God's Portion: Fat, Blood, and Fellowship Text: Leviticus 7:22-27
Introduction: The Grammar of Holiness
We come now to a portion of Leviticus that can seem, to our modern sensibilities, quite strange. We live in an age of nutritional science, an age of cholesterol charts and blood pressure cuffs. When we think about fat and blood, we think in terms of health, diet, and biology. But God is teaching His people something far more fundamental. He is teaching them the grammar of holiness. He is teaching them about the structure of reality. The book of Leviticus is a detailed instruction manual for a people who were going to have the holy God of the universe take up residence in their midst. When the Almighty God pitches His tent in the center of your camp, it changes everything. You can no longer treat anything as common or ordinary.
These laws about fat and blood are not arbitrary dietary regulations. They are not primarily about hygiene, though God's laws are always wise and beneficial. These laws are a giant, acted-out audio-visual aid. They are designed to teach Israel, and us through them, about the nature of sin, the cost of atonement, and the basis of our fellowship with God. God is making distinctions. This, not that. Here, not there. Mine, not yours. To profane these distinctions is not simply to make a culinary blunder; it is to commit a theological outrage. It is to trample on holy things. And so, as we look at these prohibitions, we must ask the question that the Israelites were being taught to ask: what does this teach us about the holy God we serve?
These commands are about boundaries. They establish a clear line between what belongs to God and what is given to man. To cross that line is to presume upon God, to treat His portion as our own. And the penalty for this presumption is severe: to be "cut off" from the people. This is not a small thing. It is to be put outside the covenant community, outside the place of God's presence and blessing. Therefore, we must approach these verses with reverence, seeking to understand the deep and abiding principles they reveal, principles that find their ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Text
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'You shall not eat any fat from an ox, a sheep, or a goat. Also the fat of an animal which dies and the fat of an animal torn by beasts may be put to any other use, but you must certainly not eat it. For whoever eats the fat of the animal from which an offering by fire is brought near to Yahweh, even the person who eats shall be cut off from his people. And you shall not eat any blood, either of bird or animal, in any of your places of habitation. Any person who eats any blood, even that person shall be cut off from his people.'"
(Leviticus 7:22-27 LSB)
The Best Belongs to God (vv. 22-25)
The first prohibition deals with the fat of certain animals.
"Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'You shall not eat any fat from an ox, a sheep, or a goat... For whoever eats the fat of the animal from which an offering by fire is brought near to Yahweh, even the person who eats shall be cut off from his people.'" (Leviticus 7:23, 25)
Why the fat? In the Scriptures, fatness is a symbol of two things. On the one hand, it can represent the insolence and rebellion of the wicked, whose hearts are calloused and insensitive. But on the other hand, and more commonly, fatness represents blessing, richness, and abundance. When God promises to bless His people, He promises them "the fat of the land." The fat is the best part. It represents the wealth, the energy, the richness of the creature.
And so, when an animal suitable for sacrifice was offered, the fat was reserved for God. It was burned on the altar as an "offering by fire," a "soothing aroma to Yahweh." By giving the fat to God, the worshiper was acknowledging a fundamental truth: the best of all that we have belongs to Him. Our wealth, our health, our richest blessings, all come from His hand, and the first and best portion is rightly returned to Him in worship. To eat the fat was to commit an act of high-handed presumption. It was to say, "This best part, this richest portion, I will take for myself." It was to treat God's portion as your own, to effectively enthrone yourself as the ultimate recipient of blessing. It was a failure to honor God as God.
Notice the careful distinction made in verse 24 concerning an animal that dies on its own or is torn by beasts. Its fat could be used for other purposes, like fuel or leatherworking, but not for food. This reinforces the principle of order. This animal was not presented as a sacrifice. Its death was not an act of worship. God is a God of order, and He is teaching His people to make careful distinctions between the holy and the common, the clean and the unclean, the worshipful and the ordinary.
The penalty for violating this is to be "cut off from his people." This is not a private slap on the wrist. This is excommunication. To be cut off was to be put out of the camp, away from the assembly of the covenant people and the presence of God. It was a form of social and spiritual death. Why so severe? Because this sin was an attack on the very foundation of worship. It was a declaration of autonomy. And in the camp where God Himself dwelt, such rebellion could not be tolerated.
The Life is in the Blood (vv. 26-27)
The second prohibition is even broader, covering the blood of any bird or animal.
"And you shall not eat any blood, either of bird or animal, in any of your places of habitation. Any person who eats any blood, even that person shall be cut off from his people." (Leviticus 7:26-27 LSB)
If the fat represents the best of the life, the blood represents the life itself. Scripture is explicit on this point: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement" (Leviticus 17:11). Life is a sacred thing, a gift from God. To consume blood was to treat life as a mere commodity, something to be ingested and used for one's own sustenance and pleasure.
The pagan nations that surrounded Israel were obsessed with blood. They drank it in their demonic rituals, seeking to absorb the life-force of the creature, to manipulate power, to trick life out of death. But God's people were to have nothing to do with this. Life is not something we seize; it is something we receive from God. And when a life is taken, its blood, which represents that life, must be treated with solemn respect. It is to be poured out on the ground and covered, returning it to the Giver, or it is to be brought to the altar for the holy purpose of atonement.
The blood on the altar was a constant, vivid reminder of the cost of sin. Sin brings death. For a sinner to be forgiven and restored to fellowship with a holy God, a life must be given. A substitute must die. The blood of the animal was a picture of a life poured out to cover the sin of the worshiper. To eat that blood would be to despise the atonement. It would be to treat the symbol of redemption as nothing more than a common beverage. It would be to trample on the very means of grace God had provided.
And so, again, the penalty is to be cut off. To profane the blood is to profane the life, and to profane the life is to profane the atonement. Such a person has no place among the redeemed people of God. He has, by his own actions, placed himself outside the covenant of life.
Christ, Our Fat and Our Blood
As with all the Levitical code, these laws are a schoolmaster, designed to bring us to Christ. We are no longer bound by these specific dietary rules, not because they were foolish, but because they have been gloriously fulfilled. Jesus Himself declared all foods clean. But the principles they teach are eternal.
First, the fat. Jesus Christ is the "fat of the land" of God's grace. He is the best, the richest, the most abundant blessing the Father could give. He is God's portion, the beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. In the great sacrifice of the cross, God did not hold back His best; He gave His only Son. And in Christ, we are now called to offer up the "fat" of our own lives. We are to give Him our best, our firstfruits, our richest affections and highest energies. We are not to keep the best for ourselves, but to joyfully acknowledge that all we have is from Him and for Him. To live for ourselves is to eat the fat, to commit the sin of presumption.
Second, the blood. The entire sacrificial system, with its constant refrain of "do not eat the blood," was pointing forward to the one, final, sufficient blood sacrifice. The life is in the blood, and Jesus poured out His life for us on the cross. His blood is the blood of the new covenant, which makes true and final atonement for sin. We are forbidden to treat that blood as a common thing (Hebrews 10:29). But here is the glorious reversal: in the Old Covenant, they were forbidden to eat the blood of the sacrifice. In the New Covenant, we are commanded to drink it.
Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves" (John 6:53). This is not cannibalism; it is covenant participation. By faith, we partake of Christ. We receive His life, His poured-out blood, as the sole basis of our atonement and our fellowship with God. At the Lord's Table, we drink the wine, which represents His blood, and in doing so we proclaim that our life is not in ourselves. Our life is in His death. We are not trying to seize life; we are receiving His.
The penalty for disobedience was to be "cut off." This too finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ. To reject the sacrifice of Christ, to refuse His blood and to enthrone yourself by consuming the "fat" of your own life, is to be cut off from God eternally. It is the ultimate excommunication. But for those who trust in Him, who offer their lives to Him and receive His life in return, the promise is not of being cut off, but of being grafted in. We are brought into the covenant community, the very family of God, to feast with Him forever at the marriage supper of the Lamb. There, we will enjoy the fatness of His house and drink from the river of His delights, all because the fat was offered and the blood was shed, once for all.