The Life is In the Blood

Leviticus 17:10–11 (ESV) 10 “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

This command to not eat blood clearly illustrates that God has designated blood sacrifice as the means of atonement for sin. God has established that blood flowing from a body in death is the sign by which a person has access into His presence again.

It was to be made clear for Israel, they were not to assume that blood was for immediate and physical benefit. Think of this in an ancient world context removed from the scientific data we have available to us today. Blood may have looked nourishing and immediate. Where as meat had to be butchered and cooked, blood could have simply been boiled and drank. Where as taking the meat of an animal always would have cost the animal its life, blood could be drawn in small increments (as is the case with some distant people groups even today).

Israel was to learn through sacrifice and butchering meat that God was very concerned with their SOUL care and not simply their physical needs. On the surface of things, these laws against eating blood would have slowed them down and made them wait for physical sustenance. At the same time, they would have watched blood flow from a dying animal again and again and again... each time - that loss of life reminding them of what it cost to bring them back to God AND each time foreshadowing the precious blood of Christ that would one day be shed for us!

1 Peter 1:18–20 (NLT) For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.

Notice how Leviticus 17 words it, "for the life of the flesh is in the blood." Today we know how much blood has to do with our bodies well being. Ancient world contexts did not know this as deeply. They learned it only by observing a dying animal. So again and again, Israelites would see that another's life had to be given so that they might be brought back to God. 

There can be no doubt from the passages of Leviticus and the rest of the Bible for that matter, substitutionary atonement is NOT some sideline doctrine. It is the essential element of the scriptures and the purpose of Christ's coming. He did not come to be served or to establish a new nation. He did not come t defeat governments or acquire land areas. He came to give His life as a ransom for many. 

And so Leviticus sums up well God's heart and intention for you. God has given the life of His Son so that you may have life through Him! You are paid for. You are purchased to God. And Christianity is not simply a matter of shaping the outside of our lives, it is fundamentally fixed on reshaping the inside of our lives - our very souls - understanding what God has paid to make them right with Himself.