THE THIRD PRIMARY ATTESTING SIGN – WATER INTO BLOOD
The first two signs should have been sufficient, (that is mastery over both the serpent and leprosy), but in the event that the elders asked for another, God provided one more. He said, “then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land” (Exod.4:8,9).
Since “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev.17:11, NASB), spilt blood means a life taken. The first Biblical reference to blood on the ground is the record of a violent, premature death. The spilt blood of Abel had a voice that called for justice against his murderer: – “And (the LORD) said, What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Gen.4:10). In the last book of the Bible the example is repeated, where the blood of the martyrs call for justice .When Moses poured out water from the Nile, it too became blood on the ground and because of the slaughter of the innocents, when young male Israelite babies were murdered in its waters, its voice also cried to God for justice against Pharaoh. If the elders of Israel will not call for a Deliverer to deal with the Egyptian ruler, then the blood of the innocents will! This truth would not escape Moses since he had himself been abandoned to the Nile.
Furthermore, if the blood were the blood of a sacrifice, then that would be evidence that an animal had died a substitutionary death. This, in fact, is the context of the Leviticus quotation, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood”, for the text continues, “and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement” (Lev.17:11)
Overcoming death in the book of Genesis
The book of Genesis is the narrative of how death reigned because sin reigned. But in amongst the record of the decease of countless individuals, there are other events that indicate how both physical and spiritual death would, in due course, be conquered. They point to overcoming death by:
(a) substitution – the ram in place of Isaac;
(b) translation – Enoch leaving earth for heaven without dying;
(c) preservation – Noah and his family preserved in the ark when everyone else died;
(d) resurrection – Abraham believed that God would raise his son, Isaac, from the dead.
Since the third sign is blood on the ground, we turn our attention to the truth of substitution, for it alone involves the shedding of blood. This is in harmony with the narrative in Genesis, for the truth of ‘substitution’ has precedence, first by implication when animal skins were supplied to ‘cover’ the shame of Adam and Eve; and then more clearly in the sacrifice of lambs by Abel, and then most clearly in the substitution of a ram for Isaac.
Then in Exodus, the substitutionary death of a sacrifice became the cornerstone of the Mosaic economy. Examples include the substitutionary death of what later came to be known as the ‘Passover lamb’. Each family was required to kill a perfect lamb, and then ritually paint its blood on the lintel and two side posts of the doorway to their home. This would protect the first-born of the family from the stroke of God. The ‘covering’ of the first-born by spilt blood was such a momentous event that it was to be remembered and celebrated annually until the substitutionary Lamb of God, Jesus Messiah, died for the sins of the world. Moreover, His sacrificial, substitutionary death which replaced the sacrifice of the Passover lamb, is itself commemorated in the ordinance of the Church in the sharing of bread and wine in a symbolic feast.
Out of the exodus of Israel from Egypt arose a whole raft of new laws that related to the moral and spiritual state of the nation. These included many more substitutionary offerings. These offerings indicated that Moses had some means of dealing with sin that allowed Israelite offenders to be cleansed from defilement and restored to fellowship with God. Under the Levitical code, the last two of the five sacrificial offerings, the trespass offering and the sin offering, were to make propitiation and expiation for sin. While they are the last named in the short catalogue of five offerings to the Lord, they were usually offered first. The sacrifice of the trespass offering appeased YHWH for sins committed. The sacrifice of the sin offering obtained forgiveness for the sinner. The first dealt with the sinful actions of the Israelite, the second dealt with his sinful condition. These offerings were, of course, only a temporary answer to sin. Animal blood could never remove sin only cover it. It is the blood of Jesus/Messiah, God’s Son, which alone atones for sin and restores the sinner.
And let us not fail to notice that the third attesting sign used water. Under Torah regulations, the primary cleansing agent is blood. Ritual purity needed blood rather than water, for “according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb.9:22). But sometimes water was the cleansing agent. The rules of ablution, incorporating the constant bathing of the priests and the washing of vessels, were particularly strict. The national place of worship, the Tabernacle, had two pieces of furniture in the outer court, a laver and an altar. In the ritual that took place in the Tabernacle, the laver provided the cleansing agent water, and the sacrificial altar provided the cleansing agent, blood.
There were times when the ritual needed both blood and water. For example, the leper needed both to be clean: “He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, and shall stay outside his tent seven days,” (Lev.14:8) and “the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.” (v.14) Also, the ritual for the cleansing of a house used the two agents, blood and water. “And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and the running water and the living bird, with the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet” (v.52).
THE SIGNS AS FORENSIC EVIDENCE
The language used of the attesting signs is the language used of witnesses. The KJV uses the word “voice” - “the voice of the first sign” and “the voice of the latter sign”. Under the Mosaic Law, two witnesses were enough for a matter to be established (Deut.19:15). The first of the two witnesses was Moses (“if they will not believe … your voice”). The witness of Moses was his testimony. He had been present at the miracle of the burning bush, he had heard the voice of God, he had received the attesting signs, and YHWH had commissioned him (Exod.3:1 ff). The second voice was the witness of the first of the miraculous acts that God had given Moses to perform before the elders of Israel, that is, the casting down of the rod to change it into a serpent.
Three witnesses would be stronger (Deut.19:15), namely, (i) the testimony of Moses, (ii) the sign of the serpent rod (the first attesting sign), and (iii) the sign of leprosy inflicted and cured (the second attesting sign). If they refused the testimony of the three witnesses, then God instructed Moses to take water from the Nile and turn it into blood on the ground. This sign later became the first plague. Moreover, when he changed the water of the river (itself widely used as a cleansing agent) into blood, (the primary ritual cleansing agent), he foreshadowed an act of the Lord Jesus. John chapter 2 describes how the Messiah changed the water, used for the Jewish rites of purification, into wine that would be used by the Messiah to symbolise His spilt blood, which was shed as the cleansing agent for sin.
So Moses had four ‘voices’ to testify that he was God’s chosen Deliverer. Two or three witnesses would have been enough but YHWH provided four - four is the number of completeness – there was no doubt!
Summary of the four voices (witnesses).
1. The personal eyewitness testimony of Moses.
2. The first attesting sign - the serpent rod miracle – symbolising the serpent in subjection (i.e. victory over Satan)
3. The second attesting sign – leprosy inflicted and cured –symbolising sin imputed and cleansed.
4. The third attesting sign – water becoming blood on the ground - representing violent, premature, death, which will be the cost paid for victory over Satan (first attesting sign) and the cleansing from sin (second attesting sign).
THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE AUTHENTICATING SIGNS
Moses performed the signs for the elders and convinced them of God’s intentions. The attesting signs had accomplished their purpose, and Israel’s leaders accepted Moses as God’s choice to be Guide, Deliverer and Mediator for Israel. Other miracles followed in the wake of the primary, authenticating, signs, such as the plagues upon the Egyptians (from blood throughout Egypt to the death of the firstborn), and blessings on Israel (the living water from the rock, and bread from heaven). But these were subsequent to, and consequent of, the major attesting signs.
Having isolated the principle attesting signs of Messiahship, we can now return to our enquiry. What evidence did Jesus offer to support His claim that He was, in fact, the Messiah, prophesied by Moses and timetabled by Gabriel through Daniel?
1. Did He have a personal eyewitness testimony similar to Moses?
2. Did He have the serpent in subjection? That is, did He have power over Satan?
3. Did He have mastery over leprosy? That is, did He have the answer to sin?
4. Would there be blood on the ground? That is, would He pay the price?
In respect of 1, on many occasions Jesus testified to His personal relationship with God, using the phrase ‘my Father’ frequently, – but the focus of our enquiry is the physical evidence of the signs (Nos. 2,3 & 4).
More next time
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