Cleansing Blood
According to Mosaic Law if any person of the tribes of Israel sins unintentionally he has the right to offer sacrifice for the sin and be cleansed of his guilt. The Levitical priesthood was given the responsibility for Israel as the mediators between the people and God.
In Leviticus 4 there’s a progression of responsibility starting with the statement in verse 2 that “if a person sins.” That qualifies the responsibility of the house of Israel as a whole, as the kingdom of priests and holy nation that they were called to be (Exodus 19:6). Then the focus of responsibility switches “if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people” which signifies that there is a greater responsibility on the priest as the chief mediator of the community. As the head, if he sins the whole community or body, suffers.
The progression continues to “the whole congregation” in verse 13, “a ruler” in verse 22 and then “anyone of the common people” in verse 27. The hierarchy is important to note but the actual physical system of sacrifice itself indicates something more of the depth of God’s dealings with us and His sovereign hand in these sacrificial precepts in Leviticus.
Each of the four designations mentioned, the congregation, the anointed priest, the leaders, and the common people have the same requirement for their cleansing through sacrifice.
For the “Sin Offering” a bull is to be offered and the offender or one designated, is to “bring the bull to the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD, lay his hand on the bull’s head, and kill the bull before the LORD.”
The bull’s blood is then sprinkled “in front of the veil of the sanctuary… at the base of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.”
Then the intestines, the liver and the kidneys are separated and burned on the altar. This process is repeated for each of the classes of the people of the congregation of Israel.
Filter…
What seems to be an archaic sacrificial system of antiquity takes on a deeper meaning in light of our knowledge of the function of the organs used in the Sin Offering and understanding of the New Covenant fulfillment of our High Priest. Considering that the main function of these organs is to filter and detoxify the blood there’s a pattern in the physiology of the body that clearly defines sin’s role in effecting the psychology of a man.
Biologically, God created in man a system to process toxins and nutrients and separate the good from the bad through the liver, kidneys, and lower intestines. The liver has more than 500 functions it performs mainly as a filter to rid the blood of toxins, regulate and process different chemical levels and break down the nutrients. The two kidneys perform the essential function of removing waste products from the blood and regulating the water fluid levels. Every cell and tissue in the body is nourished by nutrients in the blood stream which are supplied through the intestines. These organs must function optimally for toxins to be adequately removed from the body before they damage tissue, eventually resulting in disease.
The life is in the blood…
So what do the functions of the liver, kidneys and intestines have to do with sin and the Sin Offering? Considering their job in keeping the blood cleansed of toxins, we have to look at the process of cleansing sin analogously to understand why these organs are chosen.
When the priest came to the veil he was physically separated from the Ark of the Covenant and spiritually separated from relationship with a holy God. The outer court of the tabernacle is where the
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sacrifice is carried out but it’s at the veil before the Holy of Holies where the priest offered the blood as atonement for sin. This is the place of relationship and reckoning where admission of guilt before God was made to seek forgiveness and restoration.
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” 17:11
There are two functions that the blood is responsible for in this verse. One is for the flesh and its physical health and the other for spiritual health and sacrifice, cleansing of sin.
In the sacrificial process of the Sin Offering the guilty party was to lay his hand on the head of the bull to indicate that the head, where thought originates, is the main filter where a man discerns his thoughts and actions to be holy and behave righteously before the Lord. This is the place where the filtering system removes toxic thought that becomes death from healthy life renewing thought within the spirit of a man. As Jesus explained in Mark 7, it’s not what goes into a man that defiles him; it’s what comes out of the heart, the toxic thought that hasn’t been cleansed from within. It’s not only what a man thinks but what he hears and obeys that amounts to blessing in fellowship with God or curse in fellowship with another god. (Deuteronomy 28:1; Luke 8:18) Sin, as it says in Genesis 4:7, “lies at the door” and thoughts from an active evil realm continually seek to destroy the body of creation. This is the core teaching of the New Covenant, that we understand and filter sin from our minds and hearts and live in healthy relationship with God and one another. (Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 10:3-4; Ephesians 6:12-19; Hebrews 5:14)
“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” 2 Corinthians 7:1
The kidneys, as mirror images of one another, are representative of man’s inability to discern or filter, good and evil. Behind the veil, the Ark of the Covenant had two identical Cherubs facing one another as mirror images on opposite sides of the Mercy Seat. This represents the need for mediation and mercy in this process of cleansing and discerning good and evil. (Micah 7:18; James 2:13; 2 Peter 3:9)
We have a High Priest… (http://www.lighttoisrael.org/articles/High%20Priest.pdf)
When the priest would come to the veil to present himself as mediator before God, his intercession essentially was admission that “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” and blood atonement was needed. (Genesis 6:5; 8:21; 2 Corinthians 10:5)
The mirror images represent knowledge of the processing of man’s thoughts polarized from the fall of Adam and the resulting confusion. Good and evil have been at war within since Cain took Abel’s life and this has been the crucible of civilization with history bearing out that the self destructive cycle of death has continued despite our desire to control it and live.
The veil and the Mercy Seat are the place where the common man meets God with his sin. It’s in mercy that we find forgiveness and God’s peace graciously given in the midst of the struggle. We must come willingly, humbly and utterly dependant to find what only He can give.
In Deuteronomy 31:16-17, 26 it was written and then placed in the Holy of Holies as a testimony against Israel that the Levitical system would fail as it did. However, in Jesus we have a High Priest and a continual sacrifice through the sprinkling of His blood before the veil, His intercession continuing for us and His instruction to cleanse ourselves from all sin. In His blood we have the only access, the only door we can pass through to eternal life, forever cleansed in the eyes of God. (Matthew 9:13; John 10:7-9)
“For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:13-14
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