Life in the blood

Leviticus 17

Back in the 1970s, there was a small Italian family living in a quiet French town. In their modest kitchen hung an old painting—nothing special to them, just something they used to cover a hole in the wall right above her hot plate. It had been in the family for generations.

Over time, it was splattered with cooking grease, faded by sunlight, and mostly forgotten.

Nobody thought much of it. It was just...there. A placeholder.

But one day, the 90 year old woman needed to move and wanted to sell everything in the home so she invited an appraiser to visit the home. He walked into that kitchen, saw the painting, and was stunned. He leaned in, studied it carefully, and realized he was looking at a lost masterpiece—a work by Cimabue, one of the great masters who paved the way for the Renaissance, who at this time had only 10 surviving paintings, this was the 11th. That forgotten painting—used to keep out the outside air—sold at auction for $26 million. 

For decades, something of incredible value had been treated like a dirty rag. Not out of malice, but because no one realized what they had. Likewise, Leviticus 17 warns the nation of Israel of the same danger: to not take something of incredible value and use it like a dirty rag. And Leviticus 17 is still a warning to us as it reminds us of the incredible value of life and not to forsake the blood given to us to make atonement for our sins. Let's walk through this passage by asking ourselves three questions. 

Are you honoring the commands God has given? (v. 1-9)

Leviticus 17 is a transitional chapter. The first 7 chapters lay out the various sacrifices required to enter the tent of meeting. Chapters 8-9 lay out requirements of the priesthood.

Leviticus 10 highlights the sin of Nadab and Abihu approaching the Lord in an unworthy manner. Leviticus 11-15 highlights one of the responsibilities of the priesthood in determining what is clean and what is unclean for, as we discover in chapter 10, that which is unclean can never come in contact to that which is holy. Therefore, Leviticus 16 God institutes the Day of Atonement when he cleanses the sanctuary, the tent of meeting, the altar, the priests and all the people of the assembly (Lev. 16:33). Leviticus 16 is the center of the book and the center of the whole Torah. God makes atonement for his people through the blood of the goat and symbolically carrying the sins of the people outside the camp into the wilderness never to be seen again. Following their atonement, Leviticus 17-27 will unpack the holy requirements of God’s people who have been cleansed by the blood. 

Bringing us to Leviticus 17 which emphasizes the importance of the people keeping God’s command.

Leviticus 17:1–2,

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel and say to them, This is the thing that the LORD has commanded.

First, notice who is giving these commands: it is Israel’s covenant God. The LORD, Yahweh, the great I am, the one who delivered the people from slavery in Egypt, their Savior, gives specific instructions on how he is to be worshiped. It is always important to hear commands in the context of relationship. Our flesh does not like rules and commands. We want to do what we want to do and often feel rules restrict and limit our joy. God’s commands are not burdensome. They are given to us for our good and by a God who has given us salvation. When you hear commands given by God do you honor them? Do you rejoice in them?

Listen to what David said of the Lord’s commands,

Psalm 19:7–10,

The law of the LORD is perfect,

reviving the soul;

the testimony of the LORD is sure,

making wise the simple;

the precepts of the LORD are right,

rejoicing the heart;

the commandment of the LORD is pure,

enlightening the eyes;

the fear of the LORD is clean,

enduring forever;

the rules of the LORD are true,

and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold,

even much fine gold;

sweeter also than honey

and drippings of the honeycomb. 

Before we get to the commands, do we delight in the commands of God or we recoil at his demands? 

Leviticus is written to Israel while they are in the wilderness after their 400 years in Egypt.

Although they were no longer physically in Egypt, their hearts and their worship were still like the Egyptians. They needed to be taught to live as a distinct and peculiar people.

Leviticus 17:3–7,

If any one of the house of Israel kills an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or kills it outside the camp, and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it as a gift to the LORD in front of the tabernacle of the LORD, bloodguilt shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people. This is to the end that the people of Israel may bring their sacrifices that they sacrifice in the open field, that they may bring them to the LORD, to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and sacrifice them as sacrifices of peace offerings to the LORD. And the priest shall throw the blood on the altar of the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting and burn the fat for a pleasing aroma to the LORD. So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations. 

As Israel would have heard verse 3, they would have heard the list of those animals in light of the previous 16 chapters and how those animals in particular were used in sacrifice and the worship of God. All sacrifices are no longer to be done in the open field but at the entrance of the tent of meeting. They are to be given to the Lord as a pleasing aroma. 

For Israel, everything belonged to God. For there were some in Israel who did not offer everything to the Lord but instead offered their sacrifices to demons.  Leviticus 17:7

So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations. 

Moses does not give a lot of details of the what and how of the sacrifices to goat demons for it seemed obvious to the original audience. It was a practice most likely inherited from the Egyptians. And it was a clear violation of the first commandment,

Exodus 20:3,

You shall have no other gods before me.

Any time one would worship and serve another God it would be classified as spiritual adultery. Israel must have an exclusive, singular love for the Lord. Do you have an exclusive, singular love for God? I doubt many of you have sacrificed to goat demons this past week, but I suspect some of you have committed spiritual adultery in coveting others' gifts, living to make money or bowing your hearts to sexual immorality. God freed Israel from Egypt, but Egypt still rested in their hearts. God has freed us from slavery to sin, but sin still remains.

God demands all your worship. You cannot serve two masters.

Matthew 6:21–24,

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body.

So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

You cannot serve God and sex. You cannot serve God and food. You cannot serve God and reputation. You cannot serve God and people. You cannot serve God and self. You cannot serve God and something else. God demands exclusive worship. 

And God shows no partiality. Everyone in Israel must follow the same commands.

Leviticus 17:8–9,

And you shall say to them, Any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it to the LORD, that man shall be cut off from his people.

Any one of the house of Israel and of the strangers who have become part of Israel must worship the Lord as he has described or they will be cut off. Here, we see a glimpse of

God’s goal for Israel. Israel is meant to be a light for the nations. They were meant to show the majesty and glory of God in how they lived. They were called to be a holy people to show the holiness of God. They were not to be like the nations but to be distinct from the nations so that the nations would become holy. 

Beloved, the same is true today. We are called to be distinct and holy so that people would desire to leave the world and its ways and come to live as God’s people. The only way people would want to do that is if they saw something beautiful in the community of God’s people. If we do not follow the commands of God as individuals and as a community, we are turning down the lights of God’s glory to the world. And if we persist in living against God’s commands, we will one day be cut off from his people. God will not be mocked. 

There is no special group within the church that has special requirements. Pastors and deacons are called to exemplify the Christian life, but even then, the expectation is that the rest of the church would follow their example. The church must be holy. Are you honoring the commands God has given? If not, turn back to the Lord today. He demands and deserves your exclusive worship. 

Are you honoring the life God has given? (v. 10-12)

The first two paragraphs of this chapter, we see two warnings of how disobedience to God’s command will result in being cut off from the people. The next paragraph provides the rationale and the strongest warning yet against those who do not honor the life God has given.

Leviticus 17:10–12,

“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. 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.

Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood. 

First, the warning, then the rationale. The warning is that if you eat any blood, the LORD, the Sovereign omnipotent, almighty Creator will set his face against you. God’s righteous anger and wrath will be set against you. It won’t simply be that God will cut you from his people, but his face will be against you. This phrase is not used very often in the Scriptures and when it is used it is designed to communicate utter seriousness and a solemn warning. 

And the solemn warning makes sense, once you understand the rationale behind these commands. Leviticus 17:11 is the key verse of this chapter.

Leviticus 17:11,

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. 

The life of flesh is in the blood. Blood represents life. And in the context of Leviticus, God has given the life in the blood to Israel to make atonement for their sins. All throughout Leviticus, each sacrifice, we see the blood had to be shed so that they could be forgiven. God merely overlooks sin, he demands a substitute. The life in the blood had to be shed if someone was going to be forgiven. And since blood offers one life, it should not be disregarded or consumed by man. 

Do you see why disregarding this command would result in God setting his face against you? God offers you atonement for your sins. He offers you salvation by his blood. And to eat food with blood you would be disregarding the salvation that God has offered you. God offered atonement to Israel through the shed blood of an atoning sacrifice. God offers us atonement through the shed blood of the lamb of God, our atoning substitutionary sacrifice. After feeding the 5,000, Jesus was teaching the crowds that he was the bread of life,

John 6:47–51,

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Remember the life of the flesh is in the blood. The Jews started arguing among themselves,

“How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And Jesus said to them, John 6:53b–58

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

Jesus offered his life on the cross. He offered his blood to be shed. He died in our place as our atonement. He died as our substitute. He died as our passover lamb. And after he died, he was raised from the dead and now lives forever so that we can feed on him by faith and we do that in the Lord’s Table. When we come to the Lord’s Table we confess that there is life in the blood. The blood of the covenant made by Jesus is our atonement. We eat the bread and drink the cup testifying that we do not disregard the life God has given to us. 

And this is why we fence the table before we take the Lord’s Supper. We do not want anyone to disregard the life that Jesus Christ has given to us. He shed his blood for our souls. And when we come to the Lord’s table, full of sin, we trample on his sacrifice. Hear this warning in Hebrews about profaning the blood offered by God,

Hebrews 10:26–31

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 

Beloved, do not profane the blood of the covenant. Do not disregard the salvation God has offered. Do not cast aside the promise of life God has given to you. If any are walking in sin today, repent and turn to God. If you repent, God will welcome you back with open arms. But if you do not, he will set his face against you and cut you from his people, for you have not honored the gift of life he has given you.

Beloved, I also believe this verse should remind us that there is value in all of life. Christians, should be pro-life from the womb to the tomb. We should fight for the value of life of the unborn and reject all forms of abortion. We should value the life of the elderly giving honor and dignity to them and reject all forms of euthanasia. We should have respect for all life because God has given it to us. Are you honoring the life God has given? 

Are you honoring the community God has given? (v. 13-16)

The last paragraph of the chapter outlines specific cases of what Israel should do when they are hunting for food or discover an animal that has died.

Leviticus 17:13–16,

“Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off. And every person who eats what dies of itself or what is torn by beasts, whether he is a native or a sojourner, shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening; then he shall be clean. But if he does not wash them or bathe his flesh, he shall bear his iniquity.” 

These laws were still followed thousands of years later during the life of the early church.

Food was given for sustenance and for fellowship. As we have seen in the peace offering already in Leviticus, God desires to eat with his people and he desires his people to eat with one another. 

One of the challenges in the early church was how were Jew and Gentiles were going to experience table fellowship together. In Acts 15, at the first church council, the church decided to encourage the church to continue honoring not eating any food with blood. They send letters to the churches saying in Acts 15:28–29,

For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” 

Even though in Acts 10-11, God declared all food clean, the church knew the Jews would not eat food with any blood. And the church knew if they were going to be united then it would be essential for them to eat together. So to encourage unity and love for one another, the council encouraged laying down the freedom to eat whatever one wanted so that everyone could eat together. 

Eating red meat was not a sin, but it should be avoided when it causes an offense to other believers in the community. It was a way the church could honor the community by putting the needs of others before themselves. By way of application, are you honoring the community God has given you? Are you willing to lay down certain rights for the sake of others? Are you willing to lose a little sleep on Sunday morning to serve others by building relationships in Sunday School or serving in the nursery? Are you willing to give up a night of rest to invite people into your home to encourage them in the Lord? Are you giving yourself to pray for one another? Do you know the sin struggles of at least one other member of the church who is not related to you? Are you so consumed with your own life that you are not aware of what is happening to the life of someone else? 

God laid out laws in the Old Testament so that the community would honor and respect life and the life lived together. Did you notice again how often the judgment from disobeying God’s command was to be cut off from the people? We see it in verse 4, verse 9, verse 11, and verse 14. Four times in this chapter the consequence of disobedience was to be cut off from God’s people. I wonder if you would think that to be a harsh punishment. Meaning is your life so intertwined with God’s people that to be removed from this body and from relationship with one another, your life would be extremely affected. Or is your life in the body more of an add on to the rest of the things going on? Would losing your workout partners or being removed from your sports team be more of a punishment than being cut off from the church? 

I pray as a congregation we would honor the community God has given to us so much that losing it would be one of the worst things that could ever happen to us. And if you don’t view the church that way, I would ask, are you honoring the community God has given you?

The Cimabue painting that hung on the wall for decades being beaten and attacked by kitchen grease and faded by sunlight, now hangs in the Louvre as a French national treasure. The painting is called the Mocking of Christ. It is interesting that only when we realize that we have mocked Christ does the mocking of Christ become our treasure. When we ignore the suffering and sacrifice of Christ as just another part of our life, it hangs like a painting unseen and undervalued. And maybe that has been you so far in your life. You have heard about the life of Christ, heard about his sacrifice, heard about his blood offered as an atonement for your sin, but have never given it much thought. It is there but you walk by it every day as just another household painting on the wall. I would ask you today to stop mocking Christ by ignoring him. Consider what Christ has done for you in the gospel. For when we see our sin and see how we have mocked Christ and deserve what he took for us on the cross, it is then and only then, the life of the blood offered to us for our atonement becomes worth more than everything else. Friend, do not disregard the blood. Do not mock

Christ by ignoring his sacrifice. Look to Christ, see his blood, see his atonement, and make his atonement your supreme treasure. 

Beloved, as we are about to take the Lord’s Supper, to feed on Christ by feed. To symbolically eat the bread and drink the blood, I pray we would be reminded to honor what

Christ has given to us. I pray we would 

Behold the man upon a cross:

My sin upon His shoulders;

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers.

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished;

His dying breath has brought me life:

I know that it is finished.

Beloved, never stop beholding Christ. Don’t make him a part of your life, make him your whole life. Honor his commands, honor his life, honor his church and honor his sacrifice for there is life in the blood.