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| The High Priest in the Holy of Holies |
"But you have come...to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling..." Hebrews 12:22a,24 NIV
Has it ever struck you as odd, as you read New Testament letters, that believers are "sprinkled" with the blood of Christ?
This wording is no mere poetry. The Jewish men writing these letters understood that Jesus was our sin offering. And they knew that the blood of sin offerings was not brushed or poured, but sprinkled on the altar.
"He shall dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it before the Lord..." Leviticus 4:17 NIV
Today is Yom Kippur, the Jewish, Old Testament, Day of Atonement. It is the holiest day of the year, because it is the day on which God instructed that atonement be made for His people.
Back when the Temple still stood, this was the one day each year that the High Priest stepped inside the veil, into the Holy of Holies. In doing so, he entered into the very Shekinah Presence of the Most High God.
Doing this on any other day would have brought instant death. But on this day, The Lord demanded it. And He demanded that the High Priest bring with him the blood of a perfect lamb. He was to sprinkle it on the Lord's earthly Throne, the Mercy Seat.
"He is to take some of the...blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover... on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. Leviticus 16:14,30 NIV
Seven times, the High Priest sprinkled the lamb's blood on the seat of God's mercy.
Seven is the number of perfection, of completion. And so, with that seventh sprinkling, the lamb's blood completely purified the penitent children of Israel, paying the price their sin required.
Truth be told, that was not the punishment that their sin really deserved. It should have been their blood. Our blood. But our just God is also a merciful God. He accepts a substitute: a lamb's blood for man's blood.
The image of those perfect drops of blood sprinkling on the Mercy Seat brings to mind other drops of perfect Lamb's blood, those that dripped from the broken body of the Messiah as He shed His blood for us on the Cross.
"[You] have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance." 1 Peter 1:2 NIV
As the High Priest counted off each sprinkle of perfect blood, he prayed that the lamb's blood would be enough, that it would satisfy the debt for another year.
As Jesus' blood spilled from the Cross, the Lamb knew His blood was enough. God's perfect promise had been kept. The penalty of sin had been paid.
Perfect atonement was made complete. Not with man's blood. Not with lamb's blood. But with Divine blood that fell, yet rose again from the dust.
And because the Offering is risen, because the Atonement is Eternal, the forgiveness He offers is without end, for anyone who claims it both now and forever.
It is finished, completely and perfectly finished.
