Musing – “Oh what a bloody mess”

Hebraic Musing – “Oh what a bloody mess”

While listening to my audio reading of the book of Leviticus, I found myself confronted by a continual theme of priests having to handle blood over and over again.  These five or six teachings keep coming to mind as somehow related to the Leviticus theme of priests and blood:

·      “The Life is in the Blood.”   While this is often stated, here is the first of eleven mentions.   “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.” Lev 17:11-12  

·      “His Blood is required to have Life”.  This is what Jesus said in red letters.  “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:53-54

·       “The Priests have to handle, sprinkle and carry the Blood for the people”  In fact, the words Priest/Priests and Blood both appear within the same verse 47 times in my NIV.

·      “The Priests were appointed as intercessors between God and Man ”  The book of Exodus closes with God stating seven times that Aaron’s family’s purpose is  to “Serve me as priests”.  And then immediately following in Leviticus the priests become responsible for handling the blood.

·      “We are the Priests of today.”    In the OT, Exod. 19:5-6, God told Moses to tell the Israelites  “Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”   
And in the NT we hear Peter telling us “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  1 Peter 2:9    Peter defines us believers as priests!

·      Jesus instructs us to “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” Mark 16:15   Was He making us priests responsible for the Spiritual blood that gives eternal life to others?

Would it be a stretch to say that as God’s priests today we are responsible for the Spiritual lifeblood of all God’s creation, and for the forgiving of their sins?  

Another perspective; in the OT, each family brought a lamb to be sacrificed and the blood from the priest’s sacrifice was for the whole family.  In the NT we stress that each individual is required to respond to Christ in a self-sacrificing way.  But, maybe we still need more sense of responsibility as priests for the lifeblood of one another like a family?    

The most significant sin our neighbors commit is the sin of rejection of Jesus as their Christ, who gives life more abundantly. 

Points to ponder

Are we responsible to handle the Spiritual lifeblood that provides others with eternal life?

The Torah became extremely relevant for me as I read Leviticus.

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd,                                  May 17, 2016

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith”  “Biblical Marriage”  “Musings v.1 – A Victorious Life”   “Musings v.2 – The Torah and New Testament”
Weekly “Hebraic Musings”      www.InsightsByYosef.com