Part X7.1 - The Blood Which Is The Life

CHAPTER XVII. THE BLOOD WHICH IS THE LIFE. THE former chapter treated of the highest privilege of priesthood, and, accordingly, the address was through Moses to Aaron " his brother." Our attention is now directed to another important point, not one of special privilege, but a universal observance, the disregard of which would involve the being cut off from the people. It is, therefore, addressed through Moses to " Aaron, his sons, and all the children of Israel:" not to the " congregation " as a corporate body; but to the children of Israel individually. The former chapter showed the result of the one perfect offering of Christ which brings us into the presence of God; and the necessity of a right and full understanding and remembrance of it. It is now made clear that nothing less than the perfect work of Christ has put away sin, and provided a way of escape from death and its wages. And in recognizing this, no mere general acknowledgement, filled up with imaginations of our own, will avail. We must know altogether what Christ has effected, and believe with the heart God’s testimony concerning His Son. The general truth, that without shedding of blood there is no remission, has been ever in force since the fall.

It was in acknowledging it that Abel by faith received the testimony of God, and by faith offered an acceptable sacrifice. And many others followed his example in their several circumstances. But faith has ever respect to the testimony of God, and to the whole of it. The first declaration of God was short and in a sense ambiguous, not as to its end, but as to the means; yet faith took hold of it, for it was the word of the Lord. But when the testimony of God as to the means of His grace was more fully and explicitly unfolded, that was the guide to faith and the subject of it. Now, in this chapter, the Lord refers to an evil into which the Israelites had formerly fallen through their careless ignorance and self-will. Their sacrifices had been offered to devils, and not to God; they had degenerated, through a mere nominal and formal observance of the command of God, to direct disobedience. Their sacrifices were a lie, and belonged to him who was the liar from the beginning. God now reminds His people of the necessity of the exact observance of His ordinance, as involving the question of life and death. The Lord had already appointed the tabernacle as the definite and only habitation of His presence, and the door of the tabernacle as the place where He would meet with the children of Israel, and would accept their offerings, whether of free will or of positive command, provided they were offered according to His own directions. But when these directions had been clearly and distinctly made known, God would not allow the desired result, unless strict attention were paid to them. If, for instance, sin were to be forgiven, it could not be by slaying an animal according to the mere self will of the offerer, when or where or how he pleased, even though he should choose to call it a sin offering. The general acknowledgement of the necessity of the shedding of blood, unless it were coupled with regard to God’s appointments and declared will concerning it, would be no atonement at all. The animal, the mode, and the place, of God’s sin offering had been explicitly dictated, and that which was contrary to His law would not merely be unacceptable, but would even entail judgment on the offerer; nay it might prove to be an offering to devils rather than to God; for the least departure from His ordinance is a commencement of the evil which develops into avowed idolatry.

Leviticus 17:3. This commandment belongs more especially to the " house of Israel; " but " the stranger," who is afterwards mentioned (Leviticus 17:8), is equally involved in the obligation to obey. The offering must be brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and unless this were done, the blood, instead of making atonement, would cry out for vengeance. The one finished and perfect sacrifice of Christ brings any who really believe on His name to God. It doubtless should also bring believers into the fellowship of the Church, but if that were its only result, it would fail in its end, it would have produced a mere form of godliness, and would practically deny that power which separates from the world and from evil, which delivers from death, and brings us to life and to God. The mere profession, whatever the understanding and amount of theological knowledge may be, only seals condemnation, unless a man be really brought to God. There is no middle place, the gospel is either a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. He that believeth is saved; he that believeth not is condemned. Christ died for our sins, not to bring us to a mere profession of His name, or to a speculative knowledge of the necessity or value of atonement, but to bring us to God. The blood is either before God as an offering for sin, or it is imputed to those who disregard it: and the offerer’s nominal position, his being of Israel, or the fact of his offering in the camp, will be no protection ;-" That man shall be cut off from among his people."

Leviticus 17:5. Not only is the necessity for sacrifice now made known, but God has also appointed the priest who must offer it, and the sole place of priestly service is the tabernacle. No longer can the offering be made in the open field, but in a definite spot. " The field is the world," but God’s people are no longer left in the world and in the uncertainty of an isolated condition, but are brought together in separateness from the world to God. The place of priestly service is the heavens where God is, where only the sin offering can be offered (Hebrews 8:4). Christ is the Priest, to offer the sacrifice which He Himself has provided. The offering here mentioned is a peace offering, for peace is ever the result of the true sacrifice unto God.

Leviticus 17:6. The blood must be sprinkled upon the altar, and the fat burned for a sweet savour. For when sprinkled upon the altar the blood is seen to have been accepted by God, and signifies the finished work of Christ; while the burning of the fat for a sweet savour shows that the excellency belongs entirely to God.

Leviticus 17:7. This verse is an emphatic statement that any departure from God’s ordinance is nothing less than a sacrificing to devils, and thus even the full revealed light of the Gospel is no security, apart from the obedience of faith. Nay, the very gospel itself may thus be turned into an instrument of evil, and though the profession be that of the name of Christ, Satan may be the god who is actually served. (See 2 Tim.; 2 Peter; and the Epistle of Jude.) " This shall be a statute for ever throughout their generations," a point to be carefully observed.

Leviticus 17:8. The caution is repeated with the introduction of the " strangers; " and the offering new mentioned is the burnt offering, that is, acceptance and worship. This also must be brought to the door of the tabernacle, for the knowledge of acceptance and the privilege of worship is the knowledge of being brought nigh to God, or it is fallacious, an empty profession without a reality. So in the Epistle to the Ephesians (Ephesians 2:12-13, Ephesians 2:19), we are said to be no more strangers, because we have been " made nig’1.."

Leviticus 17:10. A command follows prohibiting the eating of blood. For eating blood is appropriating to ourselves, as belonging of right to us, that which has been forfeited to God by sin-" the life." God has given it, as here stated, to make atonement for the soul; that is, He has in His own way restored the lost life ; but it is only upon the altar that He has given the blood to be an atonement. It is the blood of Christ, as presented to Him and recognized by Him, which is life, and so the Lord Jesus says : " Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man, ye have no life in you." We must receive the life from God as given in the person of Him Who is the resurrection and the life. We must thus receive it, and not dream that we still have it in ourselves, or be deceived by indefinite ungrounded hope, which is but listening to the first lie of the enemy, " Ye shall not surely die." Much is here said upon this subject; and surely there is no greater barrier to our seeking from God, or rather receiving from God, our forfeited life than the widely spread delusion that we still have it, or can procure it for ourselves. It is only as convicted sinners, as those who know that they have earned the sad wages of sin, that we shall value or receive the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. To disregard this is the presumption of eating blood, and God here says: " I will even set My face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people."

Leviticus 17:13. The remembrance of our dependence upon God for life is always to be maintained. We are never to forget that we have and hold our forfeited lives from Him. Our life is hid at present with Christ in God, to be manifested when He appears in glory; therefore whatever we do we should do els 8o£av tfeofl, as connected with His glory. The blood must be poured out and covered with dust; a striking acknowledgement of our condition-the blood poured out as the life forfeited to God, and covered with dust, the perishing nature of our corrupt flesh. See Ezekiel 24:7-9, where Jerusalem is called the bloody city, because she disobeyed the spirit of this precept.

Leviticus 17:15. But while we must ever maintain the sense of our dependence upon God for our greatest need, we must also be mindful that in depending on Him we are brought into life and nearness to Him, and have become His children, the children of light and life, who must therefore renounce all fellowship with death and darkness. But if we are brought into contact with the latter in the necessities of our present condition, we must maintain our purity in the power of resurrection, in the washing of the cleansing water. " This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded."