Leviticus 17

According to Leon Morris, the word “blood’’ is used 460 times in the Bible, 362 of them in the Old Testament. In Leviticus 17, you find the word “blood’’ thirteen times; you also find in this chapter the key text in biblical theology on the significance of the blood in salvation: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul’’ (v. 11 nkjv).

Long before medical science discovered the significance of the circulation of the blood in the human body and its importance for life, Scripture told us that the blood was the life. When a sacrifice was offered and its blood was shed, it meant the giving of a life for the life of another. The innocent victim died in the place of the guilty sinner. Throughout Scripture, it’s the blood that makes the atonement. Any theology that ignores or minimizes the blood isn’t founded on the Word of God.

The offering of food (vv. 1–7). The Jews didn’t eat a great deal of meat because it was too costly to slaughter their animals. The law stated here prohibited them from killing their animals for food anywhere inside or outside the camp. Any animal used for food had to be brought to the altar and presented as a fellowship (peace) offering to the Lord.

This law accomplished several things. To begin with, it kept the people from secretly offering sacrifices to idols out in the fields. If they were discovered and questioned, they could claim that they were killing the animal only for a feast. But if that were the case, they should have taken the animal to the tabernacle altar. The blood of an animal must be offered only to the Lord and only at His altar.

Second, by this law the Lord dignified ordinary meals and made them a sacred experience. The slain animal wasn’t just a piece of meat; it was a sacrifice presented to the Lord. According to verse 4, slaying an animal away from the altar was the same as murdering the animal, and God wants us to treat His creation with greater respect. When we thank God at the table for our food, we’re not acknowledging only His goodness; we’re also sanctifying the meal and making eating it a spiritual experience.

Third, by bringing the animal to the altar, the offerer was seeing to it that the Lord (3:1–17) and the priest (7:11–18) each received their rightful portion. To be sure, the offerer wouldn’t get as much meat for himself and his family, but the principle behind Matthew 6: would compensate him in other ways. The fellowship meal at the house of God would glorify God and satisfy the needs of the offerer and those who ate with him.

The offering of sacrifices (vv. 8–9). This is a further application of the first law; even if you were bringing a legitimate sacrifice to God, it had to be brought to the altar and the blood shed there. No Jew was ever allowed to offer a sacrifice in the fields or at his tent. There was one tabernacle, one altar, and one ordained priesthood, and the people had to respect God’s orders.

These laws were modified slightly when the nation went into the land of Canaan (Deut. 12:1–16). In the camp of Israel, nobody would be too far from the door of the tabernacle. Thus bringing an animal for a fellowship offering wouldn’t pose a problem. But in the land of

Canaan, distance would create a problem. Therefore, the Lord allowed the people to kill animals for food at home without having to bring them to the altar (vv. 15–16). However, all sacrifices had to be at the altar, and nobody was permitted to eat the blood.

The eating of blood (vv. 10–14). Because the blood is the life of the creature and the God-ordained means of atonement, it must not be treated like ordinary food. This prohibition goes all the way back to Noah (Gen. 9:1–4) and was repeated often in the law (Lev. 3:17; 7:26–27; Deut. 12:16, 23–25; 15:23). The early church included this regulation in its instructions to Gentile converts (Acts 15:23–29). In many heathen religions, it was a common practice to use blood for food, which explains why God warned even the nonJews in the camp not to violate this law. How easy it would be for a Jew to follow the bad example of his heathen neighbor and thus incur the wrath of God!

Before preparing his meal, a Jew out hunting had to be careful to drain out the blood of the animal or bird he had caught. The blood then had to be covered with earth, giving it a decent burial, as it were. Orthodox Jews today are very careful to purchase kosher meat from which the blood has been drained in the prescribed manner.

The eating of animals found dead (vv. 15–16). Since meat was scarce and expensive, the chance finding of a dead animal in the field might appear to be a favorable event. But the carcass was obviously unclean because the blood hadn’t been drained out, and it had been exposed to whatever vermin were available. No Jew would want to take a chance in becoming unclean by eating the meat. If he did, he had to stay out of the camp until evening, then bathe himself and his clothing to be made clean.

Believers today need to appreciate the importance of the “precious’’ blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:19). Among other things, through His blood, we are justified (Rom. 5:9), redeemed (Eph. 1:7), washed (Rev. 1:5), sanctified (Heb. 13:12), brought near (Eph. 2:13), and cleansed (1 John 1:7). The church was purchased by the blood of Christ and therefore is very precious to God (Acts 20:28).

In his famous commencement address given at Harvard University on June 7, 1978, Russian novelist and social critic Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either.’’

With all due respect to hardworking legislators, judges, law-enforcement officers, and lawyers, I agree with Solzhenitsyn; it takes more than good laws to make good people and a good society. In our world today, not everything that’s legal is moral or biblical. Some human activities that courts sanction and society defends, God will one day judge as abominable sin.

Leviticus 17—20 constituted a legal code for the people of Israel, touching on many areas of their personal and public life. The emphasis isn’t simply on justice or civic righteousness, as important as they are, but on holiness. After all, Israel was God’s people and the law was God’s law. The Lord said to them, “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. And you shall keep My statutes, and perform them: I am the Lord who sanctifies you’’ (20:7–8 nkjv).

The motivation for Israel’s obedience had to be more than fear of punishment. The people also needed in their hearts a desire to please God and a determination to be a holy people who would bring glory to His name (Ex. 19:3–6). Obeying the law and having holy character aren’t necessarily the same thing.

Twenty-four times in these four chapters you find the declaration, “I am the Lord!’’ God was giving His people divine laws that expressed His holy will, laws that He expected them to respect and obey. While obedience to the law isn’t God’s way of salvation (Rom. 3:19–20; Gal. 3:21–29), a love for holiness and a desire to obey and please God are certainly evidences that we are the children of God (1 John 3:1ff.).

These chapters deal with four special areas of life that must be respected and kept holy: the sanctity of blood, or life (chap. 17); the sanctity of sex (chap. 18); the sanctity of the law (chap. 19); and the sanctity of judgment (chap. 20).