Typological Shadows
The Blood of the Lamb

What Was Sprinkled Upon the Heavenly Altar?  Jesus' Natural Blood, or What that Symbolized?

• John 6:53 "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life" (KJV)

• Revelation 7:14,15 "They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  Therefore are they before the throne of God" (KJV)

"The Blood Has Ultimate Utility in its Spiritual Substance"

PRESENTED BY HISTORICAL IDEALISTS

Milton S. Terry (1904)
"The offerings which involved the shedding of blood, according to the ritual of Lev. i-vii, were of four kinds : burnt offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, and trespass offerings (DCS). The first two were in large part, like the meal offering, expressive of self-dedication and thanksgiving. The "whole burnt offering" symbolized the offering up to God of all that the worshiper represented, himself body and soul, his family and household, his property of every sort. All these were regarded as God's gracious gifts to him, and were to be held in readiness for any service of God to which they might be put." (Biblical Dogmatics, p. 44)

"The classic passage in the Levitical law which defines the symbolical import of the expiatory offerings Symbolical significance of blood is Lev. xvii, 11 : "The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given (appointed) it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the soul (life)." It is not the mere blood, as a material substance, that possesses the efficacy here ascribed to it, but the blood yet warm with the life of the victim. When the worshiper brought his offering and placed his hands upon its head he openly confessed hereby his guilt and obligation, and must have conceived that the animal offered was in some sense a vicarious sacrifice for himself; and when the lifeblood was "poured out before Jehovah" the symbolic rite was itself a public declaration that the life of the victim without blemish or spot was substituted in the mercy of God for the life of the transgressor. Whether the blood were poured out at the foot of the altar, or sprinkled on the horns of the altar, or at the golden altar of incense, or on the mercy seat within the veil, it was in every case regarded as a divinely appointed offering to make atonement for the souls of men." (ibid. pp. 48-49)

"His coming through water and blood was the manifestation of the mystery of the ages, to which the Spirit of truth is ever pointing." (p. 92)

George Whitehead
"We see no need of directing men to the type for the antitype, neither to the outward temple, nor yet to Jerusalem, neither to Jesus Christ or his blood [outwardly], knowing that neither the righteousness of faith, nor the word of it doth so direct.’” (Light and Life of Christ, Phila. ed. 1823, p. 34 )

Jewish Sources

Targum of Jonathan
``he washed (amle yrbtad amwym) , "from the day that the world was created"; who is he? this is the King Messiah.--It is written  (Genesis 1:2) ; "and the Spirit of God"… This is the Spirit of the King Messiah; and from the day that the world was created; he washed his garments in wine;'' (Genesis 49:11) (Targum Jon. & Jerus. & Aben Ezra in Gen. xlix. 11. )

Spiritual Drinks
(Water, Blood, Drink)

Johann Albrecht Bengel (1864)
4. Drink—This refers rather to Ex. xvii. 6, than to Numb. xx. 8, where cattle also are mentioned. For—As the rock, such the water.
Of that spiritual rock, that followed them—The article  is not added. The people did not know what the rock was ; therefore Paul afterwards adds, but the rock was Christ. This spiritual rock is spoken of as following, not because it followed the people; for it rather
went before them; but because, although at that time it was really present with them, ver. 9, yet only in after ages was it at length made known to them ; 1 Tim. v. 24; on the order of natural and spiritual things, 1 Cor. xv. 46." (Gnomon of the New Testament, p. 216)