The next time you purchase meat at the market stop and think what that cost not in monetary terms but in terms of life.

Leviticus 17 “There is no Room for Compromise”

At certain seasons of the year, men go deer hunting. When a deer is killed the animal is hung to drain it of its blood. Blood represents the essence of life and therefore is to be protected. Men must not eat the blood of any animal.

In Genesis 9:6 we read: “Whoever sheds human blood, by other humans must his blood be shed, for in God’s image God has made humankind.” So we go from the taking of a human life to the eating of the life of an animal. In both, blood is life, it is sacred to God. The shedding of blood represents the taking of a life and then to partake of that life is anathema to God.

Leviticus 17: 11 “for the life of every living thing is in the blood.”

Thus God established these prohibitions for our protection. We are to be holy, set apart from the idolatrous nations that are around us.  We may not live in the wilderness but the prohibitions remain the same.

Stop and consider:

It was our Savior’s blood, his very life that was shed for us on that cruel cross.