Blood Ban (Lev. 17:10-14)

Dr. Paul Manuel—2020

Text:

Lev 17:10 Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood—I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. 11 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. 12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood. 13 Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, 14 because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.

Outline:

      I.    The ban’s coverage is comprehension (vv. 10, 13).

            A.    It applies to any native Israelite.

            B.    It applies to any resident alien.

Application: While your present diet does not determine your final destination, it does demonstrate your devotion to God (Isa 66:17).

     II.    The ban’s consequence is catastrophic (vv. 10, 13).

            A.    It affects a person’s relationship with God.

            B.    It affects a person’s relationship with others.

Application: More exposure to God’s word will make people more aware of God’s will (Acts 15:20-21).

    III.    The ban’s complement is clear (vv. 11, 14).

            A.    It is essential to one’s physical life.

            B.    It is essential to one’s ceremonial life.

Application: God directs a select few of His commands to some people, but He intends many of His commands to most people, even all people (Matt 22:36-39).

 

Introduction: There are some things a person should not do, especially a child, because of the possible danger it presents:

Frequently complimented on what a pretty girl she was, five-year-old Maria had become accustomed to receiving praise from relatives and friends. One evening her mother’s sister came to visit just as Maria was being tucked into bed, so her aunt came to say good night. “You have really long eyelashes!” her aunt said, “Yes,” Maria replied. “My lashes should be long. I’ve been growing them for five years…and I never cut them.”

There are some things a person should not do, especially a child, because of the possible danger it presents, like trimming one’s eyelashes with scissors. If a child is not reluctant to attempt such activity, it may be necessary for parents to forbid it, to issue an ‘eyelash trimming’ ban. When the Israelites left Egypt, the Lord issued several commands, including a Blood Ban, forbidding His people from consuming blood, which may have been a common activity among the Canaanites.

 

Background: Some of God’s commands may seem difficult to obey because they require additional instruction (e.g., tying tassels on a garment), special equipment (e.g., using a ram’s horn to sound on the New Year), or careful preparation (e.g., preparing a meal with several courses on Passover). Other of God’s commands are easy to obey because they require an individual to refrain from doing something simple, like the Blood Ban which requires only that an individual abstain from consuming blood.

 

Lev 17:10 Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood—I will set My face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. 11 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. 12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.” 13 Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, 14 because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, “You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.”

 

      I.    The ban’s coverage is comprehension (vv. 10, 12).

Lev 17:10 Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood—I…will cut him off from his people[1]…. 12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.”

            A.    It applies to any native Israelite.

 

    God intends most of His laws for Jews, those with whom He has a covenant. Even His most well-known laws, like those in the decalogue, He specifically addresses to the people of Israel He delivered from bondage in Egypt:

God spoke all these words: ^“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exod 20:1-2)

The Blood Ban God also intends for Jews. Yet this law is broader and applies to all who are part of Israel, Jews as well as gentiles. “It was a religious rule of the first importance” (Wenham 1979:244).

 

            B.    It applies to any resident alien.

 

     At first, Jews and the gentiles who associate closely with them live primarily in the land, so the ban applies especially in the land. God issues the Blood Ban with a broad temporal designation, “a lasting ordinance” and a broad geographical designation, “wherever you live”:

This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat…any blood. (Lev 3:17)

Later, when this group moves beyond the borders of Canaan, as in the Babylonian exile, the prohibition again applies broadly. Isaiah writes:

Foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to My covenant—these I will bring to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” The Sovereign Lord declares—He who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.” (Isa 56:6-8)

Here, God expands the recipients of many laws to include gentiles who have joined themselves to Israel, called sojourners or aliens.[2] The Blood Ban is one of those laws for Jews and resident aliens. But it is not for other gentiles, those not connected to Israel. Right? …According to an even older law, one God gave to Noah and his descendants (all of us), the Blood Ban applies to everyone:[3]

You must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. (Gen 9:4)

It is also a command the Jerusalem Council reiterates for all Christians, Jews as well as gentiles:

We should write to them, telling them to abstain…from blood (Acts 15:20).

If you, a Christian, have been craving blood pudding, you should probably reconsider that ‘food’ selection.

 

Application: Disobeying this law will not invalidate your salvation (Manuel 2013a), but if your goal is to please your God and not just yourself (Manuel 2017), choose another item on the menu. Some people think God does not care what a person eats, an opinion often derived from a misunderstanding of Jesus’ statement in Mark 4:19 where he “declared all foods clean.”[4] Apart from ignoring the context of that statement (Manuel 2006), such a view also ignores God’s repeated declarations about what He considers unclean and about what displeases Him, like eating pork:[5]

“Those who eat the flesh of pigs and rats and other abominable things…will meet their end together” declares the Lord. (Isa 66:1

God calls pork “abominable,” a food choice some advertisers call “the other white meat” but, like blood, it is not acceptable for God’s people. While your present diet does not determine your final destination, it does demonstrate your devotion to God (Manuel 2013b). Many of His commands may seem arbitrary, even burdensome. It does not matter. Whatever God commands, He expects His people to obey. In any case, obedience to the blood ban is a “light and momentary [inconvenience] achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs” any alternative (2 Cor 4:17). Moreover…

 

     II.    The ban’s consequence is catastrophic (vv. 10, 13).

Lev 17:10 I will set My face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people…. 13 Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth.[6]

     The first result of disobeying the Blood Ban is serious: separation from the believing community.

 

            A.    It affects a person’s relationship with God.

 

     The same penalty attends child sacrifice, idol worship, and occult practices, three activities God abhors.[7] Consuming blood hardly seems as serious as these three pagan activities, yet God says it is, and He attaches to it an equally serious punishment: excommunication from the religious life of Israel, which means no involvement with annual holidays such as celebrating the Feast of Booths and no participation in temple activities such as offering sacrifices to secure atonement. All these things that once connected an individual to the God of Israel are gone. Furthermore, another consequence awaits the person who eats blood.

 

            B.    It affects a person’s relationship with others.

 

     When someone ignores the Blood Ban it has other consequences, both professional and casual. He can no longer participate in community activities and is cut off from whatever support he once received by those he knows best. Earlier, he was accepted, even welcomed by others.[8] Now, he no longer enjoys familiar associations and gatherings. Transgressing the Blood Ban also limits his ability to conduct business and may require that he make his living outside the land, among the gentiles. Family, friends, and associates shun him, all because he consumed blood.

 

Application: Today, with society as mobile as it is and congregations as isolated as most are from each other, excommunication, for the very few groups that practice public shunning, is less of a significant incentive to modify one’s behavior, especially when it concerns food, which most Christians consider a non-issue. Whatever your opinion may be on the matter, it is best to consider what God has to say so that you are not unpleasantly surprised one day and discover you should have—you could have—been doing things differently.

     Jesus says that what goes into a man’s mouth is not as important as what comes out of his mouth:

What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’” (Matt 15:11)

This does not mean what goes into a man’s mouth is not important at all. God has deemed that what a person ingests is important, and the Jerusalem Council which addresses gentile believers agrees. Peter says:

Abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath. (Acts 15:20-21)

In other words, more exposure to God’s word will make people more aware of God’s will.

 

     God does not always give a reason for His prohibitions. In this case He gives two reasons. The first result of disobeying the Blood Ban is serious: separation from the believing community. The second result of disobeying the Blood Ban is also serious:

 

    III.    The ban’s complement is clear (vv. 11, 14).

 

Lev 17:11 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…. 14 because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, “You must not eat the blood of any creature [wild or domesticated], because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.”

     The second result of disobeying the Blood Ban is that such behavior violates the order God established in creation.

 

            A.    It is essential to one’s physical life.

 

     Of the various (ten or eleven) bodily systems, the circulatory system, with its (approximately) five quarts of blood, is the most important to life. It keeps nutrients and oxygen flowing throughout the body to be absorbed or excreted as necessary. Blood is a vital source of life. When blood is lost, life is lost. That is how Joseph’s brothers proved his death to their father:

They got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. (Gen 37:31)

Had his brothers been directly responsible for Joseph’s death, the penalty God may have exacted is death:[9]

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. (Gen 9:6)

Man’s being in God’s image refers to his moral makeup and does not mean that God has the same physical characteristics as man (Manuel 2001).[10] Still, blood is essential to one’s physical life. Yet for God, blood has another significance, beyond the physical.

 

            B.    It is essential to one’s ceremonial life.[11]

 

     This is a dimension of the Blood Ban unfamiliar to most people. It marks the difference between what is acceptable and unacceptable to God:

You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean. (Lev 10:10)

This applies to sustenance as well as to sacrifice:

You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten. (Lev 11:47)

The Blood Ban also applies to the ceremonial use of blood in the sanctuary, which is primarily for atonement:[12]

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. (Lev 17:11)

“Because animal blood atones for human sin…it is sacred and ought not to be consumed by man” (Wenham 1979:245).

     The difference between what is a clean or unclean offering obtains only in the temple. Absent a temple today, the Blood Ban would seem no longer to apply, but it does, because it is “a lasting ordinance for the generations to come” (Lev 3:17).

 

Application: Does the Blood Ban still matter? …Yes, it does, because it indicates what God considers an appropriate dietary choice for you who claim to belong to Him. It indicates how you should order or prepare meat—steak is not to be ‘blue.’ It also says that you should avoid delicacies like blood pudding and blood sausage. However much you consider such items a tasty addition to your diet, the Blood Ban makes them unacceptable food options for God’s people.

     God intends certain commands for some people (e.g., kings, priests, farmers, merchants), but He intends many of His commands, like this one, for all people. The Blood Ban is a universal command you must follow if you want His approval, and His approval is the best you can get.

 

Conclusion: The Blood Ban is one of the oldest commands in the Bible and one of the few commands that applies to everyone, both Jew and gentile. It is also a command that is easy to follow, requiring no additional instruction, expensive equipment, or special preparation. It is not difficult to adopt, and heeding it is a small concession to make, unless you are wed to having your steak extremely rare. Even so, being aware of God’s wishes for you, it is still up to you to follow His instruction or not. The Blood Ban is your choice, as is obedience to Him in all matters (Manuel 2020).

 

 

Bibliography

 

Harris, R. Laird

     1990  “Leviticus.” Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 2. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House.

Ibn Ezra, Abraham

     1986  The Commentary of Abraham ibn Ezra on the Pentateuch—Volume 3: Leviticus. Hoboken: Ktav Publishing House.

Manuel, Paul http://paulwmanuel.blogspot.com

     2001  “The Image of God in Man.” Anthropology Excursus 1 in A Reader’s Digest Approach to Theology.

     2005  “What About Gentiles in the Theocratic Ideal?”

     2007  “The Sinaitic Law and the Gentile Believer.”

     2009  A Roadmap to Holiness: The Highest Value in God’s Economy.

     2013a “Can a person lose his salvation?” An excerpt from the Soteriology unit of A Reader’s Digest Approach to Theology.

     2013b “Diet: A Demonstration of Depravity or Devotion.”

     2017  “The Choice: Please Yourself or Please Your God” (Lev 22:20; Deut 12:13-14). [Sermon]

     2020  “An Essay on Free Will.”

Wenham, Gordon J.

     1979  The Book of Leviticus. NICOT. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

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[1]The verb refers to eating or drinking (blood), both of which God forbids (ibn Ezra 1986:88).

[2]It is a statement of inclusion He makes several times:

Exod 12:49 The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you.

Lev 24:22 You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born.

Num 15:29 The same law applies to everyone…whether he is a native-born Israelite or an alien.

God intends all people to follow the laws He specifically addresses to gentiles (Manuel 2004 and 2007). Jesus may intend the two greatest commandments to apply broadly as well, both to Jews and gentiles:

Matt 22:37 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Nevertheless, God does not intend all His laws to apply broadly. For example…

Deut 14:21 Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to an alien living in any of your towns, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are a people holy to the LORD your God.  

[3]God may have repeated the Blood Ban to Moses because a general decline of true religion caused the original law to fall out of use, and it remained so until He reiterated the precept. Nevertheless, its direction to Noah underscores its broad application as does its reiteration by the Jerusalem Council:

Gen 9:4 You must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.

Acts 15:20 We should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.

[4]Paul makes a similar statement:

Rom 14:20 All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.

[5]Likewise, Paul’s assertion that “everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Tim 4:4) is a general principle and does not negate God’s specific prohibition.

[6]“Blood of ordinary butchering was to be disposed of by pouring out and covering it” (Harris 1990:596).

[7]The same penalty attends three activities God despises:

Lev 20:2 Any Israelite or any alien living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the community are to stone him. 3 I will set My face against that man and I will cut him off from his people; for by giving his children to Molech, he has defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name. 4 If the people of the community close their eyes when that man gives one of his children to Molech and they fail to put him to death, 5 I will set My face against that man and his family and will cut off from their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molech. 6 I will set My face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.

Later, God uses this phrase to describe punishment for breaking the Mosaic covenant:

Lev 26:17 I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.

[8]The NT has the most to say about shunning:

Rom 16:17 Watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.

1 Cor 5:11 You must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

2 Thess 3:14 If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed.

Titus 3:10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him.

2 John 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him.

[9]There is a distinct legal category for a person who avenges the death of a family member against his murderer:

Deut 19:12 The elders of his town shall…hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. 13 Show him no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.

[10]God regards human life as more important than animal life:

Lev 24:21 Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death.

God is not indifferent to animal life, both domesticated and undomesticated:

Exod 9:19 Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.

Exod 20:10 The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you…nor your animals.

Exod 23:11 During the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave.

Nevertheless, life in general is not the highest value in God’s economy (Manuel 2009).

[11]Blood has several uses outside the body, especially in ceremonial functions.

    •  Blood can validate a covenant:

Exod 24:8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

    •  Blood can consecrate an altar:

Lev 8:15 Moses slaughtered the bull and took some of the blood, and with his finger he put it on all the horns of the altar to purify the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. So he consecrated [the altar] to make atonement for it.

    •  Blood can atone for a menstruating woman:

Lev 12:7 He shall offer them before the Lord to make atonement for her, and then she will be ceremonially clean from her flow of blood.

    •  Blood can atone for land where blood has been spilled:

Deut 19:9 Carefully follow all these laws I command you…. 10 Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.

Deut 21:1 If a man is found slain, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him…. 6 Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. 8 Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent man.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for. 9 So you will purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Still, there is a limit to what blood can accomplish:

Num 35:33 Atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

Moreover, God links transgressing the Blood Ban with practicing the occult:

Lev 19:26 Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it. Do not practice divination or sorcery.

[12]This provision is the basis of Jesus’ declaration at his last Passover seder:

Matt 26:28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

The importance of blood extends to its proper disposal:

Lev 17:13 Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth,

Deut 12:16 You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

Deut 15:23 You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.