And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. | ||
| Leviticus 17:10–11 | ||
| When Peter Marshall, chaplain of the United States Senate in the 1940s, first arrived in Washington, D.C., to pastor the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, an elderly lady is said to have greeted him by saying, “I do so hope you won’t talk too much about the blood, as our previous pastor did.” “I promise I won’t talk too much about the blood,” the young Scotsman assured her, “because it is impossible to talk too much about the blood.” Peter Marshall nailed it perfectly. It is impossible to talk too much about the blood of Jesus Christ. Why? Because the Bible is soaked in blood, saturated with blood. Ours is a bloody religion indeed. And there’s a reason for that. The book of Hebrews tells us that without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin (9:22). Therefore, with man’s greatest need being forgiveness, it only stands to reason that blood would be spoken of freely and consistently throughout the Word. Why is blood the key to forgiveness? Because, as seen in our text, the life of the flesh is in the blood. That is why it was blood that cried out when the first murder was committed (Genesis 4:10). There is indeed a potency, a mystery, a power in blood for it is the essence of life. And in Leviticus, God uses these powerful properties of blood to not only show us the seriousness of our sin, but to point to the sacrifice of His Son. Pastor Jon Courson | ||
