Blood and Water
It has been said, “Blood is thicker than water.” The sublime meaning relates to those who share common blood, that is, family. The implication is, at the end of the day, our allegiance will be to blood relations. When blood family is bypassed in the case of an inheritance, it is almost scandalous. It is all about loyalty.
Blood and water are also observed together in biblical themes. Water is an agent of thirst quenching and cleansing, but it was also an agent of judgment in the Great Flood (Gen 6–9). Meanwhile, the life of the creature is in its blood (Lev 17:11), so “pouring out blood” represents death. Blood becomes an agent of cleansing in the case of substitutionary sacrifice (Lev 16). Blood and water sometimes go together, and when they do the image is typically judgment and cleansing. Let us learn of blood and water from the Bible.
Our first lesson comes from Exodus 7:14–25, alluded to in the history of Israel in Ps 105:29. In the Exodus story, Pharaoh has enslaved the Hebrews, and he will not heed Yahweh’s command to let them go. Ten plagues rack Egypt. One of them has Moses and Aaron employing the divinely powered staff to turn the Nile from living water to a foul, bloody aquifer. In this case, we learn, the blood of judgment flows like water. It is God’s judgment against those who resist His will for His people. Water is a gift of God, but poisoned water causes one to drink in the blood of judgment.
In other cases, blood and water, symbolic of devastation, can be found (2 Kgs 3:22; Ps 79:3; Is 15:9). Polluted water, with the blood of men slain, produces salty tears in the eyes of survivors. In Revelation 11:6; 16:4, God’s judgment, reminiscent of Exodus 7, is poured out on the whole earth. In the first passage, two witnesses appear in earthly Jerusalem, in a powerful display of God’s judgment. The two have power to stop the rain from falling, reminiscent of the prophet Elijah. They can turn living water into blood, reminiscent of Moses.
The wicked have spent all of history, from the time of Cain, pouring out the blood of God’s people, so God has a judgment for them, “Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things; 6 for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.” 7 And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments (Rev 16:4–7).” So, we learn that ruined water with a bloody replacement, no matter how this happens, carries the meaning of God’s judgment.
Our second lesson comes from Ezekiel 16:1–7, where God is viewed as Israel’s nursemaid, washing the newborn nation with great love and care. When a child is born there is much blood and water sacrificed for the child to come forth from the womb. In Israel’s case, the nation/baby had been abandoned, left to die, with no one having mercy on it.
The apostle Paul speaks of his labor until Christ is formed in the Galatians (Gal 4:1). One may speak of “blood, sweat, and tears,” to achieve a lofty goal. Blood and water accompany self-less sacrifice in the labor for a new life. Later, when Israel was a bit more mature, she is naked with blood on her. The implication is her loss of virginity, even rape by surrounding nations. Yahweh takes Israel for His own, and the first thing He does is to wash her and clothe her (Ezek 16:8–14).
In the case of spiritual birth, it is the Holy Spirit who gives birth to new believers, causing them to be born again (1 Pet 1:3). They are said to be born of God (Jn 1:13; 1 Jn 5:1), born of the water and the Spirit (Jn 3:5). Again, we are washed by the Scriptures (Eph 5:26), which speak of Christ’s cleansing blood. So we learn that even spiritual birth comes with the testimony of blood, water, and the Spirit (1 Jn 5:6–8).
Our third lesson comes from Leviticus 14:6, 51–52, where an offering of a substitutionary sacrifice for a healed leper is described. Leprosy is symbolic of the spiritual reality of sin. Sin operates on our souls like leprosy does on the leper’s body. It is stealthy, subtly destroying. If a leper was somehow healed, or a leprous house was successfully cleaned, then a sacrificial offering was made to the Lord. Blood and water were employed to commemorate the cleansing of the leper.
Two birds were taken, and one of them was slain over running water. The blood water was then sprinkled seven times on the clean person or clean house. The second bird, having been washed in the blood/water of the first, was set free when the person or house was declared, “clean,” by the priest.
Blood and water serve as a cleansing agent in this passage. The bloody death of the substitute is seen as God’s judgment, but the sprinkled blood and water testify of the successful cleansing. The healed leper, like the second bird, is free to come and go in the camp. Sin leads to death, as does leprosy. The death of the substitute means the leper/free bird has passed from death to life.
A priest with blood approached God in the holiest place of His tabernacle for the transaction of mercy. Something died in order for sins to be forgiven (Heb 9:7). Without the blood of the substitute, one’s own blood would be required for payment of sins. Also, blood of a tainted substitute was unacceptable. There is cost and a true value in an unblemished sacrifice. In addition, sins committed after the sacrificial offering of blood required another sacrifice (Heb 9:9). The cycle of sin and sacrifice continued until the arrival of Jesus Christ, the unblemished Lamb of God (Jn 1:29).
The time of reformation brought forth Christ as our High Priest, who entered the holiest place with His own blood for the consummate substitutionary sacrifice (Heb 9:11–12). His blood of the eternal covenant, as our circumcision (Col 2:11), makes Him the sole mediator of the new covenant. We are reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:19), being made clean, only through the blood of Christ. (Heb 9:19).
The blood of circumcision and the water of baptism are co-mingled concepts, sprinkled to mark the cleansing of the healed/repentant sinner. We are sprinkled with the blood of Christ through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit (1 Pet 1:2). The sacrificial bird is a type of Christ. Blood and water poured out of the side of our pierced substitute (Is 53:5; Jn 19:34), and the Christian experiences freedom like the second bird (Gal 5:1).
This sprinkled blood of the eternal covenant (Heb 13:20) grants the Christian permanent access into the presence of our holy God (Eph 2:18), not only in the camp of God’s people, but in the holiest place of heaven, where Christ ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb 7:25). So, we learn of the blood and water of cleansing sacrifice. Praise God for the blood of Jesus.
Our fourth lesson comes from Deuteronomy 12:16; 15:23, where the disposal of blood from animal sacrifices is poured out like water on the ground. This shows us the prohibition of drinking the life blood of animals. Rebels against Yahweh were prone to do this, having bartered with foreign gods (Ps 16:4). In God’s final judgment, the birds of the air and beasts of the field will gorge themselves with the flesh and blood of men (Ezek 39:17–19; Rev 19:17–18, 21).
Whereas Jesus Christ, our Passover sacrifice (1 Cor 5:7), taught, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him (Jn 6:54–56).” Jesus was not advocating cannibalism, but symbolic appropriation.
Symbolic and related to all of this is Jesus’ miraculous changing of the water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee (Jn 2). The Lord’s Supper remembers the Cross and anticipates the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:9). It consists of token symbols: bread and wine. These represent the body and blood of Jesus, which we eat and drink in obedience (Mt 26:27) and remembrance (1 Cor 11:25). As we appropriate the physical elements in our bodies, we appropriate Christ in our souls.
Christians do not drink blood (Acts 15:29), but we drink the wine which symbolizes the blood of Christ’s covenant with God the Father (1 Cor 11:25), poured out in judgment for sin (Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24), in His cup of suffering, and taken in as the true drink of our new life. What Jesus poured out, we drink in. His life was poured out on the Cross, and we receive it by the Spirit giving us faith. His death has set us free.
By His wounds, we are healed of our sinful leprosy. All things are cleansed with blood (Heb 9:22), including the Scriptures and His people (Heb 9:19), who are washed by the water of the Word (Eph 5:26). So, we learn of the blood covenant, and the means for entry into it. We have been sprinkled with the blood of Christ and drink it in by the Spirit. Inside and out, our righteousness is founded on nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Our fifth lesson comes from Zechariah 9:11, where blood sets captives free from the waterless pit. Prisoners were sometimes kept in dry cisterns. In like manner, there is no water in hell. The torment of thirst is there with no relief (Lk 16:19–34). The water never comes to cleanse, and there was never enough quality life blood to pay for one’s own sins, in order to secure our own freedom from eternal death. The promise of the blood of Christ, delivering sinners from hell, is foreshadowed in the prophet’s words.
Our sixth lesson comes from Matthew 27:24, where Pilate washes his hands with water in a symbolic gesture, claiming to have no part in the bloody death of the innocent King Jesus. Whose blood guilt is on your hands? The watchman who does not warn the people of pending judgment has their blood on his hands (Ezek 3:18–21). Causing the death of others is blood guilt, and what can wash our guilty consciences? The Word of God, washing over us with the words of God’s forgiveness of our sins by His blood. The leper cried, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Jesus replied, “I will, be thou clean.”
Our seventh lesson comes from 1 Chronicles 11:15–19, where David was in the cave of Adullam and Saul was camped at Bethlehem. Three of David’s mighty men heard David craving, thirsting for the water of the well at Bethlehem. They risked their lives (blood) to get their leader his desired water. They were successful, but David poured out the water as an offering to Yahweh. David inquired rhetorically, “Shall I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives (1 Chron 11:19)?” Blood and water can mean either life or death, but in this case, it exudes loyalty in one offering his life.
Our eighth lesson comes from 1 John 5:5–9, where the Spirit and the water and the blood testify as witnesses of Christ’s victory and His people overcoming by faith. Jesus was baptized in the waters of the River Jordan, and the witness of God the Father’s voice of approval, along with the visible baptism by the Holy Spirit tells us Jesus is Messiah (Lk 3:22). In a similar manner, the death of Christ, where His blood was shed serves as a witness to His identity as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.
Christian baptism is a witness of faith in Christ. The adherent is submerged (baptidzo) under the water in a symbolic death, burial, and resurrection scene described theologically in Romans 6. Christians join in Christ’s bloody death through a New Testament ritual cleansing bath. The clear meaning is blood and water wash away sins (expiation).
The apostle Paul captures this co-mingling of blood and water in Colossians 2:11–12, “and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” The blood and water from Christ’s side washes the sinner clean. The Spirit, the blood, and the water all testify of the sufficiency of Christ’s finished work on the Cross. Are you washed in the blood? Have you been baptized into His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension?
Blood and water do mix. In the Bible, as we have seen, they speak of God’s judgment and His cleansing flow of grace and forgiveness for His people. All of this imagery points us to the Cross of Christ, where God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus, the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn 2:2). Our substitute was slain to free us from the tyranny of sin and death. It was His precious blood and life-giving water that flowed from His body, for us to be made clean before God (Rev 7:14). When it comes to viscosity, blood may be thicker than water, but the real issue is the quality and the purpose of the mix when they are mingled.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
February 24, 2021
