I have several different Bibles in my collection, and many of them are different versions of the translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic into english. Some are hardback and some are softback, and some are genuine leather while some are not genuine leather but appear to be.
     In most of my Bibles, there are also ribbons. I have a burgundy ribbon in my burgundy colored leather Study Bible, and I have also both a black and a white ribbon, and even a green one in other Bibles. Most of them are red, though.
     The purpose of the ribbon is to mark your passage as you read through the Bible. The ribbon I am referring to is not a silken line of fabric that marks your physical place in the Bible, but rather the ribbon I am referring to marks your spiritual place in the Bible. It is a ribbon of blood, which runs all the way through the Bible.
     The ribbon of blood shed for sin starts as early as Genesis 3. In Genesis 3, after the fall of man through sin, we find the Lord God making skins of animals to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve.

    For the longest time I wondered why an Almighty God would take coats of skins to make outfits to cover Adam and Eve's nakedness, since The Almighty God in Creation took nothing and created something; stars, planets, and other things great and small. Then it occured to me that for those coats of skins to be used, the animals they were taken from in the Garden of Eden had to die. Their blood had to be shed to cover not only the physical nakedness of Adam and Eve, but also their spiritual nakedness.
    This is the beginning of the red ribbon of blood in the Bible being used to atone for sin. Even before the Law of Moses came into being, generations of the faithful knew that blood atonement was required for sins. Adam and Eve continued to sacrifice animals, and tried to teach their sons to do so. But Cain was a gardener and proud of his garden, and not God nor His atonement of sin.
    There was nothing intrinsically wrong with Cain's sacrifice of fruits of the field, in the right place and time. But fruits of the field will not atone for sin. Only blood can. So Abel's sacrifice was accepted, and Cain's was rejected (Genesis 4:2-6). This led to Cain slaying his brother Abel out of jealousy.
    Eventually the sin in the world would become so great that God would decide only a flood could quench the sin. He found only Noah and his family to be righteous believers, and so God entrusted Noah to build an ark that would keep both righteous man and animals safe through the flood. When the ark landed upon Mount Ararat, the very first thing that Noah did as soon as he was able with the muddy ground was to sacrifice (Genesis 8:20).
    When Abraham was chosen by God to be the father of a chosen people, Abraham also knew about blood atonment for sin and not only practised it, but passed it on to his children and they to their children until the time of Moses. So the Law of Moses and the body of work in Leviticus only confirmed what most Israelites already knew, that only blood could atone for sin.
    The first Passover was a very important part of the Red Ribbon of the Bible. During the ten plagues of egypt, God's wrath grew in pace with the hardening of pharaoh's heart. The tenth and last plague would prove to be more deadly and costly in human life. Every first born son not protected by blood would be found by the Angel of Death that roamed Egypt.
    God's provision was for every Hebrew household to sacrifice a yearling lamb without blemish, and to spread it's blood with a bunch of hyssop upon the door posts and lintel of the dwelling. Those hebrews inside would eat the passover lamb, along with salted water and bitter herbs in the Passover meal that is part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The next morning, every dwelling in Egypt that did not have the unblemished lamb's blood upon the door posts and lintel had a death of the first born son. This alone would cause pharaoh and egypt grief enough to let Israel free.
    In Exodus and Leviticus, we find the Israelites wander in the wilderness, and building a tabernacle from materials furnished by the egyptians. Gold and silver and other precious metals melted down and made into coverings, clasps, and such. There were fabrics and skins that were dyed and/or embroidered, and all sorts of vessels, stands, and tables made for the portable tabernacle that the children of Israel had made.
    In that tabernacle, a long rectangular construction, were housed two rooms. In the front was the area for the shewbread and the candle stand. In the rear was the Holy of Holies, separated by a thick veil. What was contained in the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant, a chest made of shittim wood and overlaid with solid gold. Exodus 25 details the plan of the Ark of the Covenant.
    On the lid of the Ark of the Covenant were two solid gold angels which faced each other, and this area of the lid was called the Mercy Seat. There, God told His people that He would dwell with them. It was from this source that the pillar of cloud rose from the wilderness to show the children of Israel to stay in Camp, and when it rose from here, it was a sign for the children of Israel to move on.
    The reason that the tabernacle and the Holy of Holies is a milestone in the red ribbon of the Bible is two-fold. The first is that once per year, on the day of Atonement, the High Priest would take a bull and two goats. Casting lots, one of the goats would be sacrificed and the other allowed to live as scapegoat.
    The blood of the bull and the goat would then be sprinkled seven times upon the Mercy Seat. Once the High Priest layed hands on the head of the scapegoat and cast all the sins of the children of Israel, the scapegoat would be allowed to leave free and alive, and the sins of the children of Israel would be atoned for for one full year.
    Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and if God found him to be unworthy, He would strike him dead. This yearly undertaking was so serious that around the hem of the High Priest's garment was sewn a set of bells. Then the High Priest would tie a rope around his waist. While the bells were still jingling, the other priests knew that the High Priest lived. If the bells stopped for a long period of time, then the priests had a way of removing the body of the High Priest without themselves entering the Holy of Holies, and would drag the body out by the rope.
    The other reason that the Ark of the Covenant is important is what it contained. We know from the Bible that the Ark of the Covenant contained only three items. The first was a bowl of manna, which the children of Israel had finally rejected, when they craved meat and the Lord sent a flock of fowl to feed them. A rejected bowl of manna was put into the Ark.
    Next was the broken bits of the first set of Ten Commandments. If you remember the story in Exodus, after Moses was 40 days upon the mountain top with God, obtaining the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone, the children of Israel had resorted to idolatry and had rejected the authority of God. Thus, when Moses came down from the mountain, he found the children of Israel in debauchery and idolatry, and hurled the tablets to the ground, breaking them into pieces. This rejection of God's authority was also placed in the Ark of the Covenant.
    The third item in the Ark was Aaron's rod. The children of Israel had again rejected God's authority for High Priest. So God, through Moses, had all the elders of the tribes place their rods in the ground, and the rod that bloomed the next morning would be God's choice for High Priest. Of course, the rod that had grown limbs and buds was Aaron's rod, and so this third item which represented the rejection of God's authority was also placed in the Ark of the Covenant. Here, upon the items which represented rejection of God's authority, God would dwell with His people.
    When the Temple was finally built by Solomon, the Holy of Holies was contained within stone instead of skins and wood and fabric. The purpose for the Law of Moses was to show that man could not live a sinless life without full reliance on God.
    The religious elite of the Sanherin somehow forgot this purpose along the way, and so by the time when Jesus came to walk the earth, the main ruling body of the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, had come up with over 400 traditions to add to the body of what we now call the Old Testament, which they eqated in power with the Torah. Thus, washing cups a certain way was just as important to them as titheing. One could get around the Sabbath rules of walking by having servants leave articles that belonged to the walker along the way. As long as the walker was within a Sabbath Day's walk of his next article, it was alright to continue walking.
    Of course, when Jesus came, he fought with and against the Pharisees and their traditions, and even with the other members of the Sanhedrin like the Sadducees and the Scribes. Jesus, being the Word become flesh in John 1:1-3,14 was able to live a sinless life by allowing His diety to be in submission to the Father. As such, Jesus thirsted, hungered, and was tempted, and yet continued to live a sinless life. By doing so, Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses, which set the stage for Grace to be ushered in. And that brings us to our next milestone in the Red Ribbon of the Bible.
    The poignant irony of Jesus' story is also two-fold. The Word, which was in the beginning with God and was God; who was God, and became flesh and dwelt among the Israelites (John 1:1-3,14) would also be rejected as the Messiah, which was one of the ultimate rejection's of God's authority on the jews. Like the manna, the broken bits of the Ten Commandments, and the budded rod of Aaron, the Son was rejected by the children of Israel as well. The ultimate result of this rejection is told in one of Jesus' parables which occurs in the first three gospels. I will use the Gospel of Matthew.

    The result of this rejection would not cast the Israelites aside, merely allow for the door to be opened to the Gentile, who could enter and partake of God's Grace unto Salvation.
    The other poignant irony of the story of Jesus in the Bible is that as the Lamb of God, Jesus would also become the scapegoat. While the innocent Son of God hung on the agony of the cross, the Father allowed the sins of the world to be layed upon His shoulders. At that point, Jesus cries out.

    Shortly after that, several things happened. Jesus said, "It is finished," signifying that the purpose He had come to earth for was completed. Sometimes hard to understand, Jesus' whole purpose here was to fulfill the Law of Moses and then shed His blood and die on a cross so that all of us would have the chance for eternal life. Next, Jesus said, "Into thy hands I commend my Spirit," and Jesus gave up the ghost. Right after that, there was an earthquake, which rent the veil which covered the Holy of Holies in two, casting light the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies for anyone to see.
    From that point on, God would not dwell in temples made of stone, but rather in the hearts of man. When Jesus rose from the tomb, His resurrection proved that death had been conquered. The Red Ribbon of the Bible, Jesus' blood shed for our sins, continues through till the end of the Bible, and indeed through time even to this present time unto eternity.
    All this was prophecied in Isaiah 53 and in other parts of the Bible, like Psalms 22, which is a perfect example of the excruciating agony of crucifixion. This is why we celebrate the Communion, which is a remembrance of the broken body that was layed down for us, and the shed blood that covers our sins; past, present, and future. As Paul stated, this does not give us a license to sin, but rather a license to live pure and clean and holy, through the unmerited gift of Grace that was enabled by Jesus' selfless act.
    When I look at the Ribbon that comes with my favorite Bible, it reminds me of the sacrifice that Jesus made for me, and for the others that have come to partake of His Grace. It also reminds me of the Ribbon of His blood that has followed me through my own milestones, both before I knew Him, when I knew Him an walked away, and now that I have come back to stay.