Context No. 2443 of 4322 · Leviticus

Leviticus 17:8-16: in context

8“You shall say to them, ‘Any man there is of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice, 9and doesn’t bring it to the door of the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice it to the LORD, that man shall be cut off from his people. 10“‘Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. 11For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life. 12Therefore I have said to the children of Israel, “No person among you may eat blood, nor may any stranger who lives as a foreigner among you eat blood.” 13“‘Whatever man there is of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who takes in hunting any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood, and cover it with dust. 14For as to the life of all flesh, its blood is with its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, “You shall not eat the blood of any kind of flesh; for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.” 15“‘Every person that eats what dies of itself, or that which is torn by animals, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. Then he shall be clean. 16But if he doesn’t wash them, or bathe his flesh, then he shall bear his iniquity.’”

In the middle of laws about blood, Leviticus states a principle that reaches far beyond the sacrificial system: the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life. Blood was not to be eaten, because blood was life, and life was the costly thing that stood in for the sinner at the altar.

The logic is sobering. Atonement, the covering of sin so that a guilty person can stand before a holy God, is not free and it is not cheap. It costs a life. The blood on the altar was a life given in the sinner's place. This is the shape the whole system was training Israel to see, and it is the shape the New Testament says was finally filled by Christ, whose blood was the life laid down for ours. My peace with God was never a matter of God overlooking things; it cost a life.

Do I hold my peace with God as something cheap and assumed, or do I remember that it cost a life laid down in my place?

Sources

Leviticus 17:11: For the life of the flesh is in the blood... for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.
Hebrews 9:22: According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.
1 Peter 1:19: but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ.