The Ministry of Natural Blood
Blood in the natural realm is the fluid of life that courses through an animal or a human’s body. After the flood, God expressly and solemnly prohibited man’s use of animal blood for food and drink, although Noah was instructed to use everything else, freely, for food. The Jewish Law also expressly and solemnly forbade the eating and drinking of blood. One reason for this prohibition was that the blood was appropriated by God and held sacred by Him as a covering for sin and as a cleansing power for sin. The Jewish shadows and types abound with the use of blood. The way blood was to be employed was stated in minute detail in Jewish Laws. In the New Testament, the Book of Hebrews sharply and strikingly contrasts the blood that was used as types and shadows in the Old Testament with Christ’s Blood that was shed on the Cross.
By studying some facts about natural blood, one gains a better understanding of the Blood which Christ shed on the Cross. Blood is the “liquid flesh” that circulates by means of the heart through the veins and arteries in the bodies of men and animals. The blood is the vital Principle of Life, and it provides the seat for the soul (nephesh) of man’s terrestrial body. (The term (nephesh) is explained in chapter two.) Therefore, God considers the shedding of blood, the taking away of life in an unlawful manner, as murder. When man unlawfully sacrifices the life or soul of another, in the eyes of the LORD God, the murderer has to assume the responsibility for his act. The miraculous river of “liquid flesh” (which is filled with hormones, vitamins, salts, minerals, sugars, fats, and proteins) rushes faithfully through the body, carrying vital oxygen to the other flesh of the body, feeding and nourishing the body with its rich supply of life. The body’s fragile internal balance depends upon the faithful ebb and flow of the river of “liquid flesh” called blood. In the wonder-working river of “liquid flesh” is the power of healing for the body. As soon as wounds are inflicted in the body, the blood begins to heal, mend, and renew the parts that have been injured. Using the blood’s silvery threads of fibrin to preserve the body, the nephesh soul commands the blood to clot when the body has sustained a cut or abrasion that has caused the bleeding. In the river of “liquid flesh,” God has placed sufficient white cells to act as “little soldiers” to protect the body. In their orderly arrangement, the white cells are able to wage war against the entrance of all microbial enemies. The little “white soldiers” have power to discover, diagnosticate, and devastate millions of deadly microorganisms. To the powerful river of life, called blood, God has given the awesome responsibility and monumental ministry of performing its vital and specific duties of sustaining life. The river of “liquid flesh” or tissues is filled with diverse solid cells, each of which is appointed specific duties by the nephesh soul. The appointed daily list of duties for the blood is absolutely astounding. Daily, it supplies the vital gas and oxygen to each one of the other sixty trillion cells that are in the human body. The river of “liquid flesh” is the conveyer of food, wastes, and hormones that are necessary in maintaining the body’s health. After a person eats, for instance, his river of liquid life rushes to the stomach to help digest food. Then, it also rushes to the lungs to assist the lungs in times of exertion. In times of emotional embarrassment, the blood rushes to the face to help the head because it temporarily has been disconcerted. When the body has been overheated, the river of liquid life rushes to cool it. When the body has been subjected to the danger of freezing, the river of “liquid flesh” rushes to warm it. After this river of liquid life has delivered oxygen to the tissues, the blood becomes red, the carbon dioxide waste which gives the blood a bluish colour having been carried away. The red blood cell, the trusty, energetic servant that carries oxygen and food to the cells, is said to make seventy-five thousand trips between the lungs and the body tissues in four months. After the red cell has sacrificed its life, totally dying in order to give life to the body, it is “gobbled up” by a white cell which breaks it down into a new raw material. Then, the white cell “spits out” what remains of the sacrificed red cell so that the new raw material can be used in the manufacture of more red cells. Therefore, although the sacrificed red cell dies, the end result is that it lives again. These are only a few vital facts about the blood in the natural realm. But, it is plain to see that the existence, the cleansing, the feeding, and the defense of the natural body depend upon this wonder-working river of “liquid flesh” or tissue. Likewise, in the spiritual realm, the existence, cleansing, feeding, and defense of the spiritual man is dependent upon the precious Resurrected Blood of Jesus Christ. Natural blood was sacred to God because it was a shadow and type of the Spiritual Blood of Christ. The Blood of Christ Jesus makes atonement by virtue of the Nephesh Soul of Christ Jesus. In the Old Testament, animal blood (which was the vehicle of the nephesh soul) atoned for sin because the animal soul was offered on God’s Altar as a substitute for man’s nephesh soul. In the New Testament, Christ’s Sacrifice of His Nephesh Soul and His shed Blood have superseded the animal sacrifices offered in the Old Testament. Because blood is the very root of all life in both the natural and spiritual realms, the Blood is God’s Provision for sin. It takes Life or Blood to overcome death and sin. Even before mankind sinned in the Garden of Eden, God in His Foreknowledge provided the Blood Atonement, preparing it from the foundation of the world. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you (I Peter 1:18-20).
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). The corruptible things of this world cannot redeem a corruptible, immortal soul. The Blood of Jesus Christ was God’s great Provision for sin from the foundation of the world. It is possible to perceive the priceless worth of man’s soul by discerning the priceless, precious, Infinite Substance that God used to redeem man’s soul — the Blood of Christ Jesus. The Hebrew word for blood is dawm, meaning to spring up, well forth, a life fluid. Man constantly probes the mysteries of natural blood, and he has discovered many secrets about this marvelous river of “liquid flesh.” Likewise, the child of God continually discovers the secrets of the Life-giving Power of the Blood of Jesus Christ as he studies God’s Word and prays. By the time the student of God’s Word has completed the entire study of the full Stature of Truth about the Blood, he will discover many glorious secrets about God’s Relationship to the Blood of Christ, to the blood of animals, and to the blood of man.
Énagdewendemyan 