Leviticus 17:1 stands at the beginning of a block of chapters running through chapter 24 that is made up of various laws, ordinances, prohibitions, and precepts, the reason for most of which is self-evident. It introduces a statute spoken by the Lord to Moses whose purpose, in verses 1-7, was to prevent the people from sacrificing in the fields to devils. The statute required offerings to be brought to the sanctuary entrance, the place God appointed for worship where He would meet the people, and not to be offered elsewhere.
Anyone who offered an animal elsewhere was to be cut off from the people. Bringing offerings elsewhere showed turning to idol worship, because worship was to recognize God's personal presence in a particular place, the sanctuary. The command meant that sacrifices could not continue once Jerusalem, the chosen place where God's name and sanctuary were established, was inaccessible and the sanctuary destroyed.
The verse introduces instructions that include the use of blood for atonement, presenting blood as connected with life as part of God's teaching about the value of life. It teaches that blood is the life, so the law of life requires the transgressor's life, and sin can be put away only through the shedding of blood. The statute does not address where forgiveness is found. It does not teach that forgiveness is available only in the first apartment of the sanctuary, nor does it contradict the account in Leviticus 16 of the high priest making atonement in the holiest place for the people's sins.
Leviticus 17:1 stands at the beginning of a block of chapters running through chapter 24 that is made up of various laws, ordinances, prohibitions, and precepts, the reason for most of which is self-evident. It introduces a statute spoken by the Lord to Moses whose purpose, in verses 1-7, was to prevent the people from sacrificing in the fields to devils. The statute required offerings to be brought to the sanctuary entrance, the place God appointed for worship where He would meet the people, and not to be offered elsewhere.
Anyone who offered an animal elsewhere was to be cut off from the people. Bringing offerings elsewhere showed turning to idol worship, because worship was to recognize God's personal presence in a particular place, the sanctuary. The command meant that sacrifices could not continue once Jerusalem, the chosen place where God's name and sanctuary were established, was inaccessible and the sanctuary destroyed.
The verse introduces instructions that include the use of blood for atonement, presenting blood as connected with life as part of God's teaching about the value of life. It teaches that blood is the life, so the law of life requires the transgressor's life, and sin can be put away only through the shedding of blood. The statute does not address where forgiveness is found. It does not teach that forgiveness is available only in the first apartment of the sanctuary, nor does it contradict the account in Leviticus 16 of the high priest making atonement in the holiest place for the people's sins.