Leviticus 17
THE GREAT day of atonement in the sixteenth chapter has a central place not only in the book of Leviticus, but in all the ways of God. It shadows forth the work of Christ on which all blessing depends, whether for Jews or Gentiles or the Church of God, in fact for earth and heaven, and for time and for eternity.
In the next six chapters the Lord gives to Aaron and his sons and to all the children of Israel rules for the purpose of guarding them from defilements to which they were exposed. How necessary to us is that watchfulness in our every day lives lest the heart should be turned away from the Lord.
The sacrifices on the great day of atonement speak to us of the majesty of God and of what He in grace has done to meet us in our need as sinners. But how easily our hearts forget these claims of God and act in ways contrary to and independent of Him.
Whenever a man killed an animal or fowl for food without the camp, he must bring it to the entrance of the tabernacle as an offering to the Lord. If he failed to do so, blood was imputed to the man, because he shed blood without thus acknowledging the Lord, and the man was to be cut off from his people. Long before, when Noah came forth from the ark, it was laid down that life belonged to God, and man must own His claim by not eating the blood. This decree God has never changed; it carries through all dispensations. If a man took the flesh of an animal for his food, he was bound to own that life belonged to God. Thus it was the duty of the Israelite to bring such to the Lord and the priest, not as a sin offering, but that which expressed communion with Him. How honoring to God and what blessing to the soul when we bow in happy obedience to that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The priest was to sprinkle the blood and burn the fat upon the altar as a sweet savor to the Lord. As priests it is our happy privilege to give to the Lord what is due to Him in everything!
This regulation was also a safeguard against idolatry, for being as they were in the midst of heathen nations all around, idolatry was a great snare to God’s people. “They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils,” v. 7, as did the Gentiles around them. God would warn us of this same danger, for we are liable to do things because others around us do them, without first asking the Lord if they are pleasing to Him. He told His people they were not to copy the nations around, for He wanted to bless them, and He could not bless them in the path of disobedience.
Then in verses 10-16 they were again forbidden to eat blood. Even if a man went hunting and slew a beast or a fowl and used its flesh for food, the claims of God must be maintained. The blood was to be poured out and covered with earth.
Christianity does not change these prohibitions of God for after the counsel at Jerusalem in Acts 15, the decree given to the Gentile assemblies was “that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well.”
God is the alone source and giver of life; life given up belongs to Him. How well it is for us to respect God’s decrees. How wonderful it is that to every believer now He gives eternal life in His Son, whom He sent into the world to die for our sins.
ML-06/04/1972