Leviticus 17 deals with the subject of sacrificial blood. The Lord has already forbidden the eating of blood. In Leviticus 3:17 He said, "This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood." Also in Leviticus 7:26-27 He said, "And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal. Anyone who eats blood must be cut off from their people." The Lord is very careful to tell the people that they are to obey this rule "wherever you live". They are moving toward the promised land where they will gradually take over the territories of Canaan from pagan tribes who engage in all sorts of unhealthy and unholy practices. It's not okay for the Israelites to say something like, "When in Canaan, do as the Canaanites do." It's not okay to commit a sin just because "everyone else is doing it". In future generations the Israelites will end up scattered all over the world, but no matter where they find themselves, they are to obey the laws of their God.
The same can be said for us today. We are God's people and we should obey God's laws no matter where we are in the world and no matter what everyone around us is doing. A sin isn't less of a sin simply because it's popular. A sin isn't any less destructive to our lives just because it's become common. God doesn't shrug His shoulders and say, "Well, I'm going to turn a blind eye to this blatantly rebellious and harmful practice. So many people in the world are doing it that I'm going to ignore it when My own people do it."
In Chapter 17 God goes into more detail about blood and about the proper way to bring sacrifices. "The Lord said to Moses, 'Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: 'This is what the Lord has commanded: Any Israelite who sacrifices an ox, a lamb or a goat in the camp or outside of it instead of bringing it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to present it as an offering to the Lord in front of the tabernacle of the Lord---that person shall be considered guilty of bloodshed; they have shed blood and must be cut off from their people.'" (Leviticus 17:1-4)
In the ages before the tabernacle was built, a person could build an altar to the Lord anywhere he pleased and sacrifice to Him there. We saw this happening several times in the book of Genesis when the patriarchs built altars in the various places where they traveled or dwelt. But now there is a central location for worship. The tabernacle is portable and will go wherever they go, so now there is no excuse for building altars and making sacrifices wherever they please. There is no excuse for repurposing a pagan altar they find in the promised land. All sacrifices must be made at the tabernacle. Anyone who makes a sacrifice anywhere else is to be excommunicated from the congregation of Israel.
Why is this so important? The Lord wants His people to avoid idolatry. He is going to command them, as they move into and take over the promised land, to tear down all the idols and "high places" of Canaan. The high places are the pagan altars on hilltops and mountaintops where the idolatrous people of Canaan made sacrifices to false gods. If the Israelites do not tear these places down, the temptation will be strong to use them. Some may sacrifice to the Lord on these altars instead of making the trek back to the tabernacle to sacrifice there. In other cases, the presence of these pagan altars will lure people into idolatry. If the sight of unholy altars and the sight of idolatrous images become commonplace to the people, they will lose their aversion to them. They may find their curiosity piqued by pagan customs and may find themselves drawn to some of the religious practices of these idolatrous cultures. By making a rule that no citizen of Israel can sacrifice anywhere but at the tabernacle, the Lord wants to prevent the people from having anything to do with unholy altars. He wants to prevent them from being drawn into things that will only lead to heartbreak, destruction, and death. To back up the seriousness of this rule, the Lord commands that anyone caught making a sacrifice anywhere other than the tabernacle is to be excommunicated. Most people don't want to be cut off from family members and friends. Most people don't want to be cut off from a sense of community or from fellowship with others of their own race and religion. The threat of excommunication is to serve as a dire warning to anyone who considers sacrificing on the hilltops or in the fields or in the wilderness.
"This is so the Israelites will bring to the Lord the sacrifices they are now making in the open fields. They must bring them to the priest, that is, to the Lord, at the entrance to the tent of meeting and sacrifice them as fellowship offerings. The priest is to splash the blood against the altar of the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting and burn the fat as an aroma pleasing to the Lord." (Leviticus 17:5-6) The people have become accustomed to sacrificing wherever they are, but they are no longer to do this now that they have a tabernacle. The tabernacle is the only acceptable place to make their sacrifices and the altar of the tabernacle is the only place where the Lord (through a priest appointed to receive offerings) receives the offerings and is pleased with them. Having only one holy place for sacrifices will help to prevent the people from adopting a casual attitude toward the Lord. Having their sacrifices be acceptable only in this holy place will help them to regard the Lord as holy.
Some have already fallen prey to idolatry, according to our next verse. "They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come." (Leviticus 17:7) When did this practice begin? How many Israelites were involved in it? The Bible doesn't say. The Israelites dwelt in Egypt for several centuries and Egypt was one of the most idolatrous nations in the world. They had a goat deity as did many other cultures of that era, including some of the tribes of Canaan. A goat cult could have existed as far back as before the great flood and this religion could have persisted even up to Moses' day. Such a thing might have existed in the hometown of Abraham---in the prosperous and pagan city of Ur whose religion Abraham rejected in favor of serving the one true God. It could be that some people reverted back to the ancient religion of Abraham's hometown instead of serving the God who rescued them from Egypt. Who or what the goat represents doesn't matter and the origin of this cult doesn't matter. What matters is that worship of anyone or anything other than the one true God is idolatry and therefore the Lord refers to it as "prostitution" because anyone who eschews the Lord in favor of false gods is being unfaithful to Him. While it's true some pagan cults indulged in illicit and unholy sexual rites, we will often find the Lord referring to unfaithfulness to Him as "prostitution" or "adultery", and He's primarily speaking of a treacherous disloyalty of the heart.
The Lord is issuing warnings against idolatry and against making sacrifices anywhere but at the tabernacle because He wants them to settle these matters firmly in their minds before they enter a land filled with every imaginable form of wickedness. If they take these warnings to heart before they enter the promised land, they will do a better job of following these additional instructions: "When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places." (Numbers 33:51-52) And again the Lord will say, "These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess---as long as you live in the land. Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places." (Deuteronomy 12:1-3)
If the tabernacle is the only place holy enough to receive sacrifices, then all other altars are rendered unholy. This should relieve the people of any compulsion to leave the idols and the altars of Canaan untouched. Rather than regarding these places with a form of respect offered to other religions, they are to regard these places as abominations unfit for any human use. Will they tear down all the idols and high places of the promised land as the Lord commands? Ah, sadly, no. That will be a discussion for a different day, but in the meantime we can clearly see that partial obedience is disobedience. We can apply this lesson to our own lives to help us to avoid stopping halfway when the Lord tells us to rid our lives of some harmful attitude or practice. If we don't completely root out and banish whatever the Lord tells us to root out and banish, it will only spring up again and take hold of us.
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