An Important Lesson
ICS Daily Devotions

Abel, Noah, and Abraham all learnt that the way to approach God and to have their sins forgiven is through the shedding of blood of an innocent animal. However, hundreds of years later, the people of Israel, who found themselves as slaves in Egypt, were ignorant about sin and its penalty. To teach the nation, the law was given to them as a school master to show them that the law cannot make them righteous before God.

The Israelites didn’t know God or His holiness, or what sin was until the law was given to them, but upon hearing their cry, God remembered His covenant with them, and raised up Moses to deliver them.

Exodus 12:13 (NKJV) Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

God had to allow the firstborns of the Egyptians to die as Pharoah had hardened his heart against releasing the people of Israel. However, God was gracious to the Israelites because of His covenant with them. Nonetheless, blood still needed to be shed. To differentiate between the Israelites and the Egyptians, every Israelite household was asked to apply the blood of the paschal lamb on the doorpost of their house, because an unblemished lamb had to take the place of the Israelite family’s firstborn. God fulfilling His promise “when I see the blood, I will pass over you” was a lesson for the people of Israel that life can only be obtained by the death of a substitute.

God continued to teach His people this important lesson after the law was given to them as the foundation of the Mosaic covenant. While in Egypt, the blood was applied on the doorposts, in Sinai, the blood was sprinkled on the people.

Exodus 24:5-8 (NKJV) Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.” And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”

The lesson for the Israelites—and for us today—is that without blood, there can be no access by sinful men to a holy God. Praise be to God that Jesus, the Messiah—the promised One through the Abrahamic covenant—finished the work on the cross. He was made sin for us and gave us His righteousness. The New Covenant has done away with all dead works such as sacrifices, rituals, and offerings by the priest. We are saved entirely by the grace of God, not by works, so that nobody can boast.

Sermon Series: The Power of the Blood