Consider the Blood

Having sacrificed the bullock as a sin offering for himself, the High Priest fills his censor/bowl with its blood and he enters through the vail into the Holy of Holies,

“And Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull as the sin offering which is for himself. Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die. He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times” (vv11-14)

The full radiant light of God’s glory continually illuminates the Most Holy Place, shining forth from the golden lid of the ark, where God dwells between the two gold cherubims with their beautiful arching wings which almost touch above the mercy seat (both the lid of the ark (the mercy seat) and the two cherubim are pure gold). The ark, which is an oblong box which contains the tablets of stone on which are engraved the Ten Commandments, written with God’s finger. The box itself is made of wood which is veneered/covered with gold. The wood speaks of the humanity of Christ and the gold His eternal nature as the Son of God. Both combine in the one Person, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Aaron’s hands are filled with the finely ground spices which he now throws onto the burning fire in his censor/bowl which he had taken from the brazen altar where the bullock was sacrificed, - suddenly the fire from his censor flames into life, the ignited herbs instantly creating a dense, fragrant, swirling cloud of incense which fills the sanctuary and wraps itself around Aaron, veiling the Shekinah Glory of the LORD’S outshining light, so that He cannot behold the glory of God and so his life is spared. Now he dips his finger into the second censor/bowl which is full of blood from the sacrificed bullock and he sprinkles blood from his dripping fingers onto the mirror surface of the pure gold lid of the ark. This act takes place amidst the swirling cloud of incense through which the glorious light of God is filtering through. This is the decisive moment in time when all of God’s attention, power and will are focused like a laser beam on the drops of red blood which falls on the smooth gold table of the ark. The lid covers the ark, and it this shedding of blood which speaks of God’s “covering” sin by atonement which spells forgiveness. Now has come remission of their sin, but for the guilt of it still remains until the second ram is released into the wilderness, speaking loudly and convincingly to them, that their guilt, due to the consequences of their sin has been removed and taken by the scape goat into the land of God’s forgetfulness, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps.103:12)

Resulting from Christ’s shed/sprinkled blood we have forgiveness of our sins and thus all guilt has been removed from our conscience, “For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins” (Heb.10:2) “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (102:2) Also, resulting from the shedding of Christ’s blood, sin’s power is broken - once and for ever, Christ’s shed blood has paid in full, the debt we owed to God. There is not a more significant moment in the entire sacrificial system as this when the High Priest sprinkles the blood on the mercy seat. The death of Jesus has made this blood accessible to us for our continuous cleansing. Truly this sacrificial blood of atonement anticipates the sprinkling of Jesus’ own blood, but it is unable to convey the extent and power it effects. Having entered through the vail into the holy presence of God, the “cloud of incense” hides the clear sight of God’s face, “which vail is done away in Christ (2Cor.3:14). The verse we have just read (16:13), says specifically that the purpose of the cloud of incense was to cover the mercy seat (propitiatory), which was the lid of the ark where the blood was to be sprinkled. During the period of Jesus’ most intense suffering we read that “when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour” (Mk.15:33). Mercifully, Father hid, or “covered” from Jesus’ loved disciples the sufferings of His Beloved Son by veiling Him in darkness.