And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying… As we come to the this text, which is the very word of God, may Psalm 19:10 be our meditation: “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.” This verse ought to force us to consider how greatly we value the Scriptures. Are they of more worth than great riches? If you were given a choice between great wealth without God’s Word or great poverty with God’s Word, which would you choose? And do we find them sweeter than honey? For ancient societies, sugar was an uncommon commodity; thus, tasting something sweet gave a particular form of delight that is difficult for us to imagine since we have so much available to us at all times. May His Word indeed be more desirous to us than gold and sweeter than honey this morning.
We now begin our descent from the pinnacle of Leviticus. The Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16, stands at the center of the book, the mountaintop. With chapter 17, we enter the second half, often called the Holiness Code.
While the whole book is structured chiastically, this second half forms its own unit. The first half of Leviticus focused on how God’s people could draw near to Him. They were to bring offerings to God, approach only when they were ritually clean, and trust in God’s atonement for them. Remember that uncleanness was not itself sin, but it represented the contaminating effects of sin. If someone entered God’s presence in such a state, it would indeed be a great transgression. Very likely a deadly one.
That is why the Day of Atonement was necessary. It was for the forgiveness of Israel’s sins, but it was also for the cleansing of the tabernacle itself from the uncleanness of dwelling in Israel’s midst.
Now, in chapter 17, we begin the second half of the book, which is about holy living before God. In fact, this text is also the beginning of the second half of the Pentateuch as a whole. Genesis and Exodus, together with the first half of Leviticus, focus upon how God formed His people and drew them near to Himself. But now, beginning with Leviticus 17 and moving into Numbers and Deuteronomy, the focus shifts to how they will live as His people. How will they continue to follow Him?
The answer is holiness. Earlier in the book, God declared: “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” And that is the summary of the second half of Leviticus. God is holy, set apart, unique, and He has called Israel to be His treasured possession, His holy nation. Therefore, they must live holy lives, lives set apart for the glory of God.
Indeed, Michael Morales rightly notes that “the only effective and lasting safeguard in God’s Presence must necessarily be authentic holiness; hence chapters 17-27 of Leviticus” (186). The offerings were necessary, as were the purity laws. But the only lasting safety when coming into the presence of God is holiness: walking in obedience to God, separated from the nations, and being entirely devoted to Him.
With that said, Leviticus 17 divides easily into two sections. Verse 1-9 command that all sacrifices must be offered only at the entrance of the tent of meeting, before the LORD. Then, verses 10-16 prohibit the eating of blood. Together, these two sections communicate the same truth: God’s people must be devoted to Him entirely, with all their worship and all their lives.
THE PROPER PLACE OF SACRIFICE // VERSES 1-9
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. “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.
This first section is about the proper place of sacrifice. One of the big interpretive questions here is whether this command applies to every time one of these domesticated animals is killed, or only when it was killed for an offering. The Hebrew word for ‘kill’ can mean general slaughter or ritual slaughter. Commentators are divided in their interpretations. Some argue that the law applied only to sacrificial animals because Israelites were either secretly sacrificing to other gods or to Yahweh, without priestly mediation. Indeed, verse 7’s mention of goat demons certainly suggests that idolatry was being practiced.
Others, however, see this as applying to any time one of these animals was killed while Israel lived together in the camp. Later, when the nation spread across the Promised Land, God made provision for ordinary slaughter at home, which we see in Deuteronomy 12:20-24:
“When the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. If the place that the LORD your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
This is the interpretation that I lean towards. At first, it may sound like a heavy burden upon the Israelites, but we must remember that in the ancient world, red meat was not a daily part of their diet. It was a luxury. Israelites, like most people throughout history, lived primarily upon bread, grains, produce, and fish and poultry. Red meat was typically reserved for special occasions, such as feasts. Andrew Bonar points out that if this command did indeed require all slaughter to be brough to the tabernacle, then God essentially turned all of Israel’s meat into a peace offering.
Do you remember the significance of the peace offering? Unlike the burnt, purification, or guilt offerings, the peace offering was not for sin but for thanksgiving and fellowship with God and with others. A portion was turned into smoke for Yahweh, a portion was given to the priests, and the rest was eaten, in the courtyard, by the worshiper and his family and friends. It was a celebration in the presence of God.
So, if every animal slaughtered became a peace offering, then every meal of meat also became a fellowship meal with Yahweh. As Bonar says:
Are we not here taught the duty of coming to the Lord at every season of food? Owning Him as Preserver? Feeling that blood has redeemed our life? and so going forward with hearts ever impressed and awed? We should eat our daily bread in His presence. (322)
That ought to remind us of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Every meal is meant to be enjoyed as an act of thanksgiving. Our daily bread ought to be consumed by setting our minds upon Christ as the Bread from heaven. Indeed, even meat can point us to Him.
I’ll never forget a moment from a mission trip to Venezuela in 2013. We were eating lunch at one of the campuses where we were evangelizing. I had a piece of steak, which was already becoming hard to find that summer and is even more so now. A young man sat across from me, looked at my plate, and asked, “Do you know that what you’re eating had a face?” I wasn’t sure what he meant, so he asked again. He said, “It was alive. It had a face.” I replied, “Well, I hope so; it is meat, after all.” It turned out that he was vegan and believed that killing animals was a kind of murder. I was able to explain to him that I do not take killing animals for meat lightly, but that it is not murder because God gave animals to humanity for meat after the flood. Furthermore, I was able to declare the gospel to him, beginning with how animals must die in order to be our sustenance and telling him how Christ laid down His life so that we might live.
But whichever interpretation we take, the point of these verses is clear: sacrifices must be brought to the tabernacle. Any other place is idolatry.
We might be tempted to think that sounds extreme. Could an Israelite not sincerely sacrifice to Yahweh out in a field?
First, most of these sacrifices were probably blatant idolatry. Verse 7 says, So they shall no more sacrifice to goat demons, after whom they whore. The Hebrew word here is simply ‘goats,’ but most scholars agree that goat-demons are meant. People in the ancient Near-East believed that satyr-like demons ruled the wilderness, making them places of danger, chaos, and evil. They would make sacrifices in hopes to be protected from them. Interestingly, that is exactly where God chose to reveal Himself to His people. At Sinai, God was preparing a table before them in the presence of their enemies.
Yet clearly there was still idolatry in their midst. In Deuteronomy, Moses would still command them to put away their idols. Even at the end of Joshua’s life, he would say the same: “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Israel” (Joshua 24:23). This teaches that we should not imagine biblical history as being black and white, as if some periods Israel was entirely faithful while during others, they were entirely unfaithful. The truth is always more complicated. Yes, Israel had times of overall faithfulness to Yahweh, but idolatry always lurked beneath the surface. But the converse is also true. Even during times of rampant idolatry, God always preserves a faithful remnant to Himself.
But, of course, some of the sacrifices here may have been to Yahweh. Even so, they are condemned. Whether blatant or subtle, whether to goat demons or simply in the wrong location, it is all idolatry. It is whoredom, spiritual adultery.
Indeed, all sin and disobedience is ultimately idolatry. Before we sin, we must necessarily dethrone God in our hearts. Psalm 14:1 tells us that “the fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'” He knows that there is a God, but he chooses to act as though God does not exist. And that is what we do each time we sin. We put ourselves on the throne, calling ourselves gods. Whether lying, stealing, coveting, or offering a sacrifice in the wrong place, the mindset is the same: “I will do what I want, on my terms. I know better than God.” That is idolatry.
And it is a serious offense. Verses 8-9 extend the command not only to Israelites but also to the foreigners living among them. If anyone offers a sacrifice anywhere other than the entrance of the tent of meeting, he shall be cut off from his people. Scholars debate whether that meant exile or execution, but either way, the penalty was severe. God would not tolerate idolatry among His people.
This again calls us to remember one of the great themes of Leviticus: God alone determines how He is to be worshiped. Now why did the sacrifices need to be made at the tabernacle? Why could faithful Israelites not sacrifice outside their own tents? We can think of plenty of practical and theological explanations, but ultimately, the reason is this: God gets to dictate how He is worshiped. We do not have the right to say, “This is how I think it is to worship You, God. This is what feels most worshipful to me.”
This is why I believe it is best for churches to practice what theologians call the regulative principle of worship. You see, there are two broad principles for how a church ought to worship God. The normative principle, which is the most commonly practiced today, says that as long as something is not forbidden by Scripture, it is permissible in worship. The regulative principle, on the other hand, says that in our gathered worship we should only do what God has commanded. That is, I believe, the safest way to worship God.
You will notice that I try to structure our Lord’s Day gathering around that principle. From the call to worship to the benediction, we should strive to set our full focus upon the LORD. That is only a little more than one hour each week, where we are attempting to look outside ourselves and focus solely upon God.
There are plenty of things that we could do or talk about that are certainly fine in other contexts, even within the church building. But we avoid placing them within the Sunday morning worship.
Can we not for one hour set our focus upon God? Should we not try, as the hymn says, to “turn our eyes upon Jesus, so that the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace?
BLOOD FORBIDDEN // VERSE 10-17
Now, the second half of this chapter turns to another subject: the prohibition against consuming blood:
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.
So, all blood is forbidden from consumption because the blood represents life. And that is not difficult to understand. If blood is inside the body, everything is fine. If blood is outside the body, we begin to panic. Something is wrong. Blood is bound to life.
God takes consuming blood seriously because it was a picture of a person trying to seize for themselves what only God can give. God alone is the author and giver of life. When people consume blood, it symbolized taking into their own hands the power of life that belongs only to the LORD.
Like the laws on bodily discharges that parallels this chapter, this contrasts against the paganism that surrounded the Israelites. Blood-drinking rituals were (and still are) common to pagan worship. Indeed, it is quite likely that many Israelites had practiced such rites at some point (perhaps still did). But here God is saying, “Not so with my people.” Yes, blood represents life, but God alone gives life. We do not have the right to attempt to take it for ourselves. As Paul says, “it is in Him that we live and move and have our being.”
God is the source of life because God is life. As Hebrews 1 says of Jesus, “He upholds the universe by the word of His power.” All things are held together by Him. Our life is in Him, through Him, and for Him. We have no life apart from Him. That is why God takes blood seriously.
Notice also what verse 11 says: 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 blood of sacrificial animals was reserved for atonement.
What is atonement again? It means at-one-ment. It is reconciliation, bridging the gap between two parties at enmity with one another. And that is the storyline of the Bible. In Genesis 1, God created all things good. In Genesis 2, He gave Adam, the first man, one prohibition in a world of goodness: do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” And in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve, his wife, disobeyed. While they did not immediately fall down dead; death did enter the world, bringing their deaths with it. “For the wages of sin is death.”
Indeed, sin always brings death. That is the unbreakable law of God’s justice. If there is sin, there must be death. Otherwise, God would be unjust and a liar.
But that is the beauty of the blood sprinkled on the altar. The blood represents the life of the animal, but after slaughter, the life is outside the animal. The blood is drained; its life is collected and then splattered upon the altar. In that act, the death of the animal is offered as a substitute for the sinner. The guilty person deserves death, but another death was given in his or her place. Life for life.
Of course, this explains why so much of Christianity celebrates the blood of Jesus. We read Hebrews 9 last week; let’s read Hebrews 10 today.
[1] For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. [2] Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? [3] But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. [4] For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins… [11] And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. [12] But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, [13] waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. [14] For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (ESV)
The blood of bulls and goats could never truly take away sins. But the blood of Jesus does. His blood perfectly and completely cleanses us from all sin. And as Hebrews 10:18 concludes: “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” No more burnt offerings. No more sin offerings. No more guilt offerings. Christ is the once-for-all offering, who sprinkled His own blood, not on the earthly altar, but on the true altar in heaven before the throne of God.
And now, to the praise of our LORD, we have full access to the Father. By His blood we have been perfected for all time. Remember that is the same term used for the ordination of the priests. We will not be morally perfected until we are glorified. But in Christ we have been cleansed fully so that we are now always able to enter the presence of God.
Of course, considering this prohibition of blood ought to cause us to ask whether it still applies to us today. We know again that this law is fulfilled in Jesus because His blood is the true life for us. But should we still avoid eating blood?
Should Christians avoid eating blood in their meat because of this Levitical law? This tension arose in the early church when Gentiles entered the congregation. The early church leaders ruled that believers should abstain from strangled animals because the blood was not drained (Acts 15:29). Paul ruled that if what people ate was associated with the pagan temple and therefore part of the worship of demons, or if it was open to misunderstanding and offensive to others, then it should not be eaten. Otherwise, it was permissible to eat (1 Cor. 10:20-27). It was not wrong; but it might not be wise or beneficial. (337)
So, can we eat something like blood sausage? I have, and I do not believe it was sinful. Under the new covenant, it is permitted. But if eating would be offensive, say, in the presence of Jewish friends who might stumble over it. We should gladly abstain. We ought to love others enough to set aside whatever freedom we enjoy, for their sake. Eating it is not wrong under the new covenant, but there may be situations where it is unwise, unhelpful, or a stumbling block to others.
And yet, consider the beauty of what Christ did at the Last Supper. The disciples, who had grown up with this prohibition against blood, sat at the table when Jesus held up the cup and said, “This is my blood of the covenant. Drink it in remembrance of me.” Imagine how shocking that command was!
Of course, we do not believe in transubstantiation. The wine does not literally become the blood of Christ, as Catholics and even Lutherans would affirm. But the symbolism is nevertheless powerful and unmistakable. Jesus was saying, “My blood is life for you. My life, poured out in sacrifice, is now given to you to cleanse you and sustain you.”
This is the glory of the new covenant. Not only has Christ’s blood been offered as the once-for-all sacrifice for sin; it is also given to us as life itself. His blood is not forbidden to us, but freely given. And this means that life is freely given, for Jesus is life: “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
Now, the final section of our text, verses 13-16, deals with the blood of animals that were hunted or found.
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.
Again, we see two commands here. The first is about hunting, while the second si about someone who eats an animal that has died naturally or being torn by wild beasts. The problem with the animals in the second law is that the blood could not be properly drained. It remained inside the carcass and coagulated. So, if a person ate it, unknowingly, he was still consuming blood.
Yet notice how generous this command is. Since this is consuming blood indirectly and probably unintentionally, the person is not cut off. He or she is only unclean until evening. The person simply had to wash himself and his clothes. Now, if he refused to do that, if he ignored his uncleanness, then it became a sin, and he would bear his iniquity. The principle is the same as the purity laws: even unintentional defilement must be dealt with, or it would lead to deeper guilt and punishment.
Now, with hunting, the command is that when a person killed an animal, they must still pour out its blood and cover it with earth. This was not an act of atonement because these were not sacrificial animals, but it was still a way of acknowledging that life belonged to God. Pouring out the blood, then covering it with earth, was almost like giving the life of that animal a little burial.
That brings us to the principle behind these verses: all life is sacred. God has given animals to us for good, but even their lives are to be treated with respect. They are His provision and gift to us. And so He built into Israel’s daily life, even something as ordinary and seemingly unspiritual as hunting, a reminder that all life comes from Him and belongs to Him.
And that points us to the larger theme of the entire chapter: God’s people belong to Him, which includes every detail of life. Holiness is not compartmentalized; it ought to saturate every aspect of our lives. For Israel, even hunting had to be done in such a way as to acknowledge God’s holiness. For us, the same principle still applies. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Are we striving to do that? Not just on Sunday mornings. Not just during our Bible readings and prayer times. But with what we eat and drink, with what we say and do, even in what we think. Holiness means that all of us belongs to God, heart, soul, and strength.
And that is the proper response to the gospel. Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe. The King of glory cleansed us from our sin with His blood; how can we not give ourselves to Him in return?
May we, therefore, be a people fully devoted to God, set apart for Him, living holy lives in His presence. And may He give us grace to do so through Christ Jesus, our Lord, who loved us and gave Himself for us. Amen.
B. C. Newton 