OVERVIEW:
God forbids Israel from worshipping other gods and eating blood; laws protecting the sanctity of sex; the declaration of civil laws.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
The first thing God made clear to Moses in Leviticus 17 was the ACCEPTABLE PLACE the sacrifice was to be offered. That PLACE was “the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” (17:4) Notice that not bringing the sacrifice to the ACCEPTABLE PLACE was a crime worthy of DEATH! (17:9) The next thing God emphasized to Moses in Leviticus 17 was the ACCEPTABLE PRICE that was to be offered in the sacrifice. That PRICE was BLOOD!
These two key things picture perfectly what God likewise emphasizes to us in the New Testament! The fact that there is only one ACCEPTABLE PRICE that can be paid for sin, and it is “nothing but the BLOOD of Jesus!” (1st John 1:7; Hebrews 9:22; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14) That blood was the blood that was shed from the one ACCEPTABLE PLACE: the cross of Calvary! (Galatians 3:13) Anyone who goes to anything other than the PRICE that was paid through the BLOOD of Christ, and/or anyone who goes to any PLACE other than the CROSS of Christ to find the forgiveness of sin, will become the recipient of ETERNAL DEATH! Just as the BLOOD was to be offered at the “DOOR of the tabernacle,” in perfect fulfillment of the type, Jesus said, “I am the DOOR” (John 10:9), and “He that entereth not by the DOOR into the sheepfold, but climbeth up SOME OTHER WAY, the same is a thief and a robber.” (John 10:1)
As we make our way further into Leviticus 17, God continues to teach the children of Israel, and us, about the sanctity of BLOOD. Several hundred years ago, people used to think that one of the ways a sick person could be healed was by draining out a good portion of their blood. Had they simply read and believed Leviticus 17:11, they would have known what science had not yet discovered, “the life of the flesh is in the blood”! That is a principle science now knows is true PHYSICALLY (sick people today are often given blood transfusions!), but this is also a principle that believers in Christ know is true SPIRITUALLY: the only way we can have spiritual life inside of our fleshly bodies is through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ! The life of the flesh is truly IN THE BLOOD!
Because of the sanctity of blood, God also forbids in this passage the eating or drinking of it. (17:10) That, too, was an offense worthy of death! (17:10) Note also that this forbiddance is likewise repeated in the New Testament in an epistle addressed to those of us in the Church Age! (Acts 15:20) Apparently, God never wanted us to lose sight of what a special substance blood actually is, and wanted to be sure that we kept ourselves completely distanced from anything even remotely connected to devil worship (17:7), or the way the Egyptians worshipped their pagan gods (18:3). May this admonition serve as a reminder to us today to distance ourselves from any of the “idolatry” (see Colossians 3:5) we may have been involved in when we were slaves in the bondage of Egypt (Egypt picturing our bondage to sin, Satan, and self)!
Over and over in today’s reading, God calls us to holiness against the backdrop of a tremendously powerful spiritual reality:
Oh, may we realize today that there was a time when we were separated from the one true God, the God of the Bible. We walked, rather, according to “the god of this world.” (2nd Corinthians 4:4) But the light of the glorious gospel shined past the blinders Satan sought to use to keep us bound to him and his worldly domain, and God now says to us: “I am the Lord your God!”
Against the backdrop of that glorious reality, may we heed what “THE LORD OUR GOD” says to us today from 2nd Corinthians 6:14-18, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
As the HOLY WORD OF GOD that protects our private and public lives from rampant wickedness – Leviticus 20:8 (John 1:1-2, 14; Revelation 19:13)