“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” – Leviticus 17:11
Blood is something that we’re all familiar with; we all have it and are all sustained, nourished, warmed and cleansed by it. It brings food and oxygen to our cells and organs and carries waste away. It regulates our body temperature, keeping us warm. Quite simply, blood is life. Without it, we die.
God makes this very clear to the Israelites in the book of Leviticus, which I just finished my study of this week. Most of you, I’m sure, know that this is a very dry book. For those who want to read the Bible from front to back, it is usually the book where they first run into difficulties because it can be so BORING, especially when you compare it to Genesis and Exodus, the two books that precede it.
However, a study of Leviticus reveals a lot of interesting things. If you want to really know the character of God and what He cares for, this is one of the books you want to look at. This book, essentially a collection of laws and instructions from God to the Israelites, shows a God who cares very much about the poor and the marginalized, equality, justice, morality and holiness. Leviticus shows a God who covets holiness for His people so that He can be with them. (For a holy being to be with people who are not holy would make him unholy, something God cannot allow.)
In order to be made holy, atonement needs to be made for things and people that are unholy, and in Leviticus an eye-popping number of buckets of blood are spilled in this quest. Sacrifices of rams, goats, bulls, sheep, doves and pigeons were made in order to atone for one’s sin and for the nation’s sin. A life has to be given for another life to live, so blood, a life-giving liquid, has to be spilled as payment for sin as Leviticus 17:11 quoted above makes clear. All those innocent animals had to give their lives so that the Israelites could continue with their relationship with God.
As a Christian who has been redeemed by the life-giving blood of Jesus Christ (whose sacrifice on the cross is now more clearly understood to be necessary when looked through the lens of Leviticus), it made me so thankful that we don’t have to worry about constant sacrifices of atonement. Think about it: day by day, your sin piles up and you can’t approach God until your sin is expunged. So, you would have to find an appropriate animal and have it offered up to God, its blood spilled and sprinkled on the altar. And yet, on your way home, you probably would sin again, kickstarting the entire cycle again!
You would never be able to fully know God nor be able to reach Him. Leviticus makes it abundantly clear that this was only a temporary solution and a more permanent one would have to come if there was any hope for God to be reconciled to His sinful, unholy people once again. It also makes the spilled blood of Jesus Christ a remarkable gift and blessing that His life was given so that we may live and be holy and to know God in ways that the Israelites were never able to.
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”
– Ephesians 2:13 (emphasis mine)
– Matt
atonementbloodEphesiansGodholyJesusLeviticuslife
There Will Be Blood
November 8, 2012
Calvary
Comments Off on There Will Be Blood
Matt
“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” – Leviticus 17:11
Blood is something that we’re all familiar with; we all have it and are all sustained, nourished, warmed and cleansed by it. It brings food and oxygen to our cells and organs and carries waste away. It regulates our body temperature, keeping us warm. Quite simply, blood is life. Without it, we die.
God makes this very clear to the Israelites in the book of Leviticus, which I just finished my study of this week. Most of you, I’m sure, know that this is a very dry book. For those who want to read the Bible from front to back, it is usually the book where they first run into difficulties because it can be so BORING, especially when you compare it to Genesis and Exodus, the two books that precede it.
However, a study of Leviticus reveals a lot of interesting things. If you want to really know the character of God and what He cares for, this is one of the books you want to look at. This book, essentially a collection of laws and instructions from God to the Israelites, shows a God who cares very much about the poor and the marginalized, equality, justice, morality and holiness. Leviticus shows a God who covets holiness for His people so that He can be with them. (For a holy being to be with people who are not holy would make him unholy, something God cannot allow.)
In order to be made holy, atonement needs to be made for things and people that are unholy, and in Leviticus an eye-popping number of buckets of blood are spilled in this quest. Sacrifices of rams, goats, bulls, sheep, doves and pigeons were made in order to atone for one’s sin and for the nation’s sin. A life has to be given for another life to live, so blood, a life-giving liquid, has to be spilled as payment for sin as Leviticus 17:11 quoted above makes clear. All those innocent animals had to give their lives so that the Israelites could continue with their relationship with God.
As a Christian who has been redeemed by the life-giving blood of Jesus Christ (whose sacrifice on the cross is now more clearly understood to be necessary when looked through the lens of Leviticus), it made me so thankful that we don’t have to worry about constant sacrifices of atonement. Think about it: day by day, your sin piles up and you can’t approach God until your sin is expunged. So, you would have to find an appropriate animal and have it offered up to God, its blood spilled and sprinkled on the altar. And yet, on your way home, you probably would sin again, kickstarting the entire cycle again!
You would never be able to fully know God nor be able to reach Him. Leviticus makes it abundantly clear that this was only a temporary solution and a more permanent one would have to come if there was any hope for God to be reconciled to His sinful, unholy people once again. It also makes the spilled blood of Jesus Christ a remarkable gift and blessing that His life was given so that we may live and be holy and to know God in ways that the Israelites were never able to.
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”
– Ephesians 2:13 (emphasis mine)
– Matt
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atonementbloodEphesiansGodholyJesusLeviticuslife