Sprinking of Blood

Covenant is not often referred to in the O.T., and we are driven back to the narrative of Ex. 24, the chapter which tells of how the nation solemnly entered into covenant relationship with God. There we read that “Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you” (v. 8). There are only two other places in the O.T. where men are sprinkled with blood, namely in the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood (Lev. 8), and in the purification of the leper who has been healed (Lev. 14). In these incidents the sprinkling with blood seems to mark two things: cleansing from previous defilements and consecration to a new state wherein God might be served more fully. We may well feel that these are the ideas associated with the “blood of the covenant” of Ex 24. The people were then being cleansed from the defilements and the sins of their previous existence, and were being set apart for a glorious destiny—they were to be the people of God.

Leon Morris, The Story of the Cross, Marshall, Morgan & Scott, p. 31