February 7, 2024 Bible Study — The Israelites Were Forbidden to Eat the Blood of Their Sacrifices, While We Drink the Blood of Jesus’ Sacrifice

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 16-18.

I am going to do something I almost never do today.  My first thought when I read the prohibition against eating blood this morning was of the communion service we had Sunday morning during our worship service.  In particular, one man stood up afterwards and shared that he had never before that morning made the connection between communion, eating the symbolic representation of Christ’s body and blood, and the priest’s eating the meat of the sacrificed animals as described here in Leviticus.  Christ was the ultimate Passover Lamb and when we partake of communion we are partaking of His body and blood, much as the Israelites partook of the body of the Passover lamb.  So, as I read today’s passage I was struck by the fact that we partake of Christ’s blood of sacrifice, while the Israelites were forbidden from eating the blood of their sacrifices.  Here God told them that they must not eat the blood because the life of the being (animal or human) is in its blood.  So, when we drink Christ’s blood as part of communion, and thus partake in the sacrifice He made on the Cross, we are drinking His life.  And through drinking His life we join ourselves with His life.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.