Be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat … You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 12:23, 25)
Once again, the Scripture reminds us not to consume blood, a law previously mentioned in Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:11, 14 and Leviticus 19:26. This prohibition was also commanded for all new non-Jewish believers according to the Jerusalem Edict in Acts 15. The blood mentioned here is referring to the blood of non-sacrificial animals — i.e. animals meant for food — and was to be poured out upon the earth and not used for any other purpose. On the surface it may seem to us today as unnecessary to say seeing that to do such is — well, disgusting. However, we must consider that nothing in Scripture is superfluous or antiquated, in other words, God knows what needs to be said. In fact, let’s focus on the emphasis upon doing what is right in God’s eyes so that things “go well for you and your children.”
Generally speaking, it is commendable to try and attain understanding of why we should do or not do what God commands but sometimes it comes down to this – “because He said so.” Therefore, to obey this command and so many others is beneficial, not just because consuming blood is disgusting, but because following God’s instruction is right. Where this command is concerned, I think it should be obvious why He said to abstain from such — because life is in the blood and life is sacred. Life, as represented by the blood, is not to be regarded as something mundane and expendable just as no one would consider the lives of your children to be so.
That thought brings us back to the notion that some might look at these commands as unnecessary. Have we considered that what we tend to dismiss as unnecessary might be interpreted by our children as something to be disdained? By that I mean, if one generation doesn’t uphold the sanctity of life, the next generation may think nothing of taking that life. Case and point: one generation didn’t stop abortion on demand in its tracks; the next came to regard abortion on demand as a right. So then, let us not think what God commanded millennia ago has no bearing on us today — His Word is eternal. We may not always understand the whys but we have to trust that it will be well for us and for our children to obey Him because He said so.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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