Leviticus; The Law of Holiness and Grace

Fat & Blood; God’s Claim on Us

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Genre: Lessons with Q&A

Lesson: 12

Track: 12

Dictation Name: RR172F12

Date: Early 70s

Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made Heaven and earth. Seeing that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens—Jesus, the Son of God—let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let us pray.

All glory, honor, and praise be unto Thee, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. We rejoice, oh Lord, in Thy mercy, in Thy grace, and in Thy government, and we come to Thee, giving thanks that because Thou art on the throne, we have the assurance of victory. We have the promise that Thou wilt ever be with us, Thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us, so that we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper; I shall not fear what man may do unto me.” Bless us and strengthen us this day as always, in Thy service, we beseech Thee in Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is from Leviticus 7:22-27. Our subject: fat and blood, God’s claim on us; fat and blood, God’s claim on us. Leviticus 7:22-27:

“22 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

23 speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat.

24 And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it.

25 For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people.

26 Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.

27 Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.”

These verses are very commonly overlooked by the church in our time. Even as Leviticus is overlooked, so too are these verses especially so. But this passage, as so many that we have considered, begins, “The Lord Spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel,” unto the people. This is repeated throughout Leviticus. It is not a book for priests only, but for every believer. Faith is more than a matter of affirmation. It is a life lived in faithfulness to the details of God’s way. To be near to God is to be near in Christ. Our nearness rests on Christ’s atonement and is developed by our faithfulness.

A century ago, F.W. Grant observed, “Man soon mistakes familiarity for nearness.” I think nothing better characterizes the 20th century—the confusion between familiarity and nearness. But we can be close to a throne, but we retain our nearness by faithfulness, not familiarity.

These verses forbid two things: the eating of fat and of blood. Three kinds of fat are involved, we know, from ancient Hebraic practice as well as various passages of scripture: the massive fat on the inwards, then that on the kidneys, and on the flanks. This does not apply to the little bits of fat that are in the muscular tissue. Under no circumstances was blood to be eaten or in any way used, however, the fat of animals that died a natural death or were killed by wild beasts could be used for non-dietary purposes. For example, in some instances the fat was used for lamps. To this day, throughout, ah, the Palestinian regions, shepherds will use the fat of hogs. They will lay them around and on top of a viper’s den and light fire to it, and the heat of that burning fat helps eliminate the vipers.

But today, by and large, these laws are regarded as curiosities, which tell us much about our time. The fact that these laws are forgotten, are not seen as a necessity, is very, very important in itself, as an indication of our problems.

Leviticus 17:11 tell us, “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” Martin {?}, a very liberal scholar, modernist to the core, has written, “The blood as the seat of the life of the animal was God’s property out-right and must be given back to God before the sacrifice was offered.” Geeerhardus Vos, one of the great scholars of the beginning of the century, held that this law was obsolete. But in the process, he also understood its meaning. He wrote, “Since animals are not to devour man after a carnivorous fashion, man also is not to eat animals as wild beasts devour their living prey. They must show proper reverence for life as a sacred thing of which God alone has the disposal, and for use of which man is dependent on the permission of God. The Levitical Law repeats this prohibition, but adds as another ground the fact that the blood comes upon the altar, which of course for the Old Testament, makes the prohibition of blood eating absolute. Through failure to distinguish between the simple and the complicated motive, this practice of absolute abstention was continued in the church for many centuries.” Vos is correct, it was continued for many centuries, but Vos, to the contrary, this is not an obsolete law.

The facts are, first, that God declares very plainly that life is in the blood, and the blood is not to be eaten. Then second, we are told, that God is the creator and governor of all life. No life can be taken apart from the conditions of His Law-word. The exceptions are war time, defending oneself and one’s home, to execute men who are condemned by God’s Law, for food, to clear the land of dangerous animals, and so on. Life is, in other words, not ours to take. It belongs to God. Our life included. And this is why suicide was regarded by the church almost until our time, and to a degree still, as murder, because no even our life is ours to take. And then third, since we did not create life, life cannot be taken except on God’s terms, and therefore this law means that we are taught to respect all life as the creation of God, and as under His jurisdiction.

Now this law was violated at times by the Hebrews in times of apostasy. We have reference to the eating of blood in 1 Samuel 14:32-34, and Ezekiel 33:25. The pagans believed that the eating of blood fortified life and supposedly led to ecstasy and communion with the gods. To this day, there are cults in Islam that take a living animal, tear it apart, and devour it while it is still warm in order to get the blood. But we are told here that for any use of blood, there is excommunication in Israel in terms of God’s Law, and for us as His covenant people.

Life that’s a gift of property of God is as much His now as it was in the days of Moses. We are no less bound to show reverence for the fact of life as was Israel. This is still God’s Law. The modern callousness in the taking of life is an aspect of the zeal to play god. In the last century, Humanism had much to say about how more humane the life would become once Christianity were abolished and it became necessary to recognize that man lives only here and now in this life, this world, and there is no life after death. Supposedly, when men began to lose faith in Christianity, life would be treasured and war and murder and crimes of violence would disappear. This was the liberal illusion. But what happened was with the loss of faith, life itself was depreciated. It was only an accident in the universe, and there was no mandate to respect the life of any creature, let alone man. So if you disliked another man that was grounds for eliminating him, politically as a state, and personally in terms of personal wrath and hatred.

Life has been depreciated, but ironically, not criminal life. The Humanists still talk about reverence for life, but not of the victim. Not of the Christian. Not of the innocent! Only for the life of a criminal: his blood must not be shed.

Leviticus requires us to take life where God requires it. It requires us to recognize His Law and authority over all of life and to take no life where God does not permit it. Respect for the blood is a ritual and living witness of our submission to the living God. The restoration of faithfulness to this law is evidence of faith in the reality and seriousness of our God. It is interesting that in this country, we still require the bleeding of animals as a part of the routine of butchering. In some countries this is not so.

The other ban in these verses is the ban on the eating of fat. Now, both these bans have (as some scholars have pointed out) their justification in terms of health. But our concern here is theological. The fat of the blood for non-sacrificial and for personal reasons could be used for lamps or for other purposes, but never for dietary purposes. Blood is equal to life. The scripture makes this clear. It also tells us that fat has a symbolic meaning, a typical meaning. We still have it in terms of many biblical terms; we speak of the fat of the lamb. We equate fat with wealth, with prosperity, with success. We talk about fat-cats, meaning wealthy people. Fat thus served as a reminder of God’s blessings which were offered back to Him in thanksgiving. Thus the offering up of fat was a type of the fact that, God having prospered us, we give Him our prosperity. Typically in the fat, offered up, and actually in that our prosperity, our lives, are used for the service of God. The best way to capitalize our future in other words, is to capitalize God’s work and kingdom. The impoverishment of Christ’s realm is the impoverishment of our lives and of our children’s future. By burning the best, typically the fat, on the altar, the worshiper made clear that his future depended not upon his work, but on God’s doings.

{?} against this, the economics of the modern era insist that the key to a good society is a radical freedom of self-interest. The superficiality of this is very apparent. There are scholars who say the era of the economics of self-interest produced the marvelous prosperity of the western world. But it is ironic that that the same time, they accuse the Puritan work ethic and Calvinism of having produced it by its work ethic. And it is significant that as that work ethic has declined, the free market economy has declined. So obviously it was less dependent by far, if it depended at all, on self-interest than on a Christian work ethic, and combined with that, the outpouring of tithes that marked such a people—if we look at this country, we find that the overwhelming majority of all colleges and universities including those that are state schools now, were established by Christians. And it is interesting that the preponderant number of founders of these schools were Scots who felt quite a mission in this area. As this Christian giving has declined, the growth of statist causes has increased, and taxation has proliferated. In fact, I think the evidence is clear (if some scholar would pursue it), that the economics of self-interest has lead rather to socialism than to freedom. Because why would anyone with the motivation of self-interest work to produce it when he can more readily, in terms of modern society, tax others to get what he wants? And so today, taxation, not the work ethic and tithing have become basic to the modern outlook.

Where non-Christians prevail, the non-statist funding of society suffers. Thus, this offering up of fat, the prohibition of fat to the person for his consumption, tells us that it is not simply the tithe, but our fat--our richness, our prosperity--that belongs to God and must be used for His purpose. That we are His property! And we must be used for His kingdom. Both the law and the intention of this law are still valid. God says through this ban on blood and on fat that He has a claim on our life and our prosperity.

No age has lusted more after wealth than perhaps ours. A segment at the top of society is now the lust of the vast majority of the people—to get rich quick. One of the most popular varieties of books, which are not included on best-seller lists because they would be there continuously, are books which are sent via mail, they are brochures, that is, and advertise how to get rich quick; how to be a millionaire by 40, how to get rich through learning how to invest, or how to get rich through real estate investments; and one book advertised--without using any money! This type of book has been enormously successful. Men want every means to success and wealth, except work. I believe it is because both this law and its meaning have been treated as mere curiosities. But in a world such as that of Moses, where fat and blood were prized by all the pagans, blood as a means of gaining power—of life, and of showing your power over others by shedding their blood, and fat as a means of showing you lived high. What the Hebrews were taught was, to God belongs the glory and the best in our lives. It is significant that both in Europe and in this country during the height of the hippy movement, there were examples of drinking blood. Instinctively these people recognized its meaning. They are consummate anti-God acts, and attempts to affirm their independence of God’s order. The affirmation of God’s order, thus, is commanded in these verses, in the fact that God has a claim on our life and prosperity.

Let us pray.

Thy Word is truth, oh Lord, and Thy hast declared in Thy Word that our lives and the best of our work belongs to Thee. Give us grace to recognize that it is Thy direction that must govern us; that our health is of Thee, not of our prospering, not of our planning. Give us grace therefore, to seek day by day to place our lives wholly under Thee, and to seek to serve Thee and to prosper Thy kingdom and to be blessed because we are Thine. Grant us this; we beseech Thee, in Christ’s name, amen.

Yes, John.

[Audience] Ah, Rush, ah, the Law in the Old Testament are all essentially reducible to the Ten Commandments, or the Decalogue. Ah, would this particular, ah, law, actually apply, or come under the heading of, ah, honor to God, uh, can they, would they fall, is, would they fall in that category of, of, laws that honor God, specifically honor God?

[Rushdoony] A lot of the commandments…yes …

[Audience] …as opposed to being adultery or theft or {?}

[Rushdoony] A lot of the commandments could be classified in more than one ways, because they’re inter-related, but certainly this says, “Thou shall have no other gods before me,” beginning with yourself.

Any other questions or comments? Yes.

[Audience] It’s interesting, you brought up the Humanists. It’s interesting that there’s actually more experiments with human beings today than there’s ever been, and many of them very painful.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Not only with human beings, but unborn babies, ah, aborted babies, uh, we know that one Ivy League scientist experimented with mentally disturbed people, planting electrodes in their brains to control them. This is written up as far back as the 50s in Life Magazine, and it was obvious that it was not new then, because some of the pictures shown of that particular scientist indicated he was younger than he was at that time.

[Audience] Is there a connection here between … by extension is there also a connection so far as using animals for experimental purposes and things?

[Rushdoony] That’s a very interesting question. It certainly forbids the callous use of life. If the experiment is a valid one, yes, I would say there are a great many experiments with animals that are utterly meaningless, but there are some that are valid. I know that at some colleges and universities when I was a student, there were a great many experimental animals for students who had no intention of going into medicine to conduct experiments with. It was just one way of showing how advanced they were. I know that one of my professors, a professor of philosophy, his wife was arrested for the callous use of experimental animals, and it was not by people who were comparable to those today who were unduly given to over-rating animal life.

[Audience] I remember interviewing a young female physician in the hospital and the interview, I didn’t do too well in the interview because my eye kept straying over her head, up on the wall, shoved onto a nail, was a dead monkey.

[Rushdoony] Yes. All too often, modern scientists have been radically callous to all life, while pretending to be the champions of life with their work.

Any other questions or comments?

Well if not, let us bow our heads in prayer.

Oh Lord our God, make us ever mindful that in every sphere, Thou art God and there is none other, that Thy Word must govern our every thought, our every act, in every sphere of life. Make us Thine instruments to the reclaiming of all things for the kingship of Christ. And now go in peace; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always. Amen.