The Oil and the Blood

 It may seem very odd to us that God instructed Moses to take some of the anointing oil and some of the blood from the altar and to sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. (Leviticus 8:30. However God was clear about what this was for. When Moses did this, he was making Aaron, his sons, and their garments holy. How did that make them holy, we might ask. It was just oil and blood. The key is the meaning behind the oil and the blood. The blood came from the sacrifices that were made to cover their sins, once they confessed those sins to God. The oil represented the Holy Spirit upon whom they were to depend to empower them and guide them in their duties. Therefore, the oil and the blood showed them that they were holy or different, not by their own efforts, but by the grace and provision of God. This has an application for believers today, too.

We are saved by the blood, not just any blood, the blood of Jesus shed for us on the cross. When we turn from our sins and trust in Him and His death and resurrection for our sins, we are made clean. Being holy is being clean. It is being free from the stains of sin. That's what Jesus does for us when we come to know Him. However, that is not the end of being holy. We need the Spirit, too, to empower us and to guide us to be more and more like Jesus. He will do just that, especially when we cooperate Him and yield to Him asking for Him to make us like Jesus more each day. Therefore, we, as Christians, need to be reminded daily of the blood and the oil, so we will be holy and useful to the Lord.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Leviticus 9-11.