Chapter 17 gives the reason behind every altar in the book: the blood is the life, and the life belongs to God. That is why blood is never eaten — it is poured out. Chapter 18 turns to the other way a people can be defiled: not by what they eat but by what they do. God lists the practices of Egypt and Canaan and says the land itself could not keep them down.
A study in Leviticus 17-18 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
That Eateth Any Manner Of Blood
“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.”
Leviticus 17:10
This is one of the strongest prohibitions in the law — God sets His face against the person. It is older than Sinai: the same rule was given to Noah for the whole human race, “flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat” (Genesis 9:4). And the apostles kept it for Gentile believers — “that ye abstain… from blood” (Acts 15:29). The reason is given in the next verse, and it is the reason the whole sacrificial system exists.
For The Life Of The Flesh Is In The Blood
“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 17:11
Blood on the altar is a life laid down. “The broken law of God demanded the life of the transgressor”; the sacrifice pays that debt with another life, accepted in the sinner’s place. To drink blood would be to treat a life as a common thing — the exact opposite of what the altar teaches. Hebrews sums up the whole principle: “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22).
“‘Without shedding of blood,’ says the apostle, there is no remission of sin. ‘The life of the flesh is in the blood.’ Leviticus 17:11. The broken law of God demanded the life of the transgressor. The blood, representing the forfeited life of the sinner, whose guilt the victim bore, was carried by the priest into the holy place.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 418
The Life Of All Flesh Is The Blood Thereof
“For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof.”
Leviticus 17:14
The point is pressed three times in one chapter so it cannot be missed. Life is God’s to give and God’s to take; a hunter who kills game must pour out its blood and cover it with dust (Leviticus 17:13). Even in the kitchen, Israel was to handle life as something holy. The cross is where this reaches its end: “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
After The Doings Of Egypt Shall Ye Not Do
“After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do… Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.”
Leviticus 18:3-5
Israel is caught between two cultures — the one they came out of and the one they are walking into — and told to imitate neither. The list that follows in chapter 18 is mostly sexual: incest, adultery, child sacrifice to Molech, and more. God’s statutes are set against both nations’ customs, and the promise attached is life: “which if a man do, he shall live in them.” Paul quotes that line to show what the law could not finally do — give the life it described (Galatians 3:12).
The Land Itself Vomiteth Out Her Inhabitants
“Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.”
Leviticus 18:24-25
The Canaanites are not being evicted for being foreign; they are being evicted for what they did, over centuries, until the land could not hold them. And Israel is warned in the same breath: the land will do the same to you. Living in the promised land was never a birthright to presume on — it came with the same terms for everyone. Chapters 19-20 spell out the life that keeps a people in the land: “ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.”
