Blood, Meaning of

Sacrificed animals’ blood was sprinkled on various persons (high priests, priests, cleansed lepers, Israelites) and a variety of objects (the mercy seat, altar’s four horns, priestly garments, and the leper’s house; see Ex. 29:16, 21; Lev. 4:6, 17; 5:9; 14:6–7, 51; 16:14). The sprinkling of the blood of a sacrificial animal was a Jesus Christ–focused procedure that had a direct connection to the Atonement. The sprinkled blood of the sacrificial animal foreshadows Jesus Christ’s blood, which cleanses us and makes us holy. The following New Testament passages directly associate the sprinkled blood of the sacrificial victim to Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice: “Unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2); “to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling” (Heb. 12:24); “by the blood of Jesus . . . having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:19, 22); “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ . . . purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:13–14).

The priest (model), dressed in sacred vestments, places blood (artificial) on the horn of the incense altar.

Why the emphasis on blood? The scriptures provide a number of points where blood focuses on Jesus Christ’s blood:

Blood purges and provides remission: “Almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:22).

The high priest (model), dressed in sacred vestments, sprinkles bull’s blood (artificial) on the ark of the covenant on the Day of Atonement.

Blood makes an atonement: “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11).

Christ’s blood brings redemption: “There could be no redemption for mankind save it were through the death and sufferings of Christ, and the atonement of his blood” (Alma 21:9; see also 24:13; 1 Pet. 1:18–19).