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Reflection for Mishpatim

“A Blood Covenant”

Hebrews 9:11-23; 10:28-39

excerpted from TorahScope Apostolic Scriptures Reflections

By the time one arrives at Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18) in the Torah cycle, the dramatic scene of the Ancient Israelites receiving the words of the Almighty, at the foot of the smoking mountain, has concluded. Now with more specificity, readers see an expansion upon the Ten Commandments, with a series of rulings or laws which deal with civil and criminal matters (Exodus 21:2-22:16), humanitarian considerations (Exodus 22:17-23:19), Divine promises to avoid assimilation into the pagan nations (Exodus 23:20-33), and the ratification procedures outlined in Exodus 24. While the Apostolic Writings have a number of references to some of the actual laws articulated, the overall description of the blood covenant found in the following passage—symbolizes the critical need for a future and permanently effective blood covenant. This future covenant would be superior in many ways, to the original covenant made here between God and Israel, as it would provide permanent atonement for the sins of people:

“Moses came and told the people all the LORD’s words, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, ‘All the words which the LORD has spoken will we do.’ Moses wrote all the LORD’s words, then rose up early in the morning and built an altar at the base of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. He sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of cattle to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, ‘We will do all that the LORD has said, and be obedient.’ Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words’” (Exodus 24:3-8, WMB).

In this passage, it is critical to note how all of the people declared that they would do all of the words which the Lord had spoken. This was followed by the construction of an altar with twelve pillars, signifying that all Twelve Tribes of Israel were included in this blood covenant. At an appropriate moment, Moses divided the blood of the sacrifices in two, sprinkling half of the blood on the altar, and then the other half on the people, who willingly declared that they would do all which the Lord had told them to do. This is an awesome scene to imagine—as blood is literally flying through the air—sealing the covenant between the Israelites and their God.

Millennia later, the author of Hebrews used elements of this passage, with some elaboration, to describe the comparison between the original covenant inaugurated by Moses, and the New Covenant established by the shed blood of Messiah Yeshua. The extraordinary upgrade from the blood of animals, to the precious atoning blood of the Son of God, is highlighted:

“But Messiah having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:11-14, WMB).

Obviously, the blood of Yeshua acquires eternal redemption for those who place their faith in its atoning value. Further clarification comes, as Hebrews delineated the need for a bloody death to take place in order to atone for sin. In this case, the author of Hebrews specified how a covenant is valid only when appropriate sacrifices have been made:

“And for this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that, a death having occurred for redemption from transgressions committed on the basis of the former covenant, those who are called might receive the promised eternal inheritance. (For where there is a covenant, it is necessary for the death of the one who ratifies it to be brought forward, for a covenant is made legally secure on the basis of the sacrificial victims,[1] since it is never valid while the ratifier lives [since it is no force at all when the covenant-victim liveth, YLT]. This is why not even the former covenant was confirmed without blood. When each commandment of the law had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people, taking the blood of calves, together with water, crimson wool and sprigs of hyssop, he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God has enjoined upon you’ [Exodus 24:8]. He also sprinkled the tabernacle and all the cultic vessels likewise with blood. In fact everything, it might almost be said, is purged with blood according to the law, but without the application of blood there is no definitive purgation)” (Hebrews 9:15-22, WBC).[2]

This passage from Hebrews elaborates on what is stated in Exodus 24. We also see other instances in the Torah, where the sprinkling of blood or water was used to cleanse people or consecrate items, although there was a temporal nature to such usage:

“This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp. The priest shall examine him. Behold, if the plague of leprosy is healed in the leper, then the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. The priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood, the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. He shall sprinkle on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird go into the open field” (Leviticus 14:2-7, WMB).

“Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and doesn’t purify himself, defiles the LORD’s tabernacle; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet on him. This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. Every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean. Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. For the unclean, they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be poured on them in a vessel. A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave” (Numbers 19:13-18, WMB).

Hebrews asserted how it was necessary for the blood of animals to be sprinkled on the different objects used in the Tabernacle, to make them ready for service, something seen in Torah:

“He killed it; and Moses took the blood, and put it around on the horns of the altar with his finger, and purified the altar, and poured out the blood at the base of the altar, and sanctified it, to make atonement for it. He took all the fat that was on the innards, and the cover of the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat; and Moses burned it on the altar. But the bull, and its skin, and its meat, and its dung, he burned with fire outside the camp, as the LORD commanded Moses. He presented the ram of the burnt offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. He killed it; and Moses sprinkled the blood around on the altar” (Leviticus 8:15-19, WMB).

“He shall take some of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with his blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. He shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins; and so he shall do for the Tent of Meeting that dwells with them in the middle of their uncleanness” (Leviticus 16:14-16, WMB).

Certainly with all of these different examples of God requiring a sprinkling of blood or purified water on various objects, He did communicate how blood sacrifices and their proper application, were essential to receiving proper cleansing and/or dedication to Him. The Torah stated that the nefesh or soul of an animal is found in its blood, and that an animal’s life force would be required to be shed, in order to offer some atonement for human errors:

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life” (Leviticus 17:11, WMB).

The challenge, of course, is that animal blood cannot permanently atonement for human sin. Only the shedding of Yeshua’s blood for sinful human beings has brought the permanent atonement, something which according to Hebrews has offered a kind of cleansing to the elements of the Heavenly Tabernacle:

“For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the Torah, who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, ‘See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain’ [Exodus 25:40]. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as Torah” (Hebrews 8:4-6, WMB).

“It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Messiah hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:23-24, WMB).

To those without the spiritual eyes to see and understand the need for a blood covenant—with a blood which is more precious than that of bulls and goats—these passages might seem gruesome or superfluous at the least. But the clear fact which has been exemplified since Ancient Israel’s departure from Egypt, is that God does require a bloody substitute for sin.

Born again Believers are thankful for the willing sacrifice of the Messiah! His blood cleanses us from all sin. For His return, we eagerly await, and for the consummation of our salvation with the resurrection of the dead and being given restored and redeemed bodies:

“Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23, WMB).

“so Messiah also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28, WMB).