The Sylvr Pen

A few years ago, studying 1 Peter, I focused in on something I too often skip over heedlessly: an Epistle’s “introduction.” There I found my identity better than I ever could in any psychologist’s office or self-improvement book… Because the opening to Peter’s letter tells who we are in such an illuminating way.

I won’t go into the whole picture. (But you might want to examine it yourself to see what surprises you find.) There’s one detail I want to hone in on now, because, referring to the Levitical Law, it speaks of something intriguing relating to us who belong to Christ.

Chosen for What?

1 Peter 1:2, calling us “chosen” (or “elect”), tells two things for which we’re chosen: 1) Obedience to Christ and 2) sprinkling of His blood!

Why are we “sprinkled”?  I wondered, and rather than just guess or try to pull an answer from the air or remember something someone once said, I went to the texts about the Law in Exodus and Leviticus, to find out what Old Testament things were “sprinkled” with blood. What they have in common is key…

Blood-Sprinkled Objects

Exodus 29:16 says the altar of burnt offering must be sprinkled.

Exodus 29:20-21 says blood must be placed on the right ear, thumb, and big toe of the priest chosen to serve in the temple.

And Exodus 39:41 requires that all the priests’ ministerial garments be sprinkled with blood.

Leviticus 4:5-7 calls for sprinkled blood in front of the veil of the sanctuary and on the altar of incense…

I began to see something all these had in in common: they were all used in the service of God!

Leviticus goes on to show this blood sprinkling as a means of cleansing, consecrating, and sanctifying (setting apart especially to and for God):

Blood-Cleansed Things

Leviticus 14:6-7 says a person cured of leprosy was to be sprinkled (cleansed), so that now he could rejoin the community of God’s people.

Leviticus 16:11-16,18-19 tells me blood was sprinkled to cleanse and consecrate the Holy Place, tabernacle, and altar–all to be made fit for the service of Holy God.

How does this apply to me–and you?

What About Us?

1 Peter 2:5 says we’re living stones, being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, “to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

1Pe 2:9 calls us “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people”–and for what purpose? that we might acceptably “proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

So, Christ’s shed blood extends beyond just saving us so we can “go to heaven.” Figuratively sprinkling us, it cleanses and consecrates us, making us fit not only to come before Him for our own benefit, but also for His service, honor, and glory, and the benefit of others to whom we may now minister, in any of the callings that a “kingdom of priests” to God might have. What purpose for living! Thanks again to God for His indescribable gift!

Through the weekend I considered what clear foreshadowings of Christ’s sacrificial death the ancient book of Exodus holds. And they struck me anew with the wonder of my own deliverance…

First and most obvious, the Passover came to mind, when God delivered His people by the blood of a sacrificed lamb, sprinkled on the doorposts and lintel of houses sheltering those who trusted in Him (Ex 12:5-7). How like the cross, I thought, with Christ’s blood marking both the upright, where his wounded head touched, and the crosspiece, where His pierced hands bled!

Then came to mind “John the Baptist’s” introduction to Christ: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jhn 1:29) And Hebrews’ reminder that all those Old Testament sacrifices couldn’t take away sin, but had to be repeated year after year—till Christ came and offered Himself, the perfect sacrifice, once and for all (Heb 10:11-12).

I considered these striking facts: 1) It was Passover when Christ died on that cross—clearly no mere “coincidence.” 2) That week He entered Jerusalem in company with many (other) sacrificial lambs. 3) During the Passover feast with His disciples, the night before His death, He spoke of the wine and bread as representing His blood and body, given for them (Lk 22:19-20). 4) Even earlier he’d told the crowds of their need to receive this offering (Jn 6:51-55).

But until yesterday morning (when I just “coincidentally” heard a sermon on this), I didn’t think of the water from the rock in the wilderness: When those ungrateful people whom God had delivered from Egypt thirsted—and complained—in the wilderness, God instructed Moses to strike the rock [which 1 Corinthians 10:4 declares “was Christ”]–and it gushed forth water to sustain their unworthy lives (Ex 17:3-6).

Millennia later, someone struck Christ’s side with a spear, and blood and water gushed out (Jn 19:34). Not long before that, Jesus had told the Samaritan woman at the well that if she knew who He was, she would ask Him and He would give her living water that would make in her a well of water springing up to eternal life (Jn 4:10,13-14).

As I heard this account tied to our proneness to turn from God’s living water and hew our own cisterns that prove broken and leaking, unable to hold water (Jer 2:13), I thought of my own life:

I was imprisoned in a kingdom of darkness leading only to death (like Egypt represents). Christ became my Lamb-of-God sacrifice for sin, whereby God delivered me from that kingdom. In place of the philosophies I’d tried and found as leaky as sieves, He gave unworthy, complaining me, in my “wilderness,” His “living water”—“water springing up to eternal life.” What a wonder! What grace and mercy!

Much in Exodus points me back to the cross of Christ! And O, my heart rejoices, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

What a horrendous combination — those elements in that title!

When I look again at the human waywardness of Genesis 3 and consider what Christ went through for me, for us, and how He took on Himself all those aspects of our Curse–in addition to the deep loathing He would feel in having to carry all our foul sin on His holy, sinless person — I stand in grateful, tearful awe.

Before we go on to Exodus (Monday), I feel compelled to dwell on the following scriptures, lining them up with one another, allowing deep gratitude and praise to flood my heart:

Hovering your cursor over each reference to read it, compare these scriptures and stand in awe with me of the Savior who took on Himself the curse of …

Human sorrow:

Compare Genesis 3:16a with Isaiah 53:3-4 and Matthew 26:37-38

The pain of new birth:

Compare Genesis 3:16b with John 3:3-3:5 and Isaiah 53:10-11

The oppression of man:

Compare Genesis 3:16c with Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 26:57;27:2,12-14; & Luke 23:7,11

The thorns of judgment and trials:

Compare Genesis 3:18 with John 19:2

The sweat of agony:

Compare Genesis 3:19a  with Luke 22:44

And mortal death:

Compare Genesis 2:16-17 & 3:19b  with John 19:33-34,40-42

Compare, consider, and wonder with me at His amazing love!

I am combing Genesis for passages speaking of — or symbolically foreshadowing — Jesus’ death on the cross or His resurrection from it.

I don’t need to read far! There it is already, in the third chapter of the Bible! There, right at the beginning, right in the curse on mankind for our sin against God, I see Christ presented as its remedy! Condemning the Serpent who has deceived Eve into turning from her Lord and Creator to seek knowledge and self-elevation elsewhere, God declares the deceiver’s doom. And in His pronouncement lies the promise of hope for humanity:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel” (Gen 3:15). The “Seed” (Offspring) of the woman will bruise this serpent Satan’s head (Revelation 12:9 & 20:2) —and in the process His own heel will be bruised.

Then I read again these other references I find for the word “bruise” in the KJV: Isaiah 53:5,10, and Romans 16:20 (KJV). And I consider the “bruising” Christ’s heel took when that great iron spike drove through it, as this article on crucifixion explains. And I marvel once again at this age-spanning plan!

What a merciful God! What a loving Christ, to pay the price for unworthy man!  And what an “Easter” message lies in Isaiah 53:10, where it says, “When you make His soul an offering for sin, He will see His seed.” (His seed = His offspring = me, you, any who become His own through acceptance of this His offering on our behalf.) What promise of not only deliverance, but also adoption as sons and daughters! Hallelujah, what a Savior!