"For the life of every creature - its blood is its life...for the life of every creature is its blood" (vs. 14).
By this point in Leviticus, you may be wondering, "What's the deal with all the blood? All those bulls, sheep, goats, birds, etc. slaughtered as sacrifices? And the blood applied to the horns of the altar, and to the different parts of the high priest, and sprinkled on the people? Seriously?"
The Bible regards blood as sacred, as holding the key to life itself. While medical science has advanced to the degree that we understand more of the body's complexity, it is still true that a loss of blood can result in death. The teaching from the Bible is that one's life (animal or human) is in the blood, so the Israelites had to be very careful in how they treated blood. It was never to be consumed, for instance (vs. 12).
So fundamental was this teaching among the Jews that it was one of the few Old Testament laws specifically re-authorized as binding on Christians in the New Testament. In Acts 15, when the early church gathered to decide "how Jewish" Gentiles coming to faith in Christ had to be, they took a minimalist approach. They laid down four rules for Gentile believers: no idols, no fornication, no strangled animals, and no blood (Acts 15:20 and 15:29). The commandment against eating blood was taken very seriously.
Because the life of a creature is its blood, it is the blood which makes atonement (vs. 11). This is also a teaching repeated in the New Testament, as we read in Hebrews: "Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified by blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22)
Question to consider: How does it make you feel to hear that your sins cannot be forgiven without the shedding of blood?
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