The Holiest of All By Andrew Murray

Cbe Iboliest of BU 315
LXXII.
EVEN THE FIRST COVENANT NOT WITHOUT BLOOD.
IX. 18. Wherefore even the first covenant hath not been dedicated with
out blood.
19. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses unto all
the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats,
with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself,
and all the people, saying,
20. This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded to you-ward.
21. Moreover the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry he
sprinkled In like manner with the blood.
22. And according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed
with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.
THE writer returns here to the idea of the covenant in ver. 15.
He had there said that a death was needed for the redemption
of the transgressions under the first covenant, ere Christ, as
Mediator of the new, could put the heirs in possession of the
promise. In confirmation of this necessity, he reminds us how
even the first covenant was not dedicated without blood.
God has made more than one covenant with man, but ever,
not without blood ! And why
? We know the answer (Lev.
xvii.
n) The : life (soul) of the flesh is in the blood ; and I have
given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your