Chickens attack it.  Parent’s panic at it.  A surprising number of people faint when they see it.  And Lady MacBeth fixated on it.  Few are indifferent to the sight of blood.  Unless you are a surgeon or a butcher, the sight of blood makes a strong impression.  Bleeding is serious.  It is not to be ignored.  Unstaunched, blood loss has serious consequences.

Blood is an absolute necessity for living creatures.  Your blood keeps you alive.  It supplies oxygen to your cells and cleanses your body of toxins.  The relentless pumping of your heart pushes every blood cell through a complete circuit of your body every 30 seconds.  And those cells circulate for over 100 days before they die and are replaced by new ones.  During your life, your heart will pump over a million barrels of blood.  Blood accounts for 8% of your body weight.  Adults average between 1.2 and 1.5 gallons (10 units) of blood at any given time. And pregnant women have roughly 50% more blood by week 20 of their pregnancy than at conception.

Blood is precious.  It consists mostly of water but cannot be created artificially.   The only source of blood is living bodies.  According to the Red Cross, 36,000 units of blood are needed every day for everything from surgeries to traumatic injuries to cancer treatment.  One unit equals roughly a pint.  Approximately 13.6 million units are collected each year.  And more blood products are provided through plasma donations.  Without blood donations, many of the routine medical procedures we rely on would be impossible.   It is indisputable that life is in the blood.

But blood is more precious than science can observe.  Its life-giving power to our bodies was designed by our Creator to illustrate something much more profound.  Our peace, our forgiveness, our redemption, our eternal lives depend entirely upon the life-giving power of Jesus’ blood, shed for us.  The New Testament reflects continually upon the power of the shed blood of Christ to save.  But it is the Old Testament that first taught God’s people to understand the necessity of blood-sacrifice. 

As Noah and his family emerge from the Ark, the Lord renews covenant with Noah and gives specific instructions about blood.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

Whoever sheds the blood of man,
    by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.

And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.  Genesis 9:1-7

And after the Exodus as the people of Israel prepare to leave Sinai, the Lord gives them laws regarding worship, sacrifice, and holiness.  Laws which “prefigure Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits.”  In Leviticus 17, the Lord explains the real power of blood.

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”  Leviticus 17:11

Interestingly, this is one of the few ceremonial laws reaffirmed in the New Testament by the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.   However, Jesus shocks and offends many of his disciples in John 6 when he commands them, by faith, to partake of his blood.

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” John 6:53-58

Blood is precious.  The author of Hebrews reminds us that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”  How precious is this blood to you?  Leviticus 17 opens the final section of Leviticus, often called the “Holiness Code,” with a poignant reminder that the Christian life is all of grace.   The call to holiness and obedience is empowered and animated by the grace of God.  By blood we abide, experience at-one-ment, and receive peace and life.

Blood is indeed precious.  Join us as we examine Leviticus 17 and consider the life-giving power of blood.  We meet on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.