Short Thoughts for Today

As I continue to "blog through Hebrews", several verses in chapter nine will serve as the source for today's short thoughts. In Hebrews 9: 16-22 we read, "For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to 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, "THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU." And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."

If I had to summarize my short thoughts regarding this portion of scripture with a single word, I would choose the word necessity. It speaks to the necessity of a new covenant. The necessity of validity. The necessity of a death. The necesesity of shed blood. The necessity of forgiveness. The necessity of cleansing. Yes, it speaks to the necessity of Christ!