The Blood.

Heb 9:22: "In fact, according to the Torah, almost everything is purified with blood; indeed without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." CJB

Before we even begin this blog I need to record this warning:

We have so many "teachers, prophets, watchmen" and other self proclaimed "servants of YHWH" out there sprouting so much "knowledge" th t we are truly awash with conflicting information which leads me to question -Through whom does YHWH truly speak, through whom does HE choose to make the mysteries of His Kingdom known?

To answer that question I would implore that each one reading this, or any other proposed communication purportedly through The Ruach HaKodesh, pray and ask if that which one is considering exposing oneself to is indeed of Him and should one even be exposing oneself to whatever one is considering? So I implore each of us to be as a Berian and work out our Salvation with fear and trembling - Acts 17:11 arw Phil 2:12.

That said let us begin: 

Sin = breaking of The Torah, the Word of YHWH Elohim - 1 John 3:4. 

Basically we are told that where Sin occurs death follows - Gen 2:16-17 arw Rom 6:23(a) and that then removes us from the presence of YHWH Elohim - Gen 3:22-24.

However YHWH, in His Grace, having foreseen that man would sin before the Creation, devised a method for us to return to His Presence and the Presence of The Tree of Life (Rev 2:7; Rev 22:2; Rev 22:14), and that method was through the offering (Sacrifice) of an innocent and perfect (sin free) life for in exchange for sinful fallen humanity, and that this would ultimately be achieved through the Sacrificial offer of the perfect life of Yeshua His Son The Creator of Life, Elohim Himself - Gen 3:15; Is. 9:6-7 arw Is 53:1-12 & John 1:1-4, 14.. 

As stated above, YHWH Elohim foresaw the fall of man, thus his perfect Sacrifice in the form of Yeshua was scarified for fallen humanity at the very foundation of Creation - Rev 13:8 - here we see a description of the fourth dimension of time as yet not accessible to man but which can explain how YHWH completed all His works for eternity in His allotted 6 days of Creation and then rested on the Shabbat which He blessed and set aside for an eternal Mo'ed (fixed and divine appointment) for us - Gen 2:1-3 arw Ex 20:8-11 & Ex 31:12-17 and Heb. 4:9-13.

We will go back to the 4th dimension of time in a moment, but first let us have a look at the Biblical concept of Sacrifice.

Basically a sacrifice would entail giving up something or someone for something or some else. 

Due to the nature of man there has always been and there always will be sacrifices performed by superstitious fallen man to appease the "gods" which he places as authorities in his life; these authorities take on as many guises as man can possibly imagine or fear. The important fact to note though is that these sacrifices are conducted out of a relationship of fear. "Lets sacrifice our children on the altar of abortion so that we can appease the "gods" of "over-population, unwanted and/or unplanned pregnancies, career paths, global warming, ......... (fill the gap in)!"  So basically our understanding is that a sacrifice is performed to keep the "gods" we fear in abeyance by keeping them happy and away from us. 

The Biblical concept of The Sacrifice as introduced by YHWH Elohim on the other hand has been mandated and created on the concept of "Korban" - a way of bringing us into a position of atonement so that we can draw nearer to Him on a relationship level. Remember He "made us with perfect instructions, including a free will" we broke His Instructions (Laws - Torah) which He introduced in His Kingdom, Creation for our good so now we have to abide by His conditions to come back into relationship with Him NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!

In a nutshell we now need to be reconciled with YHWH, The Elohim of Avraham, Yitsaak and Yakob, The Elohim of Yisrael. But the question arises: How does He achieve this seeing that He is a righteous and just Elohim, thus cannot break His Word (If you sin you die) but at the same time He is a merciful and loving Father? Well He offers us atonement and reconciliation through the death of a pure and innocent 3rd party, His own Son.

The Hebrew Bible, language and culture paints us a myriad of pictures sealed up within the Language and the idioms used in The Word; additionally the Hebrew mindset is also a balance of logic (practical) and esoteric - Rom 7:14-24 and of course this Law spoken of by Sha'ul (The Torah) is mediated by Yeshua - Rom 7:25 arw 1 Tim 2:5-6. 

To flesh this concept out a little we read that Yeshua used a Hebrew/Chaldean Word in  Mark 7:11 when chastising the religious elite - He uses the word "Corban" - this word in Hebrew implies offering up something voluntarily thus enabling one to draw closer to the recipient of the gift (offer); to be positioned in an acceptable place so as to draw closer; so as to approach; so as to bring an acceptable gift; so as to make ready to come into the presence of YHWH Elohim (The Recipient - see Strongs H7133 from the root H7126 Corban). In other words a "Corban" offering is necessary to make atonement for our sin so as to enable us to come into His presence because sin cannot stand in His Presence - Hab 1:13; Lev 11:44; Mat 5:48; Job 10:14.

This concept of Atonement (See Strongs H3722  meaning Hebraically - to cover (specifically with bituman/tar); to cancel; to cleanse; to appease; to atone; to purge; to put off - see animal sacrifices touched on later in this blog), is achieved through the Corban offering. This Corban concept is Hebraically linked to the Ark of both Noach (Noah), as seen in Gen 6:14 and Moshe (Moses) in Ex 2:3 through a use of the imagery of an ark smeared, covered, daubed (waterproofed and sealed) with pitch & slime thus providing a safe vessel in which to protect the people from the prevailing surroundings and tribulations! (NB: See Yeshua as the perfect Ark/Protection in this please and look again at the Hebraic definition of Atonement above & remember Hebrew Mindset = practical applications in the fleshy here and now leading to S/spiritual applications and ramifications in the 4th and other dimensions)

 A brief summation up to this point:

Sacrifice in pagan concepts keeps "evil or at least capricious gods" at bay whilst the Hebraic Biblical Sacrifice (offering) makes for a way to safely and correctly draw closer to YHWH Elohim so as to enable a Family relationship of Shalom (peace, protection, provision, health etc) to ensue (James 4:4-8).

Again bearing in mind that YHWH is Just, Righteous & Loving and that these are His foundational never changing Kingdom Rules (Ps 89:14; Mal 3:6 & Heb 13:8) how does He achieve these seemingly conflicting attributes for His Creation's Salvation (The word Salvation coming from the Strongs H3444 - Yeshua - to save, redeem, deliver, avenge)? The answer: - The Father, YHWH Elohim, has to substitute an innocent  and completely sinless and perfect surrogate willing to be sacrificed (CORBAN) so as to pay and redeem our lives from the death sentence mandated by sin under which we all exist and to return eternal life to us, and thereby satisfying His Fathers Righteous and Just Kingdom Foundations whilst at the same time bringing us back into relationship with our Heavenly Father. Hallelujah!! (Rom 3:23-26; Rom 6:23; Col 2:13-15)

Back to the 4th dimension of time: 

Until the Father's plan was ratified by Yeshua in the perfect completion of His time commensurate to man and His Creation so as to fulfill the promise that YHWH made to Abraham, Gen 17:7-8; to Yitsak - Gen 26:2-6 & Yakov - Gen 28:13-15, YHWH made use of a period of Animal sacrifices as laid out in The Torah and working as a form of visual aid which helped point to the day when Yeshua, already scarified at the foundations of the earth, would redeem the people of YHWH and return them to His Father and also to His Marriage Covenant. 

The Sacrifice of Yeshua at the creation made use of this so called "4th Dimension" a dimension which makes the Father's "reality" of  time a permanent and observable dimension to Him just as length, breadth and depth are to us and thereby forever stand in "reality before us" thus these 4 dimension (and dare I say many more) all exist "in reality" before HIM for eternity (John 8:56-59; Mat 17:1ff; Heb 1:1-3)

During this period of surrogate animal sacrifices we see the use of these visual aids / teaching aids / Revelationary aids as being an accepted fact that these specifically designed and mandated aids (Corban offers) - animal sacrifices - were indeed pointing towards the Corban Offer of Yeshua in the fullness of Time: We see that Adam knew it and taught his sons that blood needed to flow through the sacrifice of an innocent life pointing to Gen 3:15 so to be given to redeem from the curse of sin and death as can be seen in Gen. 3:15 arw Gen 3: 21 and arw Gen 4:4-5; similarly with Abraham when he spoke with Yitsak in Gen 21:7-14, and when reading this account I dare saw that Yitsak also was shown this truth of The Redeemer; David knew about this day and Sacrifice as evidenced about this fact when he wrote under the leading of The Ruach of The Father Himself in Ps. 40:6-8 arw Heb 10:5-10; Isaiah spoke of this glorious day and it's accompanying offer made by Yeshua - so we should be very aware of the fact that indeed the blood of bulls and goats never ever took away the sin of man kind, BUT the action of the Sacrifice, performed according to Torah, with the knowledge that it pointed to the New Covenant to be ratified by the Blood of Yeshua at a future date was what was acceptable to YHWH Elohim.

 Now having spoken briefly above on the sacrifices and their intended applications we can come to the BLOOD! 

The sin of man has brought death and putrefaction into the perfect Creation of YHWH and thus to counter this  event and as shown above the death has to be atoned for with the taking of the life of Messiah Yeshua, The Creator Himself, the One Who holds Creation together (Col 1:14-20) and as shown graphically in Gen 15:7-20. Death was never initially meant to be a part of Creation but sin & death had now tainted creation for eternity!

Life, as intended by The Creator, was found in the BLOOD, death would now be achieved by the letting of it - the taking of a life to redeem a life.

Blood comes from the Hebrew word (Strongs H1818) DAM - blood which when shed causes death; see a word with a similar root to DAM (Blood) - Strongs H119 - ADAM - red, ruddy, to show "blood in the face" (blush) - the very man himself (Adam) is rooted in Blood (DAM) - "Life is in the blood!"

We are told in Lev 17:10-11 any person in Israel, whether Israelite or not, who eats the blood of an animal  will have YHWH set Himself against such person BECAUSE the life of a creature is in the blood and that YHWH has given that "blood" (which contains the life of the innocent creature) for us, to atone  (cleanse, make right, make restitution - redeem  back to YHWH) for our sin, and this blood has been placed on The Altar and indeed it is this blood which makes the required atonement!

See the Altar of the Tabernacle/Temple as a table of fellowship with YHWH our Elohim, see also the Pesach Meal and other Biblically mandated Feasts as fellowship around the Table with our Abba and Creator. Let us not be cavalier with The Blood, or blood of any creature for that matter!

We need to always remember that everything we read in the Torah refers back to Yeshua, we have also learnt that the ultimate idea of the Sacrifices (Corban offers) were a foreshadowing (visual aid) pointing to the Death of Yeshua WHO WOULD HAVE TO SHED HIS BLOOD, GIVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS CREATION! Gen 15:17

Therefore  to eat of the blood of the innocent animal would be to eat of its very life, the life which YHWH has deemed necessary to be shed to atone for our sin. As said above: To treat "the blood" with disrespect would be to treat LIFE CREATED BY YHWH with DISRESPECT.

When an animal is to be slaughtered for purposes of food the blood it to be drained into the soil from which we all came (Gen 2:7) but when being used to atone on the Altar this is not practiced, but is instead poured or sprinkled on the Altar and the Temple Equipment - Ex 24:6; Ex 24:8 and other verses

I have an opinion which I will voice here in closure: We see in the first Chapters of The Word that man was given "of every plant to eat.....except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" Gen 2:16-17; we are told in Gen 9:3-5  for the first time that man may now eat certain animal flesh, but it must be eaten without the blood of the animal in it - there is so much here, but for this blog I pose just this single though - Was YHWH the Creator revealing to us, amongst certain other truths, that by now eating animal flesh we would have to kill the animal and bleed it out - so even here to say alive and not die from hunger we would have to rely on taking an innocent life? If so another visual aid pointing to Yeshua and His Corban offer and our dependency on Him for LIFE - For He is The Way, The Truth and The Life! 

So the continual emphasis placed on BLOOD through the Scriptures, although possibly offensive to our, "refined and genteel" western culture is of absolute and paramount importance to life of man, both physical and eternal, and thus this subject of "BLOOD" needs to be considered with respect and through a Biblical Hebraic mindset because it is the very "heart-beat" of The Kingdom of YHWH BECAUSE IN THE BLOOD WE FIND LIFE!

There is again so much more to say on this matter, just as there is in every matter concerning The Word and our Elohim and Creator but I pray you find something to ponder on in this writing, and once again I ask that each one of you approach with caution and pray regarding all that I have penned here because ultimately we are all just lost sheep trying to find out way back to Yeshua's sheep pen.

Shabbat shalom

Bo'az