Leviticus 17

We have two sections in this chapter. The first deals with people doing individual sacrifices and the other has to do with eating blood.

Up to the point of the temple many people were in the habit of doing their own sacrifices. Once the temple had been set up God commanded that this practice was to end. All sacrifices were to be done at the temple. Any one that killed an animal for a sacrifice anywhere but at the temple they were guilty of bloodshed and were to be excluded from the rest of the people. It was almost like murder.

The second part of this chapter had to do with eating blood. We understand this even better in light of Jesus’ death upon the cross. People were not to eat blood. Blood is life, as we know it both physically and spiritually. If someone eats blood God will exclude them from the people. The final part of this section has to do with what I will refer to as road kill. God commands that no animal that dies of natural causes or is killed by another animal is to be eaten. If that animal is the individual is to wash themselves and their clothes and would remain unclean until evening.

Application

For application the last two are pretty self explanatory for us. We may not be excluded but there are health reasons we should not practice these things. What I want to focus on is the first part of this chapter.

There are many people that I run into that seem to think that there is not a need for corporate worship. I often hear, “I can be a question and worship at home. I don’t need to go to church.” Yes it is true that we can be a Christian and worship at home. We don’t stop being a Christian by not going to Church but it certainly helps when we do. I believe that by involving ourselves in corporate worship there is a greatness in the worship. I also believe that we cannot grow in a vacuum. We need fellow believers to aid us in our spiritual walk. There is a greater chance of wrongful interpretation of scripture when we don’t include others and sit and learn with others. So we may not need to go to church to be a Christian but it certainly helps make us stronger.