The law forbidding eating of blood

Obituaries
There is a practice among most of the indigenous people across Africa, the Arab world and beyond which very few can pinpoint as to its origin.

There is a practice among most of the indigenous people across Africa, the Arab world and beyond which very few can pinpoint as to its origin. It is a common custom across these regions that all the domesticated animals and fowls that are eaten have to be slaughtered by first cutting across the throat to drain out the blood before consuming the meat. This practice has been in force since time immemorial, yet very few people ever bother to ask why. It is a standard ritual which appears to be a normal custom even to this very day.

PROSPER TINGINI

Biblical scriptures tell us that the eating of blood by humans was in fact first prohibited by the Lord our God through Noah, whose family was the sole survivor of the famous floods that wiped out all other mankind from the planet Earth. God blessed Noah and his family and made a covenant with him. The First Book of Moses commonly called Genesis, Chapter 19 verses 3-4 quotes parts of the spoken words of God to man; “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life that is its blood.” This, therefore, is the origin and source of this practice.

No person who is not anointed and consecrated should eat of the holy things. Illustration: i.ytimg.com
No person who is not anointed and consecrated should eat of the holy things. Illustration: i.ytimg.com

Some people might wonder why the Lord our God prohibited mankind from eating blood. In numerous instances, He provided the answers to that question. By ordering that, “you shall not eat flesh with its life that is its blood”, He is telling us that blood gives life to the flesh. In other words, life is in the blood and the blood carries the life. Since He is the Creator of “life”, therefore blood, which is the life, is His. Life is holy since it was created by the Most Holy being. Blood being the life is holy and only Him can have it.

At Mount Sinai, God commanded the people through Moses, “Moreover, you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animals, in any of your dwellings. Whoever eats blood, that person shall be cut off from the people.” (Leviticus 7 verses 26-27)

He proceeded to explain the reasons for putting in place that law and commandment. In the third book of Moses, Leviticus 17 verses 10-16, He spoke to the people of Israel via Moses, “If any man of the house of Israel or of the strangers that live among them eat blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and I will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life. No person among you shall eat blood; neither shall any stranger who lives among you eat blood. Any man of the people of Israel, or the strangers that sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten, shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust.”

Please note that when God created the first being we call Adam, He created him from the dust of the ground. Genesis 2 verses 6-7 reads: “A mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” So the life, which is in the blood, shall be returned to God via the dust of the ground from which He created man. He also directed that the blood of all animal offerings for the atonement of sin should be sprinkled across the altars. (Leviticus 6)

Surprisingly, and contrary to this commandment of God prohibiting the eating of blood, some of our current Christian churches teach and encourage people to drink of the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord in the form of wine as a substitute. It is said that because Jesus directed His disciples to do so, then we should also follow in the same footsteps. Matthew 26 verses 26-28 quotes Him at the Last Supper with the disciples, when He took bread, blessed and broke it and said, “Take eat, this is my body.” He also took a cup of wine, blessed and gave it to them saying; “Drink of it all of you; for this is my blood which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus was offering His own blood for the atonement of our sins. He was making Himself the offering. The “drink of it all of you” was directed towards the disciples only.

Blood is holy and it belongs to God since it carries the life. Only those anointed and consecrated can eat of the holy things of the Lord. These are the priests and those anointed and consecrated to the full service of the Lord our God. God empowered the priests to eat of the holy things as their portion of inheritance since He prohibited them from taking earthly inheritances. In the fifth book of Moses, Deuteronomy 18 verses 1-2, He directed the priests; “They shall eat the offerings by fire to the Lord, and His rightful dues. They shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He promised them.” Therefore, when Jesus sacrificed Himself as an offering for the atonement of our sins, He anointed and consecrated His disciples to the full service of God. He was empowering them to preach, heal and act on His behalf. They could, therefore, eat of the sin offering for the atonement of our sins, the holy things, His body and blood. No person who is not anointed and consecrated should eat of the holy things. The Lord our God says so by directing the priests through Moses (Leviticus 22 verse 10); “An outsider shall not eat of a holy thing. A sojourner or hired servants shall not eat of a holy thing.”

It is wrong for the church leaders to make the ordinary people of the assembly eat of the “holy body and blood” of Jesus Christ. Only the priests, their immediate family members and others anointed to the full service of the Lord should eat of the “bread and wine” that is offered as a sacrament in the church, which represents the sin offering for the atonement of our sins by the altar. This is a directive from God. It is tantamount to a sin for ordinary people to eat of any blood whether of man, animal, fowl or any other creature.

Prosper Tingini has authored a book entitled: God’s Constitution for Mankind — The Laws and Commandments. He can be contacted on 0771 260 195 or email: [email protected]