Chapter 17
All are instructed to bring their sacrifices to the tent of meeting to be offered to the Lord. No other place was acceptable. This was to prevent them sacrificing to other gods. This is especially important when the kingdom splits and Rehoboam builds an altar in Samaria upon which the northern tribes are to sacrifice. Direct contradiction to God's word, spoken to Moses. And how many of those in the north did it anyway, even though they knew the law? The penalty was that the person doing so would be cut off from his people. So when the Assyrians came and carted them all away, they weren't really Israel anymore. They had been cut off by their own doing.
2022 - When Rehoboam did this, many left the northern kingdom and moved south. It is probably so that almost everyone - if not absolutely everyone - in the northern kingdom was doing all their sacrificing outside of Jerusalem. Therefore, that entire kingdom, all the ten tribes in the north, sealed their own fate by ignoring this direct, unequivocal, and "forever" command of God as to the proper place of sacrificing to Him.
2021 - 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. Leviticus 17:7 ESV.
Never noticed this wording before. Goat demons? Needs more study. Meaning may be quite different than I thought... though the next verse sends to clarify.
8 "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 9 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. [Lev 17:8-9 ESV]
This verse is worded quite differently in the ESV as compared to KJV and NKJV:
11 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. [Lev 17:11 ESV]
11 'For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it [is] the blood [that] makes atonement for the soul.' [Lev 17:11 NKJV]
11 'For 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 by reason of the life that makes atonement.' [Lev 17:11 NASB]
Here are the three variations that I found. The last one seems to bring it all together in saying that when blood is shed, life goes with it. We cannot lose our blood and keep our life. In this way, life and blood are connected. It is not the physical blood that God requires as a penalty for sin, but life itself. Death is the curse of sin, and blood connects death and life. As such, life - and ceremonially life IS the blood - is only God's, and was never ever to be seen as "food". Blood is never food, it is always life itself.
2023 - Oh my! Still more confirmation as to why we drink the blood of the Lord's supper, but it was completely prohibited before that. The actual point being made here is not really clear in the NKJV wording. In ESV, we have this phrase "by the life" which seems completely awkward and forced. NASB seems the best..."by reason of the life". Israel never drank the blood because we don't want to imbibe the lives of sacrificial animals in that ritual. Eating the flesh takes on the sin done in the flesh. Drinking the blood takes on the life itself. Jesus sinless life enabled effective atonement, once for all. So we not only eat the flesh and so take on the sin, but we drink the blood to take in the life that permanently atones for that sin. Atonement "by the life" of the one who shed the blood.
2023 - Later. It is the righteousness of a completely obedient life that is represented by the blood. The life of the flesh is in the blood, and that life was righteous, then when we drink the wine of the Lord's supper, representing blood, we take the righteous life of Christ into ourselves.
2023 - Still another clarification I had not noticed before this year: 14 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. [Lev 17:14 ESV]. Really, Lev 17:10-16 is all about this.
2025 - God gave/designated/declared that blood and only blood would be acceptable to him for atonement of sins. In order to emphasize the unique and special use of the blood for this purpose, God required that this be the ONLY purpose for which it was used. It was not for food, it was not for drink, it was for atonement, and that only through the priest. Jesus' blood atoned for all mankind once, for all, and forever. Therefore, blood is no longer needed for atonement, is no longer unique in that regard, and can now be consumed, as at the Lord's Supper.
2021 - I think this is on the right track. Life pays for sin, and blood symbolizes life. To eat the blood is to put yourself in God's place. (Nope. See above.)
2022 - But then there is this:
"27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." [Mat 26:27-28 ESV]
Jesus is telling them to drink from the cup that he says contains his blood. He is telling them to consume blood. To take his life into themselves. Perhaps it is important that he continues that this forgives sins, rather than atoning for them. The blood of the animal sacrifices was thrown on the altar to delay the penalty. To appease God so that justice for the sin would be delayed. But Jesus' blood meant that God forgave for all time the consequences of sin. By giving his life he obtained our complete forgiveness. We incorporate that blood and the forgiveness that it brings by drinking of the blood at the Lord's supper. (2023 - It was here along! I'd already figured it out, I just didn't realize I had!) His blood, effectual for the forgiveness of sin, becomes our blood, our life, when we consume it. You would never want to consume the blood of an animal sacrifice because it only appeased God for today, it did not satisfy Him forever.
I still have not quite put all this together - the connection between the animal sacrifices in Leviticus and the words Jesus used at the Lord's supper. Something very huge, very dramatic, and completely different is happening with Jesus' death on the cross and the OT animal sacrifices. That blood was forbidden, this blood is to be consumed. I am on the trail, but I do not yet have the words to explain what is going on at the last supper with the wine. Perhaps it was the fourth cup...and I need to know what the fourth cup signified?
2023 - I wonder if the paragraph above is on the right track? The difference between atonement and forgiveness? The body for temporary atonement, the blood for everlasting forgiveness. But the blood only works if the life was without sin. Forgiveness only comes by a perfect life. Is that right?