The Sight Of Blood

The Sight of Blood

Women And The Sacrifices

Read: Exodus 24:5-8

I stared up at the ceiling as the nurse drew blood from my daughter’s arm. I recalled the day when I discovered my problem with seeing blood. My fiancé and I had just had blood taken, and I was walking stiffly out of the building, pretending that I didn’t have a strange feeling all over my body. Within minutes, I crumpled to my knees in the parking lot. Since then, I have learned to look down during gory battle scenes in movies, close my eyes when television doctors are operating, and hope that no one needs my help after an accident.

It’s hard to imagine how Jewish women in the Old Testament felt about blood. Animals were continually being sacrificed for the people’s sins. The altar, the articles of worship, and the high priest’s clothes were all purified with blood. After Moses read God’s commandments to the people, he even sprinkled the Israelites with blood and water to confirm the covenant they had made with God. Did any of the women feel queasy about the blood involved in their worship, or were they used to it?

How glad the women in New Testament times must have been to know that the bloody sacrifices and purifying rituals were no longer necessary. How joyful we feel when we remember that Jesus’ blood did what the repeated sacrifice of animals failed to accomplish. Only the sacrifice of the sinless Christ was good enough to bring forgiveness for our sins. One perfect sacrifice for all time replaced centuries of slaughtering, cutting, and sprinkling. When I think of the blood of Christ, spilled for me, I don’t feel nauseated—I feel grateful beyond words.

Our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean.

Hebrews 10:22