The Importance Of The Blood
By David J. Stewart
The Blood Had to Be Applied
“And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first
month of the year to you. Speak ye
unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they
shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for an house: And
if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto
his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to
his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year:
ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and
the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. And they shall take of
the BLOOD, and
strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses,
wherein they shall eat it. And they
shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and
with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat
not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with
his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.
And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which
remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your
feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the
LORD's passover. For I will pass
through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will
execute judgment: I am the LORD. And
the BLOOD shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye
are: and WHEN I SEE THE
BLOOD, I WILL PASS OVER YOU,
and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of
Egypt” (Exodus 12:1-13).
Did you read that? The Lord
was going to smite the firstborn in all the land of Egypt because of the false
gods of the Egyptians. However, the
Lord would NOT smite the firstborn if He saw the BLOOD upon the side posts and
upper door post. The blood had to
be applied! What if the lamb had
been killed but the blood had NOT been applied to the door posts? Then the
firstborn died! The killing of the
lamb was NOT enough by itself, the lamb’s shed blood had to be applied. The lamb had to be a young male lamb without any disease or
abnormalities. The lamb had to be
killed and the blood collected so it could be applied to the doorposts of the
home. This was the ONLY way of
escape for the firstborn Israelites!
The Day of Passover
This event in the history of the Israelites is called the Passover (a Passover day, followed by the seven days of unleavened bread.) “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's PASSOVER. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread” (Leviticus 23:5,6). So we learn from Leviticus 23:5-6 that the fourteenth day was the day of Passover and AFTERWARDS followed seven additional days of eating unleavened bread. There is a big mistake in modern perversions of the Bible. Even the New King James bible makes this horrible mistake. I will show you. Let’s read Acts 12:1-4 from the King James Bible, “Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (THEN WERE THE DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD.) And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending AFTER EASTER to bring him forth to the people.”
Notice that Acts 12:3 says the feast of unleavened bread was already being celebrated. This means that the day of Passover had ALREADY OCCURRED. Acts 12:4 tells us that wicked king Herod wanted to wait until AFTER Easter to kill Peter. Look at most new perversions of the Bible and you’ll find the word “Easter” has been changed to “Passover.” This is totally wrong! There is no way that this could have been the day of Passover since the feast of unleavened bread was already taking place in Acts 12:3. The day of Passover had already occurred. So “Easter” is the correct word.
This is in perfect harmony with Leviticus 23:5-6. By the way, Easter was a purely pagan holiday in those days. Easter today is celebrated differently than it was back then. Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. Though the term “Easter” has it’s origin in heathen
idolatry, Believers do not celebrate it as such and therefore it is not wrong. Likewise, we celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas. Some people think it sinful to have a Christmas tree because Jeremiah
10:2-4 mentions the heathen practice of decorating a tree for idolatrous
worship. There is a fine line between faith and foolishness folks! God is not against decorating. Isn’t
it God Who decorates the colorful flowers? Isn’t it God Who decorates the beautiful sunset? Isn’t it God who decorates animals and birds? Yes, it is our Great God. As
long as you don’t bow down to your Christmas tree and worship it, you won’t
offend God. Some people can really
twist the Bible and come up with erroneous teachings and ideas. We must be careful in our search for the truth, there are many pitfalls.
This is why we must ask and allow God’s Spirit to “guide” us into
all truth.
The Passover is a picture of Jesus Christ (Who is our Passover), “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even CHRIST OUR PASSOVER is sacrificed for us” (1st Corinthians 5:7). The slain lambs in Exodus 12:1-13 picture the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus was as a lamb without spot nor blemish, He was perfect. Jesus was killed and His blood shed for our sins, “...without the shedding of BLOOD there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). There can be no redemption without Christ’s blood. Jesus absolutely had to shed His blood or mankind would have been doomed to Hell for all eternity.
Beware of corrupt teachers such as Robert Thieme Jr. and popular radio teacher John MacArthur who claim that Jesus’ blood is of no significance! Mr. MacArthur teaches that Jesus’ blood soaked into the ground at the cross and has no redeeming power. These mislead men believe that only the death of Christ is of importance, not the blood. This is corrupt doctrine, lies. From reading Exodus 12:1-13 we have learned that the BLOOD HAD TO BE APPLIED to the door posts of the house if the firstborn was to survive through the night. The Lord said He was specifically going to look for the BLOOD, not the dead lamb. I sincerely doubt the salvation of any person who makes light of the blood of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures proclaim the message of the blood of Christ from Genesis to Revelation.
Romans 3:25 states, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through FAITH IN HIS BLOOD, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” The word “propitiation” in the Greek means “to appease one’s wrath.” In other words, it is our faith in the shed blood of Christ that removes us from under the condemnation of God’s Law. God’s wrath is turned away and we obtain divine favor because of Jesus’ blood. It is “FAITH IN HIS BLOOD” that brings the forgiveness and cleansing of sins. Anyone who denies the importance of Jesus shed blood is a heretic.
Let’s read another Scripture concerning the blood, “In whom we have REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7). The Bible is clear as can be—the blood of Jesus redeems! How can anyone be so foolish as to deny the power of the blood? “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are MADE NIGH BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST” (Ephesians 2:13). We are reconciled and brought back close to God by Christ’s blood. “In whom we have REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14). There are a multitude of other references throughout the Bible teaching that Jesus’ blood is very important. It is a dangerous thing to make light of the blood of Christ, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST HIS SON CLEANSETH US FROM ALL SIN” (1st John 1:7).
It is Jesus’ blood that cleanses away the sinners sins. “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and WASHED US FROM OUR SINS IN HIS OWN BLOOD” (Revelation 1:5). What a wonderful Savior! We owe Jesus a debt of gratitude which cannot be adequately expressed with words. Christ has paid the price to redeem us unto Himself. Only a fool would deny the necessity of the blood for redemption. Yes, the death of Christ is important also but it would not have been sufficient by itself to redeem us. The blood had to be shed and applied to the mercy seat in Heaven (we will study this in the next chapter.)
Everything
concerning our Lord Jesus Christ was leading up to the blood atonement in
Heaven. Christ’s virgin death was
absolutely necessary to validate the blood atonement; however, Jesus’ Virgin
Birth would have been in vain had He not applied the blood in Heaven. The same is true of Jesus’ sinless life, His death, His burial and His
resurrection. These all would
have meant NOTHING had Jesus not presented Himself before the Father in Heaven. The blood had to be applied to the
Mercyseat in Heaven!
