For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. (NIV)

Blood is the word that stands out in the text.  It makes me think of a slasher movie or a cult of some kind. These words would have been written around 500 - 1000 B.C. in what is now the Middle East. The idea of gods, alters, sacrifices, and blood was as common as spring break, church steeples, or break-up in today's Alaska.  

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The Bible uses poetry, narrative, and in this case ancient ritual symbolism to communicate truth. We think of blood as messy or gross. We focus on the word blood, but the key word in the first sentence is “life.” The blood is the life of an animal. Drain the blood, no life. We focus on the slimy red stuff, while the culture of the time would focus on blood as symbolic of living. The spilling of blood meant the giving up of life. The animal that was sacrificed and bled out gave up its life.  

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Yet, the animal had done nothing wrong. In fact, it is an animal sacrifice that must be without flaws, the best of all your animals. This ritual was a symbol of atonement, which is to pay a debt to make things right with God. God loves and wants a relationship with his people so much that it makes him angry when things aren’t right. Therefore, he set up this sacrificial system as a way, not to penalize sin, but to allow his people make atonement for their wrongs so that they could be in that right relationship with God again. He also wanted a sacrifice of your best given willingly. This innocent animal was a substitute for sins or guilt. So, the blood was about giving away the life of an innocent to make things right with God in your life. This was also a foreshadowing of Jesus, who would give the ultimate sacrifice of his blood and life as substitute for our sins, so we can be right with God.

This and similar rituals required a few things. The best animal was to be surrendered. You were giving up the income, milk, or hide that the animal would provide. Also, it was to be given up in humility - a willing gift or offering to God. We are asked the same today. God wants us to give to him our lives. Jesus, the innocent substitute, has already made the sacrifice of blood or life. Jesus’s death on the cross was a once and forever sacrifice. He was innocent, like the animals. His blood, meaning his whole life, was given to make each one of us right with God.  

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So, what are we surrendering? Our desires, wants, and wills. And not life on the margins, or the leftovers or parts of our lives that are convenient to give, but to continually and daily surrender our best to him, doing so with a willing attitude of humility and gratitude. This is a life-long process, and the heart to do so comes from our Father. Let us try not to be focused on how difficult it is, but to be focused on gratitude and joy that Jesus already paid the price and walks with us as we continually surrender to Him.

Search my heart O God. May I continually surrender to you. Every thought, every deed, every desire. The whole of me. “All that I am. All I can be. All that I have. All that is me. Accept and use, Lord, as you would choose Lord, right now today. Take every passion, every sin, take all my dreams and bend to your will. My all I give, Lord, for you I live Lord.”  (A song by Bill Himes)