17 A will means nothing while the one who wrote it is still living. It can be used only after that person’s death.
18 That is why blood was needed to begin the first agreement between God and his people.
19 First, Moses told the people every command in the law. Then he took the blood of young bulls and mixed it with water. He used red wool and a branch of hyssop to sprinkle the blood and water on the book of the law and on all the people.
20 Then he said, “This is the blood that makes the agreement good—the agreement that God commanded you to follow.”
21 In the same way, Moses sprinkled the blood on the Holy Tent. He sprinkled the blood over everything used in worship.
22 The law says that almost everything must be made clean by blood. Sins cannot be forgiven without a blood sacrifice.
23 These things are copies of the real things that are in heaven. These copies had to be made clean by animal sacrifices. But the real things in heaven must have much better sacrifices.