Leviticus · chapter 17 of 27
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Leviticus 17 commands that animals for sacrifice be brought only to the entrance of the tent of meeting, not to the open field or to other gods. It forbids eating blood, foreigners included, because the life of the flesh is in the blood and the Lord gave it on the altar to make atonement. It also gives rules for the blood of game and for animals found dead.
After the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 17 begins a new section, often called the Holiness Code, which runs to chapter 26. Here the center of worship is protected: one place of sacrifice and a deep respect for blood. The chapter contains one of the most important statements in the Bible about the meaning of blood.
The Lord tells Moses to say to Aaron, his sons and all the Israelites that anyone who slaughters an ox, a lamb or a goat, inside or outside the camp, without bringing it to the entrance of the tent of meeting as an offering to the Lord, will be guilty of bloodshed and cut off from his people. The purpose is that the Israelites bring to the priest the sacrifices they used to offer in the open field, and no longer offer to the goat demons with whom they prostituted themselves. It is a lasting statute.
The same rule applies to the foreigners who live among them. Then the Lord forbids eating blood: whoever eats it, whether Israelite or foreigner, will be cut off from his people, because the life of the flesh is in the blood, and the Lord has given it on the altar to make atonement for their lives.
If someone hunts an animal or bird that may be eaten, he must pour out its blood and cover it with earth. And whoever eats an animal found dead or torn must wash his clothes and bathe, and is unclean until evening; if he does not, he bears his guilt.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Israelites must bring their sacrifices to the priest, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, as peace offerings to the Lord. This keeps worship from scattering and each person from offering in his own way. God himself defines where and how he is worshiped.
The life of the flesh is in the blood, and the Lord has given it on the altar to make atonement for their lives. It is one of the clearest statements of the meaning of sacrifice: a life given takes the place of the sinner's life.
The blood is the life of every creature, and therefore eating it is forbidden. The rule teaches respect for life as a gift of God. Even when hunting for food, the Israelite had to acknowledge that life belongs to the Lord.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: To the entrance of the tent of meeting, to the priest. — Leviticus 17:4-5
Answer: To the goat demons with whom they had prostituted themselves. — Leviticus 17:7
Answer: Because the life of the flesh is in the blood. — Leviticus 17:11
Answer: To make atonement for their lives. — Leviticus 17:11
Answer: Pour it out and cover it with earth. — Leviticus 17:13
Answer: Wash his clothes, bathe and be unclean until evening. — Leviticus 17:15
Leviticus 17 teaches that worship is not invented: God defines how he wants to be worshiped. In a Sunday school class you can ask whether our forms of worship, so varied today, answer to his Word and to its center, which is Christ.
The chapter also teaches the value of life, which is a gift. The letter to the Hebrews explains that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, and that Christ shed his once. Each time a believer takes part in the Lord's Supper, he remembers that atonement is not reached by human effort but by the life he gave.
Leviticus 17 joins ordered worship and respect for blood as the center of atonement. Leviticus 18 turns to the moral life of the people, with rules on sexual conduct and the call not to live like the peoples of Egypt and Canaan.
The text gives the reason: the life of the flesh is in the blood, and the Lord gave it for atonement. Eating it would treat lightly something God reserved for the altar. The New Testament also mentions abstaining from blood in a different setting, that of the first council at Jerusalem.
The principle that a life given makes atonement is fulfilled in Christ. Hebrews teaches that his blood, offered once, cleanses the conscience and secures eternal redemption, something the blood of animals pointed to but could not achieve.