Leviticus: Blood

Blood is a critical issue in Leviticus. We are repeated told about how blood is never to be eaten but to be given to God, and blood is the “key ingredient” in all the sacrifices of atonement that Leviticus details. This focus on blood is not unique to Leviticus, but is a prominent feature in the Torah. This blog will consider the “big picture” behind blood in Leviticus and why it matters to us.

The issue of blood and bloodshed is front and center in the first covenant in scripture: the covenant with Noah. God tells Noah in Genesis 9:1-6 that humans are subsequently allowed to eat meat (they weren’t previously!) but that they must not eat the blood. Check it out:

Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.

6 Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
    by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image
    God made humankind.

All life belongs to God, and to the ancient Israelites the blood represented life. Therefore, in any act of killing the blood had to be dealt with. If it was a murder, the blood of the perpetrator was to be shed to expiate the sin. If it was a sacrifice, the blood was to be given to God at the altar (poured out or “dashed” against the sides of the altar). If an Israelite killed an animal in the field, the blood was to be poured out prior to consumption (Lev. 17:13). If blood was shed and not expiated then the land would become defiled, as in Numbers 35:33:

You shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

The only legitimate human use for blood was for purifying or expiating sins and defilement. The priests were to apply blood to the various altars or sprinkle blood before the Ark (“mercy seat”) at different times to expiate sins and defilement. God allows the Israelites to purify the Tabernacle through sacrificial blood in order to maintain a relationship with Him (Lev. 17:11). This is a CRITICAL piece to understanding the sacrificial system . . . you’ll see in Leviticus 4-7 and beyond that blood is NEVER put on “sinners” to purify them of sins. Rather, blood is put on parts of the Tabernacle to purify it and remove the defilement brought about by sin.

So from all of this discussion of blood we are left with some significant theological points:

All life belongs to God . . . no human or animal lives are to be used as a commodity or treated lightly.
Violence (bloodshed) defiles creation and everyone who lives in an area of unreconciled bloodshed is defiled in God’s eyes
The cost of removing the defilement of sin is life itself (as blood represents life in sacrifice). Life overcomes death (the ultimate disorder or defilement) but at the cost of sacrifice. Beyond the obvious New Testament implications, this points to the reality in life that it is only by great sacrifice that we deal with sins. Whether they are personal sins, family sins, national sins or anything else there are no cheap or easy solutions. Healing and restoration require sacrifice, if not of our blood then our time, our resources, our love and ourselves (our desires, comforts, etc.).
God refuses to dwell in the midst or sin, disorder and impurity. If sin and disorder is not dealt with them fellowship and covenant with God will be broken. (See Ezekiel 8-10 for an example.)