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 i...