Lev. 17: No Eating Blood

Apparently in spite of the regulations to bring sacrifices before the LORD at the Tent of Meeting, Israelites were still offering sacrifices in open fields and outside the camp. It also refers to the Israelites offering sacrifices to "goat idols" or, as the KJV says in verse 17,

"And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations."

So, they weren't just offering them to God, they apparently were into idolatry. But idolatry aside, God had very clear instructions for sacrifices, and thereby, the atonement for sins. These sacrifices described in Leviticus 17 were unauthorized. And we know what happens when God's consecrated statutes are defiled.

And with all the blood sacrifices throughout the Bible thus far, I sort of wondered "Why all this bloodshed?" God kind of reveals a little bit about why this is, beginning in verse 10, where eating blood is condemned. God says he will set his face against anyone guilty of this. What does that mean, to set one's face against someone? To oppose? To ignore? To punish? I imagine it is probably a combination of any of those. God probably set his face against Pharaoh back in Exodus.

The life of a creature is in the blood. It is given to the Israelites for the express purpose of making atonement for their sins. A life (blood) must be lost in order to preserve one's own life. A blood sacrifice is a substitution. Wickedness is a loss or destruction of life, which is very serious. To get that life back, blood without defect must be shed. To eat it or consume it in any other way would have been a serious affront to that ritual. If an animal is hunted, the blood must be drained and buried, as that is it's life. Even a person who eats a dead thing will be ceremonially unclean, and they have to go through the wash-clothes-and-bathe ritual.