Ep. 35. Exodus 21,23,24 | Sprinkled with Blood
EPISODE 35
SPRINKLED WITH BLOOD: EXODUS 21,23,24
I had to pick and choose what to cover today because I could go on and on about various parts of our reading. Thankfully, we get to return to several of these things in Leviticus.
I will tell you the first six verses of Exodus 21 are some of my favorite Bible verses. I love the imagery that you could volunteer yourself to a kind master for the duration of your life. I know that the text relates to a method of provision for the poor Hebrews, but the fact that this is also referenced as a picture of Christ is beautiful to me. Let me explain. A Hebrew man, serving a fellow Hebrew, could decide to remain a servant at the end of his six years of service. If he believed his master to be good and he enjoyed the blessing of the master, he would go before the religious leaders and swear allegiance to his master for life. They would pierce through the servant's ear with an awl. This mark on his body would be a visible sign to all of his voluntary service to the master.
Now, this has always made me think of Psalm 40. "Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but you have given me an open ear." or "My ear you have pierced." Or "my ear you have dug through." Some translations render it as "You made me listen," but I find that unlikely given that the word is used in the rest of the OT as "dug" or "pierced." The Psalmist continues, "Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come: in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." This Psalm is a reference to Christ. We know it as an absolute since the author of Hebrews quotes it for us, saying, "When Christ came into the world, he said," and then he proceeds to quote the Psalm. In other words, Christ is the servant whose ear was pierced through. He came voluntarily in service of his master. Christ submitted himself to the will of the Father. He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus is the willing servant, and I find that to be abundantly beautiful.
The other thing we want to look at today is the significance of Moses sprinkling the people with blood to inaugurate the first covenant. It is essential because it sets the standard for initiating a covenant. We, people of faith, are not people of the Old Covenant but the New. Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, held aloft the cup of wine and declared, "This is the blood of the [new] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." If Moses had to anoint the copies of heaven with blood and sprinkle the people with the blood of the covenant, we, too, need to be sprinkled with blood. But the blood we are sprinkled with was better than the blood Moses offered, for we have been anointed and consecrated by the blood of Jesus. I could write a book on this topic, but we will save that for our lessons from Hebrews.
ADDITIONAL READING: Hebrews 9:16-23; Hebrews 12:24; 1 Peter 1:18-20; Matthew 26:28; Psalm 40; Hebrews 10:1-9; Deuteronomy 15:7-11; Philippians 2:1-11
