Blood Bath
A prayer of the afflicted when he is faint and before Yahweh pours out his complaint. Psalm 102:1 (in the Hebrew text)
Pours Out – “Then you will take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water . . will become blood.” So begins the story of the plagues (Exodus 4:9). The action is shapak, to pour out. There is a lot more here than just dumping river water on the sand. It is the deeper meaning that finds its way into the prayer of the afflicted. To find that deeper meaning, we will need to dig a well – a well of blood.
When Yahweh asserted His authority and supremacy over Egypt, He took special care to overturn Egypt’s gods in the process. The Nile was not just a river. It was worshipped as the source of life. For the Egyptian, the Nile was holy water. God took that holy water of another god and made it into the blood of death. When Moses poured the Egyptian symbol of life on to the dry ground, God uncovered a deeper secret. Yahweh is not the God of holy water. He is the God of blood and life is in the blood. If God does not rule over the life in the blood, then the blood bath brings only death.
An afflicted man knows intimately the blood bath death. He knows beyond any doubt that he cannot survive without God’s intervention. So he pours out not only his complaint, but also his blood. He steps up to the altar of the Almighty and spills his own life, emptying himself because the blood in his veins brings only death. It is the very thing that swarms with defect. It is helpless to rescue him. He needs a transfusion, new blood from a new bloodline. At the end of self-sufficient life there is a blood bath. If you do not die, you cannot live. The afflicted man bleeds to death.
Has God dipped you in blood? “Though my sins are as blood-red scarlet, yet you will wash me white as snow. Though my life of defect crushes me with affliction, you will bring me holy water in the parched desert.” Red water dripping from the fingers of your out-stretched hand.
Have you encountered God where you are poured out?
Topical Index: shapak, pours out, Psalm 102:1, sacrifice, wrath, emotions
