Covered In Blood

Hebrews 9:14  Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

In 1972, a shepherd had brought his sheep into a walled-off, enclosed area for the night, and he had just gone to sleep when he heard a commotion. He quickly rushed over to where the sound was coming from and to his horror he discovered that a wolf was in the process of dragging off one of his sheep through a hole in the wall. He was mauling this sheep and blood was flying.

The shepherd quickly began hitting the wolf, and the wolf turned on him and began attacking him. He bit him over and over while the shepherd was striking him with his staff, and finally with one final blow of his staff, he killed the wolf as he himself collapsed into a bloody heap.

He managed to crawl over to the half-dead sheep and began to bandage its wounds. He gave it some water, and then took it in his own bloody arms, and shepherd and sheep went to sleep together. The next morning the shepherd was found dead, his body literally draped over the sheep to comfort it and keep it warm. The following day the headline in the Jerusalem paper said, “Sheep Alive, Covered in Shepherd’s Blood.”

When Jesus died on Calvary he opened up heaven for us, and Christians are looking forward to that. And while that is our future, his death on the cross gave us blessings for each day here on earth, too.

Today’s verse tells us that by the sacrifice of Jesus not only is our future assured, but we can be covered by the blood of Jesus to purify us daily. We no longer have to go to the priest and slaughter a bull or goat, we can go directly to Jesus for our forgiveness. And once we are covered by his blood we are free to worship God, and be in His presence every day. And what does His presence mean? Isaiah said it best:

Isaiah 43:2  When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Today’s Readings:  Isaiah 11-14; Hebrews 9

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