Going Old School: No Bloody Meat!

Continuing on in Leviticus, we come to the start of what is often referred to as the “holiness code” because the focus is on living a holy life, pleasing to God (because He is holy). 

Leviticus 17 prohibits the Israelites from sacrificing outside the Tabernacle area and also from eating or drinking blood.  These things might not seem related at all, particularly since we’ve seen that the sacrifices could be rather bloody and gross.  As we’ll see, there is a good correlation between the two things.

So why the prohibition on sacrifices beyond the Tabernacle (vv. 3-9)?  Well, as you’ll recall God had set specific times and places for sacrifices, and each instance meant something special to help a person focus on God and also to live a better quality of life for themselves and their community.  If the people were to go off and sacrifice wherever they want and however they wanted, they would feel emboldened to change the focus God gave in His commandments to better suit their own needs and their own lifestyles.  This type of permissive sacrificial system  is what the pagan nations surrounding Israel did (the Egyptian goat idols, for example, v. 7).  The focus was ever to be on God, not on self.  When the Israelites stopped following God and started following idols, it was because “all the people did whatever seemed right to them.” (Judges 17:6)

Now then, as we’ve studied in Leviticus (and from the New Testament), blood is what makes atonement for sin.  The blood that was shed made it possible for the person’s sins to be covered up and forgiven, and ultimately the blood of Christ to wash the sins away completely.  The blood both represented the sinner’s life that had become infected by sin (recall Lev. 12-15 on dealing with infection and the like) and at the some time the blood represented the innocent life that was sacrificed in the place of the sinner.  This fulfilled the sin penalty, which was death, and restored a person to a right relationship with God.

Given what blood represented (and does for us today in Communion), is it any wonder that God would prohibit the drinking of it?  This wasn’t a new rule that God gave to His people in the wilderness, but had been prohibited since at least the days of Noah (Gen. 9:4).  There are a a few reasons that God had for not wanting His people to eat or drink blood:

1. The pagan nations did it, and Israel was supposed to be different from those nations (to be an example of Godly living).  Many pagan warriors would ingest blood before a battle, hoping to gain the strength of the animal they had killed.  But the Israelites were to rely on God, the Creator of ALL things!
2. To preserve the meaning of the sacrifice.  If the innocent blood that was spilled was to take the place of a sinner, what would it be to drink the animal’s blood?  Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of the sacrifice and render a right relationship with God moot?
3. Health.  There are quite a few diseases of the blood (ex. Mad Cow), and God did not want His people to become infected and die (or cause others to be infected.

You can imagine the horror of the disciples when Jesus told His disciples to drink His blood (John 6:53-56).  As the disciples would come to learn after spending three years with Jesus, He was really saying that He was THE sacrifice for sins, and He was them to let Him be totally and completely involved in their lives forever.

The same is true for us today.  When we take Communion, it is to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for each one of us.  More than that, it is to invite Him to share His life with us and to be an active participant in our lives.  Who can ask for a better friend than Jesus?

Encounter: The next time you take Communion, stop and reflect about what Jesus has done for you…not just about the stale wafer and grape juice!