The Altar and the Blood
‘* And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be four square; and the height thereof shall be three cubits, etc. ‘* For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” ‘* Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversations received by traditions from your fathers; But with the precious blood of - Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Ex. xxvii: 1; Lev. xvii: 11; 1 Peter i: 18.
HIS isa brief description of the altar of burnt offering in the ancient
tabernacle. It was the first object that you would notice as you entered the court of that ancient sanctuary standing just inside, and accessible to all the people. It. was a large frame of wood, covered with brass, sufficient to hold any offering that might be placed upon it. There was a fire constantly burning upon it, and the sacrifice was renewed every day; ever burning, ever smoking, ever blood stained, ever open to any guilty Hebrew that might want to approach it.
It was so connected with the interior of the tabernacle, that every one that went in had to pass it, and had to take the blood from its sacrifices, in order to be accepted in the holy place. Everything in that holy place was sprinkled with the blood; and the very high priest, when he entered the innermost shrine, must bring that blood, or he would be. smitten with death. Thus it had a very important part in the worship of the sanctuary.
1. Its place at {the entrance of the tabernacle teaches us that Christ’s sacrifice, of which it is the type, stands at the very entrance of all our access to and communion with God.
9. Then again, the relation which it bore to the inner sections of the sanctuary, and the fact that its blood was necessary in order to enter the inner shrine, shows us that Christ’s blood is the only passport now to the presence of God, either in earth or in heaven; and that with it, we’ are accepted either on earth or in hea7en, to the very presence of God.
3. It was accessible to the highest and the lowest; to every class of people. This indicates the fulness and graciousness of the great atonement which Christ has made for the sins of the whole world; sufficient for all, though effectual only, for those that believe.
These are the chief lessons of this altar. We might add that there was nothing ornamental about it; it was rude, and unpretentious, and ghastly looking; it was made of brass, to bear the heaviest burdens, and to sustain the streams of gore that bathed it, and the ceaseless fires that burned upon it.
It was a place of suffering, and blood;. and it bore the constant mark of sin. So the cross of Calvary, the death of Christ, and the whole doctrine of the atonement, have nothing very sentimental about them. The culture of man does not like it; the philosophy of the world would get rid of it if it could. But God has made His people prize the precious blood of Jesus Christ above all price and honor and love.
But passing on from this interesting object, let us fix our attention on that of which this altar was the most emphatic expression, THE BLOOD; that emblem that runs not only through the tabernacle and the altar, but which we find in all the types. We shall speak of seven places in which we find the blood particularly emphasized.
I. First, we find the blood ON THE DOOR posts of the houses of the children of Israel. We find it sprinkling the lintels on that night when they escaped death by the destroying angel’s wing: the blood kept them safe. This may stand, then, for redeeming blood. Your life was forfeited to death, but He redeemed you, and put His mark of purchase above your head. ‘‘ Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” He has redeemed us; He has bought me personally, and you personally. When I bring it home to my heart,-it melts and breaks my heart to pieces to remember that He saw me in ‘my ruin and took me and my responsibilities, suffered for me, loved me individually and by His very blood bought me back from the bondage and penalty of sin.
II. Secondly, we see this blood ON THE ALTAR. It is spilt blood, shed blood; it is. blood drunk in by the earth; it is the blood of atonement. The blood on the door is redeeming blood. The blood on the altar is atoning blood. By that I mean blood that washes out your guilt; blood that pays your penalty; blood that meets your obligations; death instead of your death; a life given instead of my life and yours. It has the significance of expiation and propitiation. Christ is the propitiation for our sins; He has borneour penalty for sin, and we are free.
III. In the third place, we see the blood ON THE LEPER. We find, especially in Leviticus xiv., the picture of the leper, that hideous object of uncleanness and type of sin. We see him brought to the priest; we see the blood sprinkled upon him; we see the blood of the little bird touching his ear, his hand, and his foot, in token that he is cleansed by the blood. We therefore have redeeming, atoning, and cleansing blood. ‘‘ The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” It heals from spiritual leprosy; it washes out our stains; it puts new life in our being, excluding the old, just as the new leaves of the Spring push off the old leaves of the Autumn; just as the new blood in the body throws off the old mortifying flesh, and heals the wound, and makes it slough off the corruption and disease; so the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from sin, and keepsusclean. Dear friends, is it keeping you? This subject is nothing, if it is merely a theory or a thought. It is everything, it is our life. Can you say **O the blood, the precious blood, Which Jesus shed for me,
Upon the cross a cleansing flood,
Just now by faith I see?”
IV. Again, we see the blood upon THE ff CHRIST IN
Book OF THE CoveNANT. We are told in the book of Leviticus, that Moses was to take the Book of the Law and bring it before the people; and he was to sprinkle the blood over the Book, and the very commandments were to be touched with the drops, which were the types of Jesus’ blood. Whatisthat? Why it is the covenant blood; it seals the covenant; it pledges the promises; it answers for our failures; it guarantees our blessings. The blood of Jesus is on your Bible; on the commandments; on all your promises; O, beloved, there is not a promise in this Bible that you claim, but the blood of Jesus Christ has touched it, endorsed it, purchased it for you.
V. Again, we find THE BLOOD ON THE PRIESTS, and VESSELS OF THE SANCTUARY. They were dedicated to God by blood. The right thumb, right ear and right toe of the priest was touched with the blood. So the blood consecrates us, as well as atones for and redeems us; as it set apart the tabernacle and the priest, it sets apart you and me. We dare not claim to be our own. If we dared, our very sense of honesty would make us blush to live for ourselves, and then to look up to heaven and say, ‘‘ You have redeemed me, dear Father, and now I am going to do just as I have a mind to.” The very consciousness that you have been redeemed from death, makes you realize that everything you are or have, belongs to Christ. ‘‘Ye are not your own; you are bought with a price.” So bring your right ear and consecrate it to hear only for God; your right thumb, to work only for God; -and your right foot, that it may walk only where Christ has walked before.
VI. Again, we find the blood on THE MERCY SEAT; within the sacred curtains on that golden lid, on the Holy of Holies, under the flashing wings of the cherubim, and the Shekinah glory; there was the blood in the most sacred place of all.
The high priest carried it on the day of atonement, and sprinkled it there before (sod’s very eye, on the mercy seat, where it constantly remained pleading for the people, standing as the type of Christ’s precious life. For the blood is the life which He not only laid down on earth, but which He took up, and carried into heaven, and which He offers there at God’s feet; which He has presented to God as the price and gift of redeemed man, and which pleads evermore for us before the throne. So the heavens are dedicated with blood as well as the earth; and this morning, Jesus’ blood is speaking there for you just as forcibly as on earth eighteen hundred years ago. So this might be expressed as the pleading blood. It is Christ’s life; it is Christ’s death; it is Christ’s great love; it is Christ’s merits; pleading for us ever
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more, and claiming for us all that we can claim according to His will. During the Franco-Prussian war, and under the command of the noble prince who afterwards became the emperor of Germany, in one of the regiments where discipline was very strict, one of the soldiers had disobeyed orders, and was to be shot under sentence of court martial. He was in great agony of mind; and as the hour approached for the execution, the chaplain was sent to him. He tried to talk with him. He said, ‘‘ Are you ready to die?” ‘* No,” replied the prisoner, ‘‘T am not ready; but that does not trouble me; Iam so troubled about my wife and little children, to think of their sorrow, and of their future, and such a memory as they will have of me; and to think of the years of misery and sorrow they will have to go through, I cannot even think of my soul. O, Iam so distressed! Iam in despair!” There was a fine fellow in the regiment who heard all this, a Christian man, well advanced in years; he was greatly affected, and stepped forward and said, ‘‘I will tell you what I will do. [have not got any wife or children to mourn for me; it would be nothing to me to die; I would be glad to be with my Lord; let me die in your place.” He talked to the chaplain and the commanding officer; they were greatly affected, but they did-not know what to do, and they referred it to the superior officer. He could hardly believe it; he said, ‘* Do you really mean it?” ‘* Yes,” he said, ’ “there can be no question about it; that poor fellow is not ready to die; it would be eternal death to him; to me it would be but a quick translation to Him to whom Iam going soon; I have not a friend on earth that would be the worse for it; Iam ready to go, let me take his place.” They were greatly touched and perplexed, and said, ‘‘ We never had anything like this; we have no authority to make such-a substitution. Suppose we defer the case for a day or two, and lay it before the Crown Prince.” So they galloped off, to the Crown Prince, the man followed, and they brought the case before this. noble man, one of the noblemen of the century. He was deeply moved. ‘‘My brave fellow,” he said, ‘‘I have no authority to take the life of an innocent man. But I have the power to pardon; and for your sake, I will pardon this man. I will take your life as though it had been given for his; go back and tell him.” What alight it sheds on this scene. There was One who had a right to shed His blood, and whose life has been given. And now, His blood pleads for us. It is that noble life that pleads for a sinner. And so Christ, the admiration of every angel, of every saint, of the Father eternal, went down and walked through the world that the law might be honored; that He might show this wretched race that some one could keep the commandments. And now He pleads by His merits, for us unworthy sinful men. And so He is represented. in the book of Revelation, as silently standing ‘‘as a Lamb that had been slain.” That is why no promise is too hard to claim. That is why faith can take all things in His name.
VIL. THE Livinc BLOoD. Let us read some of Christ’s words about it. ‘‘ Whosoever drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. He that drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him.” The blood of Christ is His life. It is the life of our soul; it is the life of our body. It is not merely the death of Jesus for us, but it is the fact this morning, that Jesus has fresh life to impart to us every moment. Just as in medical science, sometimes, they take the blood from one person’s veins, and transfuse it into another’s veins, and the patient receives new strength and life. In Germany, before the death of the late German Emperor, a peasant offered him his larynx; he said, ‘““You can have my windpipe, my throat, my noble emperor.” The surgeons considered it gravely, and were greatly moved at his offer to sacrifice his life; they said, ‘‘ Poor fellow, it would not be of any use; it would not be a living organ.” Thanks to His name, He can put His living organs into us; He can put His living blood into us. Blood is not anything unless quickened by life; pour that blood into a vessel, and it is putridina few hours; but pour it into your veins, and it isa magnetic force throbbing with ‘life. ‘‘The life is in the blood.” That is the reason that Christ makes so much of the blood. O, for the sacred flow, pouring His life more perfectly and constantly and fully into our weary souls; into our cold affections; into our weak purposes; into our weary nerves. I know there is quickening in Him; but I do know that it must be constantly claimed and kept, by habitual trust and communion.
So this living, quickening blood is the life of our whole being. So have we seen the blood on the door, which is redeeming blood; the blood on the altar, which is atoning blood; the blood on the leper, which is cleansing blood; the blood on the book, which is covenant blood; the blood on the priest, which is consecrating blood; the blood on the mercy seat, which is pleading blood; and finally the quickening blood, giving life to the soul and body; keeping us alive and strengthened through the life which comes from His heart. Can we echo back the words ‘The precious blood of Christ ?? Lord, teach us more to know its sacred meaning and say, ‘‘Thy*blood is drink indeed.”
Then shall we grow up before Him as trees planted by the rivers of waters, bringing forth our fruit in season, and yielding fruit every season? There is life enough in Christ’s death, to cancel sin and death; there is life enough in the life of Jesus Christ to carry us through to the end, and make every day a victory.
The Lord bless you and teach you to live in and on Him, and ever more enable you to say, ‘‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me;” and to His name be all the praise.