The Blood

Today’s Passage – Leviticus 16 – 18 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – John 11 – 12; Proverbs 9; Psalms 46 – 50)

Read the “0209 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read previous posts from this passage – “There Is a Fountain,” and “Abomination.“

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. … And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.” (Leviticus 17:11, 13-14)

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22)

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:” (1 Peter 1:18-19)

I must confess to you that when I first was saved, I thought Christian churches had a somewhat strange obsession with blood. We sing songs like, “Nothing But the Blood,” “There’s Power in the Blood,” and “Are You Washed in the Blood.” I did not understand then that “the blood” referenced in all of these songs as well as in the preaching was the perfect, sinless blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for me on the Cross of Calvary. the Bible is very clear, that unless Jesus’ blood was shed for us there would be no remission of sins.

In the Book of Leviticus, we learn that even in the Old Testament sacrificial system, the blood of animals was seen as special to God, and He actually forbade people from “eating” the blood. When I was a kid, I used to get grossed out when I saw an adult drinking the blood that was on the bottom of their very rare plate of steak. Even way back in Genesis nine, when Noah and his sons were starting their lives in a brand post-flood new world, God permitted the eating of animals, but God prohibited the eating of any animal raw or uncooked:

“Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.” (Genesis 9:3-4)

God stated twice in Leviticus 17 that the life of all flesh is in the blood. It’s the presence of blood, which allows us and all animal life to live. God also said that because life is “in the blood,” blood was the only thing that could make atonement for the soul. The blood of animal’s could not atone for man’s soul in the Old Testament time period, but it did serve to remind the people of God of the coming blood sacrifice Christ would make on the Cross:

“But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:3-4)

I get it now. The blood of Christ is precious. The emphasis that God placed upon the blood back in Leviticus, is the same that we should place upon it today. We don’t worship the blood, just as we do not worship crosses; but blood should remind us of life; Christ’s life that was poured out for us on Calvary.