If you have ever gotten blood on your clothes, you know how difficult it is to remove that stain. Because of this, we would never think of blood as a cleansing agent. We know that blood stains; it does not clean. Blood is something we try to scrub off, not scrub with! Yet the Bible speaks often of the cleaning power of blood. It is certain that the ancient Israelites knew nothing of the cleansing nature of blood. However, in his infinite wisdom and as part of his eternal plan, God gave to them a practice that would serve as a metaphor or type to explain his ability to cleanse his people from the greatest of stains: sin. In the previous chapter of Hebrews, we discovered that the Lord initiated a new covenant with his people to replace the old covenant established under Moses and the Law. Jeremiah's declaration of the new covenant revealed all that God would do in this unconditional covenant but the prophet did not mention anything about blood. However, six hundred years later, Christ instituted the new covenant in the Last Supper and proclaimed as he shared the wine, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:27-29).

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