Leviticus 17:10-16

4. God restricts man from eating animals' blood because its life is in the blood.

We know from science that the blood carries the life-sustaining oxygen to all the parts of the body. So, the breath of life is dissolved in the blood. When the creature's blood is spilled, it dies. The same happens to us when we are killed. Our blood goes out, and we die. Now, of course, as we get near to Passover, this is something we have to understand once again. There is a spiritual connection as well, with the sacrifice of Christ. It was His blood, the most precious life of the Creator God that was given for our forgiveness. It covers us as we approach the throne of God, allowing us to have a relationship with Him. So, it is taken up again to yet a higher level. Not only is there life in animals' blood, not only is there life in our human blood, but the Great Creator God came to this earth as a human being, and His blood was shed for us, to cover us, and to atone for us.

God has already given the groundwork for this great theological understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, by showing that the life is in the blood.

Leviticus 17:13-14

The idea that the life is in the blood is very similar to the idea of the breath of life. They are connected. Blood contains and sustains the life of any animal or person. It is true. Anybody knows that. Once that blood is shed, that life of that creature is gone. It dies. If you cut a creature's throat, like a lamb or whatever, and let the blood drain out of it, the lamb dies.

The circulation of blood carries the life-giving oxygen to all the body's cells. It is just in a different form. The breath of life is oxygen coming into the body through the lungs. Then the lungs transfer that oxygen to the blood. And then the blood circulates by the heart's movement throughout the whole body; and that oxygen is delivered to every single cell that we have to keep us alive, because every cell needs the oxygen.

We just have two different parts of the same process and idea of what physical life is. We could say that in the blood is the breath of life, because the blood carries the oxygen. As it said in verse 14, "Its blood sustains its life."

Leviticus 17:10-14

Let us tie all of these principles together. What God is showing you and me in the beginning of Genesis there is that what is produced from and by the earth is man's portion in life. And so He designates that by saying that what is produced from the trees or what is produced as an herb, as a vegetable, that is man's portion. It is his.

On the other hand, He draws a line and says, "Yes, we can eat the flesh of animals, but you cannot eat the blood because the blood is the life." Now, what He is saying in reference to these offerings is this: God is showing Himself as Lifegiver and life is His portion. That is what is owed to Him. On the other hand, what is produced by the earth is what is man's and is owed to man, not by God but by other men. So life, represented by the blood, is God's part and fruit—grain—is man's part.