The Sanctity of Blood
Leviticus 17:11
Introduction.
We have concluded one section on Leviticus and are beginning another.
Lev. 11-15 dealt with the rules of being clean and unclean culminating in the Day of Atonement in Lev. 16.
Lev. 1-16 look at public actions in worship while Lev. 17-25 look at one’s personal and private actions.
Though this is a transition chapter where we see some aspects of public worship in the beginning, and it ends with aspects of private actions.
The first half considers the blood offered in sacrifices while the second half deals with the blood of animals that died in other ways.
The central thesis for this chapter is Lev. 17:11 – the life of the flesh is in the blood.
JWs will take this verse out of context and insist that one should not receive a life-saving blood transfusion.
If receiving the blood plasma of one who has recovered from COVID-19 will help those who have contracted it, or help prevent people from getting it, I will certainly investigate that option!
But if we continue to look at this verse, we note why this is such a big deal.
The Lord has given, or assigned, the blood, not to be eaten or spilled in service to a false god, but to make atonement for their souls.
It’s why some of the laws on uncleanness in Lev. 12 & 15 seem to affect women more, because theirs deals with blood.
Preview.
Sacrificial Blood (17:1-9).
Common Blood (17:10-16).
Body.
Sacrificial Blood (17:1-9).
Sacrifices must be offered to God at the tabernacle.
While reading this it sounds unusual, that no animal can be killed without it being brought to the tabernacle.
It sounds like the people must then be vegetarians outside of meats that have been offered as sacrifices.
But this killing that’s referred to here is not any old killing, but the killing of an animal as a sacrifice.
If you recall throughout the books of 1 & 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, a common refrain that we see is, “but the high places were not taken away.”
A high place was where people would offer sacrifices outside of the temple.
We see one of those high places, called the “great high place” in 1 Kings 3:4, was the location of the tabernacle at that time in 2 Chron. 1:3.
The other high places were illegitimate and should have been removed but most of the time they were not.
They were typically used in worship to false gods—what Moses here calls “demons, after whom they have played the harlot” (17:7).
Many were indeed playing the harlot, acting as prostitutes with the pagan rituals of the day – recall this also defies the laws of cleanliness in Lev. 15.
These demons they were sacrificing to, well, this is a Hebrew word referring to a “he-goat.”
This is an indication that the Israelites were picking up more bad habits from the Egyptians, since they worshiped such things.
The LXX translates this as “demons,” hence our English translation.
We’ll talk more about worshiping demons in a moment.
The Christian applications.
We should avoid any appearance of following false doctrines.
While they were not to offer sacrifices to others, we, too, must refrain from offering worship to a false deity.
We should also be careful not to worship the true God in a way not authorized.
True OT worship was to be conducted in the tabernacle and later the temple.
True NT worship must also be authorized by God, conducted in His church.
That, of course, is not a building, but a spiritual structure—the body of Christ.
That is particularly important in this time of quarantine and isolation.
There is a mention of worship to demons in the NT (1 Cor. 10:20-22).
We see that the Gentiles offered sacrifices to demons.
These false gods could be demons as we typically think of them, tempting and urging people to commit lewd acts contrary to the law of the only true God.
One key characteristic of Satan is that of pride—it would be no surprise if his minions shared in that sin, wanting the praise and adoration of the people for themselves.
But “demon” is a transliteration of the Greek word δαίμων/δαιμόνιον – Greek authors used this to identify a god or goddess, perhaps an inferior deity (Acts 17:18) – “foreign gods.”
Whatever the case, whether this is talking about minions of Satan or figments of man’s imagination, the point is clear: worship is to be given to God alone!
Common Blood (17:10-16).
They were not to eat the blood of any animal.
This is where God tells us how He has assigned blood—for our atonement.
I always thought the phrase “eat blood” was unusual—isn’t blood a liquid, so we drink it, right?
But whatever the case, they were not to ingest blood of an animal.
This command did not originate here, but is first seen in Scripture in Gen. 9:4.
Here the Lord also equates the blood with one’s life.
Noah is told not to eat flesh with its blood.
Blood is not assigned a purpose here, but we do see why they were to abstain from it in Lev. 17.
There is no indication that a human-to-human blood transfusion is indicated here or even hinted at—more in the application portion.
This covers animals that were hunted—he was to let the blood pour out before eating the animal.
The penalty of eating blood was that he will be cut off.
We see an example of the men of King Saul being so hungry that they don’t wait to drain the blood (1 Sam. 14:31-35).
Saul had bound his army to an oath to eat nothing until they had won the battle.
Jonathan later found out and thought the oath was silly, but the people took it seriously.
They were so hungry, they took the animals caught in the spoils of war and were eating them with the blood.
Some were not okay with that, so they told Saul, and he commanded all the animals be brought to him for slaughter.
There is no indication that the ones who did break the law were executed, for Saul worked to remedy that situation so they would be in obedience to the Lord.
Whether or not Saul is right here is hard to say, but we know his heart was in the right place.
It’s also an indication that the penalty was something the Lord carried out, as is the case with many of the penalties to follow for such personal sins.
The other command here in Lev. 17 is not to eat anything that died or was torn.
There were some practical reasons for this that we know today—perhaps it was unhealthy or died by disease, plus you don’t know when it died so it could be rotting by now.
But there were some ceremonial aspect, particularly since dead bodies were unclean, plus unclean bugs were potentially eating it already (cf. Lev. 11).
One more thing to note is the universal nature of these laws—it covered not just the Israelites but the stranger living in the land, too.
The Christian applications.
As we mentioned blood transfusions are not indicated here.
In a way, if we understand the life of the flesh to be in the blood, if one does donate blood, then he is donating part of his life so others may live.
And really, isn’t that a beautiful thing, isn’t that the Christian thing to do, to help others?
I encourage you, that if you can, donate blood, particularly at some point when this quarantine is over.
Are we permitted to eat blood today? Recall that there are no dietary restrictions on the Christian, except as matters of influence and conscience (1 Cor. 8; Rom. 14) along with sobriety and gluttony.
This was a huge sticking point with early Christians so as not to offend the Jewish Christians to abstain from blood (Acts 15:29).
In fact, it was a big deal when Jesus said (John 6:53-57).
Many left Jesus because of this saying, even after being fed miraculously.
When we partake of the fruit of the vine, we are drinking His blood in a figurative sense, because His blood was offered as an atonement for our sins.
At the same time, the universal nature of the laws on eating blood covered the entire territory of Israel—the NT laws cover the entire world.
This shows the universal nature of the blood of Christ, that it applies to all men as being the propitiation for the whole world (1 John 2:2).
Conclusion.
Blood is precious.
One’s life is in his blood.
From a scientific standpoint, that is a remarkable statement for a document written in the Bronze Age.
We note that when blood has drained a person dies.
But it also carries with it the life-giving oxygen that the body needs to every organ and every nook and cranny within our bodies.
So quite literally, one’s life is in his blood!
It is also reserved for the atonement of sins, and was not to be eaten or spilled in service to false gods.
Though today we in a figure drink the Lord’s blood as a reminder of the atonement He made for us on the cross.
Recall, we when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we “proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).
Innocent blood is even more precious, and who is more innocent than Jesus?
He is the propitiation for our sins, the atoning sacrifice.
He died for the whole world and His blood saves the whole world!
But in order for us to have access to that blood, we must become a Christian.