MPV Commentary

Blood of Beasts Must Be Offered at the Tabernacle Door.

The Israelites were accustomed to killing animals for food, often as part of a feast with friends and family. However, this practice was also used in idolatrous worship, where people would secretly sacrifice animals to their gods. To prevent this, God established a law that required all animal sacrifices to be made publicly at the tabernacle door.

The purpose of this law was to ensure that the Israelites brought their sacrifices to the designated place of worship, rather than making private offerings in the open field. This restriction was necessary because the Israelites had a tendency to imitate Egyptian idolatrous practices, which often involved sacrificing animals in the wilderness.

In fact, the prohibition against offering sacrifices to "devils" (or goats) specifically targeted the worship of pagan deities like Pan and Faunus, who were associated with mountainous and desert regions. The Israelites had been influenced by these idolatrous practices while they were in the wilderness, and God's law was designed to prevent them from continuing this behavior.

The law also prohibited eating blood, which was a common practice among idolaters who believed that consuming blood would allow them to contract friendship or brotherhood with their gods. This prohibition was not just about hygiene, but about preventing the Israelites from engaging in idolatrous practices.

God reserved the blood of animals for Himself and allowed it to be used only in the context of sacrifices at the tabernacle altar. The life of the flesh is in the blood, and God gave it to the people as an atonement for their souls.

In addition to prohibiting eating blood, God also instructed the Israelites not to leave animal carcasses exposed, but rather to cover them with dust. This was a way of preventing the Israelites from engaging in superstitious practices like pouring out blood as a libation to pagan gods.

Finally, God declared that anyone who ate an animal that had died on its own would be considered unclean until evening. This law applied only to Israelites and was intended to prevent them from engaging in idolatrous practices related to the consumption of dead animals.