to those Jewish brethren of the Dispersion, to whom Peter was writing! They, of course, would understand, better than Gentile Christians, the significance of those words. The sprinkling of blood was intimately interwoven with the history of Israel, with their temple-worship and ritual, and even with their daily lives. From the first did God teach them the significance of blood. "Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel . . . . . that eateth any manner of blood," said the Lord, "I will set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life." (Lev. 17:10, 11.) This was the fundamental doctrine concerning blood. There were many different occasions of sprinkling of blood in Israel; two very prominent ones, when the sprinkling was once for all; and another very important occasion which was annually repeated. These were full of meaning to them--but of greater significance to us who live in a better day and know of a better blood than Israel of old ever knew.

      The first of these instances of the sprinkling of blood was on the night of the Passover, the night of Egypt's judgment when the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain. Most of us will remember the ten plagues which were sent upon Egypt through Moses--water turned to blood, the plague of frogs, of lice, of flies, the murrain of cattle, the boils of man and beast, the hail, the locusts, the thick darkness. From these nine (at least from the third plague on) the Israelites were automatically exempt. But the tenth plague that followed, the slaying of the firstborn, was of a different sort. It was of the nature of a judgment. God was coming down to execute judgment upon Egypt. And when God's judgment falls it is like the resistless flame of the forest-fire which consumes the mighty cedar and the lowly brier alike and knows no respect of persons. From this judgment the Israelites themselves had to have refuge and protection. And it was God Himself who provided a salvation for them. They were to take from the flock, a lamb a year old, without blemish. On the fourteenth day of the first month, at even, they were to kill the lamb, "and they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two sideposts and on the lintel" of their houses. "And ye [63] shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two sideposts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For Jehovah will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel and upon the two sideposts Jehovah will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you." (Exod. 12:5-7 and 22, 23.) And so (as Paul tells us in Hebrews) by faith they "kept the passover and the sprinkling of the blood that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them." (Heb. 11:28.) On that night, about midnight, there was a great cry heard throughout the land of Egypt, for from the palace of Pharaoh on the throne, to the dwelling of the maid-servant that grindeth at the mill, there was not a house in which there was not one dead.

      On that night nothing stood between the Israelites and death but that blood which had been sprinkled on the doorposts and the lintels of their houses. But that was the impregnable refuge which God had provided for them, for God's word and solemn pledge, "When I see the blood I will pass over you," could not be broken. The Israelite's firstborn may have trembled when he considered his own personal sinfulness and ill-desert; but the blood became his assurance and protection. In a Bible class the question was asked whether all the firstborn of Egypt died that night. Some said, "No, only the firstborn of the Egyptians." But one answered, "Yes--they all died: the firstborn of the Egyptians died in person; the firstborn of Israel in the lamb that was slain for them." And so it was. And so it is now. "For our passover also hath been sacrificed," Paul writes in 1 Cor. 5:7, "even Christ"; and the sprinkling of the blood: of Jesus Christ, as of a lamb without spot and blemish is our refuge from the judgment of God.

      Let the "wise and prudent" scoff at such a salvation; but God's babes find in it their consolation and their hope.

      The second great occasion when blood was sprinkled once for all, never to be repeated, was at the ratification of the Old Covenant. When the ten commandments had been given from Sinai; and Moses had set all the commandments and ordinances before the people, "Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which Jehovah hath made with you concerning all these words." (Exod, 24:8.) [64]

      To this event the writer of Hebrews refers when he speaks of the ratification of the New Covenant through the blood of Christ. "For where a testament (or covenant: the Greek word may mean either) is (he says) there must of necessity be the death of him that made it. For a testament is of force where there hath been death: for, it doth never avail while he that made it liveth. Wherefore even the first covenant hath not been dedicated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses unto all the people, according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and goats with scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded to you-ward. Moreover the tabernacle and the vessels of the ministry, he sprinkled in like manner with the blood. And according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed by blood; and apart from the shedding of blood there is no remission." (Heb. 9:16-22.) These words also remind us of what the Lord Jesus said at the institution of the "Lord's Supper"--"This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many unto remission of sins." (Matt. 26:28.) And thus a covenant of peace is concluded, by which we draw nigh unto God. As Israel in type and figure, so we now in reality have access into the presence of God by the blood of Christ. "Having therefore, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus . . . . . let us draw near with a true heart in fullness. of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised." (Heb. 10:19-23.)

      In those two Old Testament instances there was a sprinkling of blood once for all; and both of them foreshadowed the blood of Jesus Christ and its deeper meaning and permanent virtue. But there were also sprinklings of blood in that Old Testament ritual which were often repeated, and which in like manner typified the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. One of these repeated sprinklings prefigured the atonement which, to us, is once for all. I speak of the annual ritual of the great day of Atonement, "Yom Kippur." In spite of the many sin-offerings and sacrifices brought by the people, there was ever a residuum of unforgiven sins, and on the whole an imperfection and alienation from God, which every year must anew be wiped out; God thus indicating to His people of old that it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins; pointing forward to a final and perfect Sacrifice that was yet to come.

      On the tenth day of the seventh month was the great Day of Atonement--the most important of all the days of the [65] Jewish year, the day on which every soul of man must bow in penitential sorrow before God, the while in the sanctuary a solemn ritual was transacted on their behalf. On that day the high priest alone officiated, and none other was permitted in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle. And the high priest on that day was clad, not in his gorgeous garments "for beauty and for glory," but in the garb of humiliation--the pure but lowly coat and apparel of white linen, girt with the linen girdle about his loins, and a linen mitre upon his head. Two he-goats and a bullock constituted the sin-offering of that day--the two goats were for the people; the bullock for the high priest himself, (for he was but a sinful man). The bullock was slain first, and the high priest took of its blood into the Most Holy Place, within the veil, to. make atonement for himself and for his house. Then all was ready for the great atonement for the people. The two goats were presented before the Lord: and lot was cast upon them: one for Jehovah, the other for "Azazel."

      And what is Azazel? Ah--who can answer that? Some of the ancient rabbis suggested that Azazel was an evil spirit, the demon of the desert. Others made the word out to mean "Release" or "Dismissal."Perhaps neither was so far from the mark. The goat on which fell the lot for Jehovah was slain for the people, and the high priest brought its blood within the veil. (Never at any other time, but only on this Day of Atonement was even the high priest allowed to enter within the veil, into the Most Holy Place.) There in thick darkness, save when illuminated by the glory of God, sat the ark of the covenant, surmounted by the "mercy-seat" which was overshadowed by the outspread wings of two golden cherubim. From above these cherubim, said Jehovah, "I will commune with thee" (Exod. 25:22) and there He said He would appear in a cloud on the Day of Kippurim. in the thick smoke of incense, made by the censer in his hand (that he die not) the high priest stood before the mercy-seat and sprinkled the blood of the sin-offering seven times, upon the mercy-seat and before it: and in this manner was the atonement made for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins . . . . . and for all the assembly of Israel." (Lev. 16:16, 17.) Having finished this work, the high priest came forth from within the veil, and next presented the other, the live goat (also called the "scape goat"), on which the lot had fallen for Azazel. He laid both his hands upon the head of the victim, confessed upon it all the iniquities of the children of Israel and their transgressions, even all their sins; and "put them upon the head of the goat"; and he "shall send him away by the hand of a man that is in readiness, into the wilderness." [66] Thus the goat was to bear away all their iniquities "unto a solitary land"; and there it was left and abandoned to its fate. What does it mean? Did not John the Baptist give a hint of the great meaning of this strange thing when pointing at the Lord Jesus he exclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away (or "beareth") the sin of the world"? (John 1:29.) For it is written that upon Him Jehovah laid the iniquities of us all. (Isa. 53:6.) And he bore them for us and carried them away into the depths of Sheol, into the land of forgetfulness for ever. For,

      It is hardly needful to point out any further the wonderful correspondence of all this with work of our Savior. He is represented by both the sacrificial victims of the Day of Atonement (for one alone could no have pictured His work) and He was also the antitype of the high priest--being Himself the great High Priest who by the eternal Spirit offered the great Sacrifice without blemish unto God. "For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us"; and "now once, at the end of the ages, hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." And as Aaron the high priest, reappeared, having finished his work within the veil, so shall Christ "appear a second time apart from sin to them that wait for him unto salvation." (Heb. 9:28.) So "in him" do "we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace." (Eph. 1:7.) And "being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him." (Rom. 5:9.)

      The "sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ"--how much it means to those who have received it! It speaks of pardon and safety and peace and access to God's throne of grace. Its efficacy follows us to the end. If we walk in the light as he is in the light . . . . . the blood of Jesus his Son goes on cleansing us from all sin, till at last we stand spotless and blameless in His presence. There is power in the blood of Christ to cleanse from all sin, to fit us for God's service, and to save us from the wrath to come. Have you found shelter under the blood of Jesus?

[SSS 63-68]