RESOURCES — SHORT ARTICLES

 

SHORT ARTICLES BY TOM ELSEROAD
	2021-02-05	What Does It Mean That The Blood Is The Life? (Du.12:23)
		Deu 12:23  Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. Deu 12:24  You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. Why did God command the Israelites to not eat meat with the blood still in it? Remember when Noah had completed the time of the Flood and was ready to re-enter the land? God gave a command, “you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (Ge.9:4). God consistently uses blood as symbolically representing life. When a sacrifice was offered, the blood was drained and offered to God on the altar (Le.17:10-14). In Deuteronomy 12 God began to teach the Israelites about the covenant that is to govern His relationship with them. He spoke specifically on worship giving detailed stipulations on how His people ought to love, and glorify Him. The worship of the Lord, the One true God, was to be distinct from the worship of pagan deities and idols. Among ancient pagan cultic rituals was the practice of drinking the blood of sacrificed animals. Some even drank human blood. When they consumed their victims blood they believed it possessed the might and power of their enemies. God was setting His people apart from these godless practices. In the book of Leviticus we learn why they were not to eat blood. The very important theme is that blood was God's ordained means of atonement (Le.17:10-12). Lev 17:10  'And whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who eats any blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. Lev 17:11  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.' Lev 17:12  Therefore I said to the children of Israel, 'No one among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who dwells among you eat blood.' Blood represents the life of the animal. When its blood was spilled, the animal's life was terminated. Sacrificing an animal's life in place of one's own life satisfied God's price for sin. The spilled blood of the guiltless substitute animal offered on the altar served as payment for the people's sins (Le.16:15). Lev 16:15  "Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. Thus, the shedding of blood was an act of atonement. So consuming the blood would have disregarded its God-ordained purpose. So the people were to bring each animal to the tabernacle entrance for the priest to offer to God on the altar. In the early church believers were discouraged from such pagan practices (Ac.15:20-21). Act 15:20  but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. Act 15:21  For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath." The OT act of atonement pointed forward to the shedding of the blood of Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Each time an animal was sacrificed on the altar and its blood poured out, it communicated a picture of the Savior. Jesus suffered in our place. His blood is the life that was given so that we might have eternal life. Believers in Jesus are cleansed, forgiven, and made right with God through the shed blood of the spotless Lamb of God (Ro.3:25). Christ's blood is truly “the life” for those who believe in Him and receive HIS life. Pastor Tom Elseroad

 

An Evangelical Free Church of America

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