Leviticus 17:10-16 Blood Rules
God gave instructions to His people about how to use the blood in sacrifices. Now He deals with why and puts an absolute moratorium on consuming blood.
When God created the Heavens and the Earth He populated it with His magnificent imagination. He made oceans and mountains. He made plants and animals. And He made man. Each thing He made is special and unique. The seas don’t have the same design as the mountains. The one flows around while the other stands tall and firm. But the one has an effect on the other. The plants and the animals have vastly different lives but they are both living and breathing. Man has the biggest impact on them all because God gave him dominion over all that was created. God also gave man the duty to care for all that was created.
God gave man one thing that NO OTHER thing in His creation has; a spirit/soul. When God breathed life into man He gave him something unique from everything else He had created. He completed the third part of the being He had created. Man was made from the very same building blocks God used to create the rest of His masterpiece. Man came from dust and was given physical form just like the animals and plants brought forth.
Man is the only one that we are told God worked with His own hands. He created him unique. He completed his uniqueness by breathing into man’s nostrils. Man had the same basic structures as the animals; body, blood, bone, and brain. But God’s breath gave man something no animal was granted. Man had the same design as God now. He was a triune being and He made man in that same image. Man now had body, soul and spirit. A unique living spirit breathed into man made up that third piece. That spiritual part was now to be part of EVERY man from that point on.
That spirit was capable of great good or great evil. We know which way man went in the beginning. We also know which way ONE Man went later on. Both paths impacted every man or woman to ever walk this earth.
I don’t know if God imbedded that spirit in our physical blood but “blood” is what gives life to all He created. Did you know that even trees have blood? The blood of EVERYTHING is what transports the nutrients from place to place to give the organism life.
God speaks directly here about the life of animals. He LOVES them! He created them for a purpose and He sees every sparrow that falls. He also feels the loss of every life that is given in sacrifice. He didn’t originally design man to kill the animals. That was a consequence of sin. Blood had to be shed to cover our sins so we could have a relationship with Him. He values us THAT MUCH!
But the animal’s life is valued by Him too so He commands man to show it respect. The animals life is holy to God. Man has no right to it. That life is its blood. God allows man the flesh, bone and skin of an animal to use in the furtherance of his own life but the blood belongs to God. He says that NO man may eat of it. Not the Jew nor any living among them. This act is forbidden as it dishonors that which surrendered its life for our use and its Creator who gave it life to begin with.
Jesus gave His life’s blood for us on the cross. His blood became our perpetual sacrifice so no animals would have to stand in for us ever again. This does not mean that we are never to take the life of an animal for food but that its blood will no longer cover our sins. We still are to respect that life taken for whatever reason. We are also still to honor it and its Creator for the gifts given to us through its surrendered life, blood.
I don’t know how God looks at “eating blood” now that the Law has been fulfilled but, for me, this is one part that I am happy to continue observing. I will continue to be thankful for the gifts God has given me and be thankful to the animals and plants that surrender their lives for my benefit.
Thank You Father God for ALL Your creations! Thank You for making a way for me to be in relationship with You. I’m SO SORRY for what it cost You. I’m also sorry for the lives of each animal it cost in the meantime. I wish there had been some other way than through death. I wish more than anything else that we wouldn’t have sinned in the first place. Then no death would be necessary and we would be living and walking with You now.
I know that was Your wish from the beginning, even though You knew it wasn’t going to be the reality. I don’t know if I will ever FULLY understand why You made us in the first place but I will never take Your decision for granted. THANK YOU for loving me, even at my most unlovable.
