Deuteronomy. Day 47, Further Differences Between The Israelites And Heathens

The Israelites are to conduct their personal and religious lives very differently than the heathen peoples of the world. Not only must they tear down and destroy all the pagan worship sites in Canaan, and not only must they have one central location for worship and religious instruction, but in today's passage we learn that they are to observe the eating of meat differently than the heathens do.

In most of the cultures of ancient times, every time an animal was slaughtered for food it was done in the name of some pagan god. The people who worshiped false gods didn't only dedicate things to their gods during religious festivals; they superstitiously did most of the things of their everyday lives in the names of the gods, hoping this would please the gods and entice them to bestow blessings. The Israelites don't have to consider it a sacrifice to the Lord every time they slaughter an animal for food. Most of the animals they will slaughter in their lifetime will be solely for the purpose of food and these occasions are to be considered commonplace and ordinary. 

Yesterday we concluded with Moses saying that the congregation can only sacrifice burnt offerings in the place the Lord will choose. Tomorrow we'll see there are certain other offerings that have to be brought to that same place. But every animal killed is not to be considered a sacrifice to the Lord and that means not every animal they kill must be killed at the nation's religious capitol. Theirs is an agricultural society and most of the animals from the flocks and herds are being raised for the purpose of consumption, just as in our own day. It would not be practical or even feasible for a person to travel to a specific site every time he needed to slaughter an animal for food for his family. The Lord doesn't require this so Moses says, "Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were a gazelle or deer, according to the blessing the Lord your God gives you." (Deuteronomy 12:15a) When a man hunted wild game for food, he did not consider it a sacrifice to the Lord. He simply considered it food. This is how the people are to regard any of their domestic farm animals they kill for food. 

A person does not have to be ceremonially clean to eat ordinary, everyday meat. "Both the ceremonially unclean and clean may eat it." (Deuteronomy 12:15b) This would not be the case when a person was partaking of meat that had been offered in sacrifice to the Lord. When bringing an offering to the Lord the person had to be ceremonially clean, but a person cannot be ceremonially clean twenty-four hours a day while going about normal life. People have to eat during their workday, and not all work is conducive to being ceremonially clean, so just as we do in our own day a person of ancient Israel could take a break from work, wash his hands, and eat a meal. People could also eat a community meal together in this manner. Ceremonial cleanness is not required because the meat is not a sacrifice.

But no matter where they eat meat and no matter whether it's an ordinary meal or a meal being consumed following a sacrifice, the people must observe the rule that no blood can be eaten. That was something heathens did but it was not something the Lord's people were to do. "But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water." (Deuteronomy 12:16) The Lord commanded in Leviticus 3:17, "This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood." The fat of a sacrifice was to be burned to the Lord because it was considered the choicest part and had to be devoted to Him. Blood was to be considered holy, not for ordinary use like consumption. It had to be poured out whether the animal was slaughtered as a sacrifice or for food. Blood could never be considered a common enough item to eat or drink because it was to be viewed as something that atones for sins. Even when an animal was not being offered as a sacrifice for sins, the blood was to be respected because it still symbolized the offerings that were made for atonement. No matter whether an Israelite was slaughtering an animal within the borders of Israel or somewhere else in the world, the blood was always to be poured out. There weren't different rules for this according to the person's location. All animal blood was to be treated the same way, so the Lord repeated His instruction in Leviticus 7:26, "And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal."

Blood had to be considered holy because it was shed for atonement under the sacrificial system. Another reason it had to be considered holy is because blood was shed for atonement under the new covenant as well, when the holy and spotless Lamb of God shed His blood for the sins of mankind. If a person does not consider the blood as holy, he cannot consider the One holy from whom the blood came. And if he does not consider Christ as holy, then he cannot obtain salvation through Him because he does not believe Christ is who He says He is or that the blood of Christ is capable of cleansing man from unrighteousness. You'll recall yesterday that Moses said the people must worship God in His way. We've been studying how the Lord had to be worshiped under the first covenant. But Christ mediated a new covenant between man and God, and under this covenant we come to God through faith in Christ, and this is the way God has chosen to be worshiped in the age of grace. We have to come to the Lord on His terms, not on our own terms. There are not "many paths to God". There is only one way to Him and God the Son could not have made it any clearer when He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)