Bible Commentaries
Leviticus 17

Verses 1-16

Very definite instructions were given to the priests concerning sacrifices. These provided, first, that all sacrifices must be brought to the door of the Tent of Meeting. This provision at once recognized the unification of the nation around the fact of the divine presence It reminded the people that worship is possible only along divinely ordained lines and in no isolated independence; and so by making offering of sacrifice there, the possibility of offering worship to strange gods was eliminated.

Then followed the strictest instructions forbidding the eating of blood under any conditions. The reason for this prohibition was carefully given. Blood is the seat of life and God has set it apart, and therefore it is the medium of atonement. The most precious and essential thing is human life was thus sealed to the sacred and holy work of perpetual testimony to the only way in which it is possible for sinning man to be reconciled to God, that is, sacrifice as symbolized in the shedding of blood. In order that this truth might perpetually be present to the mind of the people, the blood of beast and fowl was forevermore to be held sacred and under no circumstances to be eaten.