Transfusion Confusion
& Other Questions About Faithfulness

Series Title:  Life Lessons from Leviticus? (For More In This Series )

A Sermon By Jim Hammond from Leviticus 17

I want to read to you a letter written by a Jehovah Witness Mother: 

My son was … bright and promising and a true servant of Jehovah. He dreamed of going to Bethel to serve Jehovah more fully. He prepared for meetings on his own, pioneered during summer breaks, handled the microphones at the Kingdom Hall, and timed the student talks for the Ministry School Overseer. He even gave talks at assemblies. We were so proud!

He was 15 years old and in the 9th grade when he and another young Witness were in a terrible auto accident. The other boy was driving my son home from the Sunday meeting when he raced the car, lost control and flipped. I was a faithful Witness for 29 years, and my husband and I trained our son to refuse blood transfusions. He told the ambulance drivers, "No blood!" and he said it again at the first hospital before he became unconscious. When he was air lifted to the trauma center, he was immediately transfused because he was unconscious and a minor.

By then, however, a lot of time had passed and there had been severe internal bleeding that had damaged his heart and other organs. When we arrived at the trauma center, the doctor told us that he had little chance of survival without blood transfusions, and that they had given him several units when he arrived. This angered my husband a great deal but I said nothing. Secretly, I had hoped the doctors would give him blood despite our wishes if a transfusion could save his life. The doctor said they restarted his heart twice and that gave us a glimmer of hope but twenty minutes later, with tears in his eyes, the doctor said they couldn't restart his heart a third time – he had died.

My husband and my two other sons and I cried and cried and cried. I have never known such anguish and physical pain! I wanted to die. The pain was unbearable. I kept thinking, "Would he have lived if he got blood at the first hospital?" A spiral of profound change began in my life.

When you see your child lying wrapped in a white sheet, their pale lifeless face - there is no comfort. I will be forever carrying that picture of my son in my mind - wearing the face of death. No words can touch that place where your heart is dying. The hope of the resurrection means nothing when you can't see or touch the living-breathing child that filled your life with joy. Never seeing them smile at you, laugh with you, or give you a hug ever again in the days to come. Never hearing them say, “I love you” again. I've suffered pain, but nothing compared to the pain of losing my beloved son. Your whole body becomes sickened with the most horrible physical pain one can feel. I've suffered pain, but nothing compared to the pain of losing a child.

I pray that any Jehovah’s Witness who has children and reads this will never have to face such a loss such as mine. A loss that can be prevented if they have a true understanding of what the Watchtower Society is asking them to sacrifice. After my son had died, I realized my nagging doubts about the Watchtower’s blood policies needed to be fully investigated.  Hadn't I just lost a child for these purportedly God given laws I had lived by for 29 years?

I soon learned that over the years the Witnesses have changed many teachings about blood and that the Governing Body was about to change more of its blood doctrines. Why are some parts of blood permitted when others are not? Where did they find this in the Bible? In addition, if the Bible says nothing about transfusions, how can the Governing Body say with certainty that blood transfusions are wrong in Jehovah's eyes? How could I forgive those men for my son's death? In my opinion, the men of the Governing Body have the blood of many innocents on their hands. They who taught us falsely in God's name are accountable to him.

My heart is completely broken - my child is dead. I beg of you who read my story, don't let this happen to you. Educate yourself now before you are faced with a similar tragedy. If any child can be saved by their parents thinking now rather than after they lose their child, perhaps my son's death will not have been for nothing. [1]

I serve on the newly formed bio ethics committee at the Verde Valley Medical Center.  At our last meeting together we had a representative from the Jehovah’s Witnesses Phoenix Hospital Liaison Committee come and address the bio ethics committee.  This was an effort to educate those of us on the committee over the extremely controversial ethical and legal issues as it relates to the personal rights of a Jehovah’s Witness, or the rights of a minor when they are in need of a blood transfusion or medical treatment that require blood products.

It was a very interesting meeting to say the least.  It was tense talking about life and death issues for these doctors, as you can imagine.  For the Jehovah’s Witness, receiving a blood transfusion is anathema.  For the Doctor, not giving a blood transfusion sometimes feels like committing homicide, and one Doctor said so heatedly to the representative.  The Jehovah Witness responded that giving a blood transfusion without consent is like committing medical rape.  The doctors and nurses alike are frustrated because although they can understand a patient’s personal religious rights, they are frustrated by what they see.  There is incredible pressure placed on the Jehovah’s Witness Church places on the Jehovah’s Witness patient when they are in a hospital and in need of such treatment to live.  This organization views it as support.  The medical staff view it as power coercion.

Today, in our series on Life Lessons From Leviticus, we come to one of the passages that the Jehovah’s Witnesses often site for the religious reasons why they must refuse a blood transfusion even if it means losing one’s life. 

I listened to the representative’s presentation.  He used three passages from scripture.  Most people can simply ignore their position as weird and leave it at that.  But I can’t simply write off as weird an interpretation of scripture.  I have to find out what an accurate interpretation requires.  After all, I admire someone who is willing to die for convictions they believe are non negotiable.  Even if I think the Jehovah Witnesses are misguided, I admire their desire to remain faithful to what they believe.  When the representative sited three passages of scripture, although some of the medical community might just write this off as weird, if I am to disagree with their position, I must justify in my own mind and heart why this is a bad interpretation of scripture, because I also see the Bible as the authoritative truth for my life.  One thing was made very clear.  The representative was clear to state that their refusal to accept blood transfusions is on religious grounds and not on medical grounds. 

Here are the verses he sited for the decision of the Governing Body of the Jehovah’s Witnesses to forbid any medical treatment that includes whole blood products. 

Genesis 9:3-5 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.  4"But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. 

Leviticus 17:13-14 " 'Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, 14because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off." 

Acts 15:28-29 28It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.   Farewell.

 According to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they are forbidden even to store their own blood, for a scheduled surgery.  Once it is outside of the body, it is unacceptable to be reintroduced to the body.

However, it was interesting to note, that blood proteins, Albumin, Globulins, and all clotting factors derived from blood were made matters for individual conscience, though whole blood products like Red Cells, white cells, plasma, or platelets were absolutely not acceptable. 

That’s a curious detail all by itself and I was interested to know why, although I never learned why.  This inconsistency confirmed my conviction that a legalist cannot be 100% consistent.

Not much more was said explaining the verses.  It was assumed the verses justified their position.  But what I couldn’t help but note immediately was this.  Every verse had to do with food laws, not medical practices.  And in view of our recent study on the biblical food laws about clean and unclean foods from Leviticus and the New Testament.  What did we learn?  We learned that Jesus declared all foods clean.  So my awareness was our freedom now to eat foods that were formerly forbidden in Old Testament laws.  That still leaves us with the Acts 15 passage, that’s in the New Testament.

I decided to stick around after the meeting and ask the representative to clarify why the Jehovah’s Witnesses interpret the Bible on these passages the way they do, when these laws were food laws and not about medical practices.  The representative answer was this.  “If you were in the hospital with a broken jaw and your mouth was wired shut, how would they feed you?”

I knew where he was going with this, so I said “Intravenously.”

He said, “Right”. 

He added, “If you agreed not to drink any alcohol, would taking it intravenously mean you kept your agreement?” 

The obvious answer to the leading question, was “No.”  I could see where he was coming from making the connection between food, and blood as food, although in reality, blood in the veins never enters the digestive tract like food does. 

 Just in case, you think this case has nothing to do with your life, and you don’t care what the Jehovah’s Witnesses think, let me say this.  Don’t tune yourself out.  I think you will discover that understanding Leviticus 17 has more practical implications than merely being able to articulate how you believe differently than some aberrant religious group.  There are other practical implications here.

Let’s read a very difficult and seemingly obscure chapter of scripture, Leviticus chapter 17.  It is so obscure that when I went to a sermon website that hosts thousands upon thousands of sermons, and when I entered as a search criterion, “Leviticus 17”, the result was “Sorry your search resulted in no matches.”  Not preacher had preached a sermon from this chapter alone.  After you hear my message today, you will think I shouldn’t have either.  But I hope on the contrary that you will be glad that I did.  It is my belief that every page of scripture is a gold mine if you understand it properly.

Here’s the focus for Leviticus 17.  And I want you to notice that the truths we ponder today go far deeper than the mere questions regarding the issue of “Transfusion Confusion”.

Focus:  We must be careful to give no devotion or allegiance to anything that competes with God for our heart’s full devotion.

Leviticus 17:1-16

The Lord said to Moses, 2"Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: 'This is what the Lord has commanded: 3Any Israelite who sacrifices an ox, a lamb or a goat in the camp or outside of it 4instead of bringing it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to present it as an offering to the Lord in front of the tabernacle of the Lord--that man shall be considered guilty of bloodshed; he has shed blood and must be cut off from his people. 5This is so the Israelites will bring to the Lord the sacrifices they are now making in the open fields. They must bring them to the priest, that is, to the Lord, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and sacrifice them as fellowship offerings. 6The priest is to sprinkle the blood against the altar of the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and burn the fat as an aroma pleasing to the Lord. 7They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.'

8"Say to them: 'Any Israelite or any alien living among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice 9and does not bring it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice it to the Lord--that man must be cut off from his people.

10" 'Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood--I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. 11For 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. 12Therefore I say to the Israelites, "None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood."

13" 'Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, 14because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off."

15" 'Anyone, whether native-born or alien, who eats anything found dead or torn by wild animals must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be ceremonially unclean till evening; then he will be clean. 16But if he does not wash his clothes and bathe himself, he will be held responsible.' "

As you can see, the context of this chapter is about allegiance to God.  At least at that point the we and Jehovah’s Witnesses can agree.  But let’s attempt to understand better what’s going on here so that we know what God wants from us.  Are there any Life Lessons from this Leviticus Chapter for us?  I believe so, even though it needs to be understood through the fulfillment of the New Covenant.

Rule Number 1 in scripture interpretation is this…

I.  Understanding the Context

A.  What Was Commanded

1.  Sacrificial Animals Could Be Butchered Only At the Tabernacle (vs. 3-4)

Why were the Israelites prohibited from sacrificing outside the Tabernacle area? God had established specific times and places for sacrifices, and each occasion was permeated with symbolism. If people sacrificed on their own, they might easily add to or subtract from God’s laws to fit their own life-styles. Many pagan religions allowed every individual priest to set his own rules; God’s command helped the Israelites resist the temptation to follow the pagan pattern. When the Israelites slipped into idolatry, it was because “the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6).[2]

T or F    This Command Was Permanent

Although the end of verse 7 says, This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come. The answer to this True/False statement is actually tricky.  Technically, the statement “This Command Was Permanent” is False because although it is eternally true, and therefore permanent, that we should never worship false gods, the specifics on this particular command was temporary.  The reason for the command was a permanent reason (don’t worship false Gods), but the way to avoid it was different before the conquest and after the conquest of the promised land.  Before the conquest people were not even allowed to butcher any sacrificial animal to eat it outside the Tabernacle.  By the time frame of Deuteronomy, just before entering into the land of promise, their more permanent dwelling place, this specific injunction had already been modified. 

Deut. 12:20-25 When the Lord your God has enlarged your territory as he promised you, and you crave meat and say, "I would like some meat," then you may eat as much of it as you want. 21If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his Name is too far away from you, you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and in your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want. 22Eat them as you would gazelle or deer. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat. 23But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. 24You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. 25Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

It was no longer feasible for the entire nation to come only to one center of worship to slaughter the sacrificial animals.  Many would have had to eliminate these animals completely from their diet if that were the case.  That was not the point.  Avoiding pagan practices was the point.  We will get to which practice to avoid next.

2.  Blood Must Not Be Eaten (vs. 10-14)

I’m sure that upsets many of you.  Any vampires out there?  This command may sound strange to you, but we now forget how much our own abhorrence to something is related to how the Bible has shaped our culture and thoughts.  The reason nobody is tempted in this area anymore was because God’s law completely eliminated this from our mainstream culture.  We do not feel any pressure from our culture to participate in this behavior because this behavior has been effectively eliminated as a cultural norm. 

What if blood was your favorite meal?  I’ve never had it, but I understand “blood sausage” is very popular in some places, and with some people.  Most of this seems irrelevant to most of us who don’t care to eat blood, and don’t care if we have to give up blood sausage.  And I will explain why I disagree with the Jehovah Witnesses on the “Transfusion Confusion,” but even that question doesn’t seem pressing for most of you.  Hang on, we are getting to some principles that apply to every one of us, and every one of us today. 

A.    Why These Commands

Let’s answer this question in reverse order as it appears in the text.  First, the explicit reasons given for not eating blood is given.  There are only two reasons spelled out here for not eating blood.

1.  The Explicitly Stated Reasons:

(a.)  Respect for life (vs. 11 & 14)

(b.)  Respect for the Atonement (vs. 11)

2.  The Underlying Reason

(a.)  The Seduction Of False Worship

The purpose for the commands in this chapter was to cut off occasions of idolatry and to prevent the people's usurpation of the priest's office. The underlying reason for what seems like obscure commands was the seduction of pagan worship practices.

Ancient Pagan Worship Practices

7They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.'

In other words, it is never appropriate to offer your worship allegiance to false gods.  Some translations, by the way, translate the term “goat idols” with the phrase “goat demons”.  These are not merely systems of humanly made up stone idols, representing human ideas and systems.  This is the active participation with real demonic powers.  That is why the eating of blood was to be treated as harshly as murder (vs. .4).  This was real spiritual prostitution.  This context becomes clearer and clearer as you continue to read.  Consider

Leviticus 18:1-5 The Lord said to Moses, 2"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the Lord your God. 3You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. 4You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. 5Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.

Chapter 17 was written to differentiate the Israelite practices from the pagan practices.  Remembering that there are no chapter breaks, or numbering of verses and paragraphs in the originals.  Chapter 17 leads right into the thoughts of 18.  This whole section is about the drastic confrontation of horrific pagan culture, a culture that so saturated even the Israelites thinking that the thought of participating in these pagan practices was very seductive.  This was a very real temptation for these Israelites. 

The reason NO sacrificial animals could be killed away from the Tabernacle was to remove the temptation completely and bring correction to the terrible pagan influences. 

If you aren’t sure this is what was the problem, check this out

Leviticus 19:26-28

" 'Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it.  " 'Do not practice divination or sorcery.  27" 'Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. 28" 'Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord.

II.               Clearing The Confusion

1)     If the no eating blood laws were food laws, Jesus declared all foods clean.

2)     (But then why the Acts 15 reference to abstaining from blood?  You can imagine how offensive this would be to Jews.  This was a consideration for unity, in the context this is clear.  Again, the offense is clearly connected with pagan idolatrous practices.  It is not inclusive of medical practices to save life

3)     Orthodox Jews would have something to say about it, if the injunction was a blanket statement that covers even medical practices.  But no orthodox Jew who still attempts to follow the Torah makes any connection between these blood laws and blood transfusions.  It is only the Jehovah’s Witnesses who believe this interpretation.  And the reason for it is that their authority isn’t the Bible really, but “the Governing Body” which determines for them what they must believe.

·       The protestant reformation taught us something the Jehovah’s Witnesses have yet to learn.  The protestant reformation was a movement that recognized the error of asserting church authority over the Authority of the Bible.  One of the major differences between ourselves and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, or any cult group is this.  We see the Bible as our ultimate authority for truth.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses may say this, but really it is their “Governing Body” who has the ultimate authority for truth.  In their system you cannot question the Governing Body who has the ultimate authority in all matters including the “correct” interpretation of the Bible.  Any group that asserts their “church authority” as greater than Biblical authority are setting themselves up for dangerous beliefs and practices.  Let God’s Word be the authority of your life.

4)     The text explicitly says the basis for the law.  The law upheld reverence and respect for life, because life is in the blood.  Let me ask you a question:  Which choice demonstrates the most respect for life in a life or death decision about a medical blood transfusion?  The choice to transfuse and save life where possible? or the choice to let someone die because of a suspicious interpretation of this verse?  I believe greater respect for the Creator, and Life, and the truth that Life is in the Blood, is demonstrated when out of a high view of life, one accepts a life giving transfusion.  Does this use of blood, devalue life or value it?  Does this use of blood devalue the atonement, and the picture of sacrifice, or honor it? 

5)     Jesus knew how to prioritize the truths in the law.  He prioritized correctly when he said the greatest commandment was to Love God, and the second greatest was to Love our neighbor. 

Matthew 22:36-39 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

Jesus also gave examples of lesser laws in tension with greater laws.  For example, he told the parable of the Good Samaritan, setting up the situation where the laws kept the holy men from helping the man who appeared to be dead and bloody.  They didn’t want to become “unclean”.  They chose to obey the lesser law, whereas the Samaritan who had no regard for the Levitical Law, did what was natural and helped the dying man.  Jesus asked, who was the one who loved his neighbor?  The correct answer was the Samaritan.  When we disregard the lesser law to obey the greater law, saving a person’s life, we act the part of the Good Samaritan.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses have turned the priority upside down, obeying a lesser law (and that with the wrong understanding of the law).

CONCLUSION:  These laws were designed to keep people from pagan idolatry, not from medical practices that actually help people, and have nothing to do with idolatry.  

MOST LIKELY, “BLOOD SUCKING” ISN’T A TEMPTATION TO YOU, BUT WHAT IS? 

IS THERE A LIFE LESSON FOR US IN LEVITICUS 17?

Focus:  We must be careful to give no devotion or allegiance to anything that competes with God for our heart’s full devotion.

• MODERN “BLOOD SUCKING”
• HORROR MOVIES  or  BLOODY VIDEO GAMES 

What are ways we disrespect life?  Maybe we are not eating the blood of living animals, but thriving on the exciting bloodshed of video violence.  Isn’t that an extreme disrespect for life also?  Doesn’t that also have it’s consequences?  We should refuse to watch horror and violence.   Perhaps this is a cognitive parallel to eating blood. 

·       We tend to think of HUMAN SACRIFICES as ancient horrific uncivilized practices.  What about ABORTIONS?  Isn’t that a human sacrifice? 

The pagans also used to offer human sacrifices to appease these demon gods.  It isn’t that they were stupid.  It is that they had real allegiances with real powers and did these horrific things for spiritual favors from the gods, only they weren’t true gods, but demons.

Is our culture more enlightened?  Do we really know better?  What false gods do we serve?  We offer babies aplenty…to the god of free choice, to the god of sexual pleasure without responsibility for that pleasure—we call it abortion, a woman’s right to choose.  What about the sacredness of life, and a child’s right to life?  Let me assure you that the pressure to watch and do as our culture does is JUST AS GREAT FOR US AS IT WAS FOR THEM. 

The warning for us from this passage isn’t about our temptation to offer blood sacrifices and to drink blood.  How many of you are tempted there?  I didn’t think so.  In our culture today, that is not the temptation to us.  The real warning for us is to be faithful to our Lord in all matters of purity, when our culture feeds us the counterfeits that do tempt us.  Here is the tricky part.  IN a culture saturated with counterfeits, it is difficult for some people to believe these counterfeits are not good.  Today there counterfeit spirituality in the form of false systems of faith, there are counterfeit systems of fulfillment, there are counterfeit lifestyle choices.  Why do I call them counterfeit?  They promise a measure of satisfaction, but they are not according to God’s design for our lives.  If we follow God’s design we will find lasting satisfaction.  In fact, eternal satisfaction.  The real warning from Leviticus 17 is that something so abhorrent as drinking blood had become a real temptation to many Israelites.  When you are so deceived, you don’t even recognize how abhorrent some behavior really is.  Can you think of a behavior that in your right mind, if you can stand back objectively you can see how long term it can destroy you or is not good for you, yet it still has a tempting allure.  That’s the question of loyalty you need to face this morning.  Are you going to view it the way God does, as something damaging and abhorrent, or the way the world does as if it was no problem at all.  The choice is up to you, but with all choices there are consequences.

Modern Seductive Counterparts that Affect our Faithfulness

Leviticus 17:7 They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.'

I want you to note something here.  This is God’s evaluation of the Israelites.  They were prostituting themselves.  To what?  Not to stone images, but to real spiritual entities, demons.  They had opened themselves up to the demonic with their betrayal, their unfaithfulness.  They who had said they would be in covenant with God were breaching covenant.  God, on his part was forbidding the behavior of courting the demonic suitors. 

Three Biblical Principles

1. Every person is serving God or gods in his life.

2. Every person is transformed into an image of his god.

3. Mankind creates and forms a structure of society in its own image.

Compare Leviticus 17:7  with Jesus’ words.

Leviticus 17:7 They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.'

Or with Jesus’ words…

Matthew 6:24

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

The African proverb puts this same principle in this way, "The man who tries to walk two roads will split his pants."

Compare Leviticus 17:7  with James 4:4

James 4:4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

Would you agree with me that a good friend is someone you are comfortable being around?  Here’s the problem.  Christians are too comfortable with the world.  How does a Christian choose to be a friend of the world? 

• When lust has become your friend, God does not deliver you from it.  Why?  He doesn’t deliver you from your friends, but from your enemies.  First you must begin to view “your friend” for what it is, the enemy of God!
• When gaining more and more possessions is your comfortable friend.  Watch out.
• When alcohol becomes your comforting friend, the one you look forward to seeking out each day, watch out.
• When you become very comfortable laughing with, and being entertained by the entertainment of this world, and when I say, “of this world” I mean outside God’s parameters, watch out.

Many Christians have an intimate friendship with the world, that is with the worldly lies, and cultural values that are not Godly.  It is a form of unfaithfulness to God that James calls adultery, cheating, betrayal.  Are you too comfortable around the filth of the world that God abhors?  Not only are you comfortable, but are you even attracted to some of that filth?

Let me ask you some pointed questions.  What do you want?  What do you believe will make you happy?  Are you trying to make yourself happy with in any way that is not pleasing to God?  The ancient pagan religions thought success, fulfillment, and happiness could be enhanced with this abhorrent practice that included drinking blood.  What abhorrent practices have you dabbled with in your pursuit of success or happiness? 

Any practice that seems acceptable to you, but pulls your heart’s devotion away from God fits into this category of unfaithfulness.  It is actually a modern form of idolatry.  There is an unseen enemy attempting to derail the built in desire you have to please God.  If he can fill it with a compulsion, or pleasure, or addiction to replace or diminish that desire for God, he will do all he can to get you pulled away, or distracted.  He is the ruler of this world, and worldly culture is still filled with behaviors that God finds horrific and people do not. 

When you live in a culture that doesn’t recognize what repulses God, watch out!  You will begin to say things like, “What’s wrong with doing such n such, it’s not hurting anyone?”  It’s not?  Oh really?  It is hurting you in ways you can’t yet see or know.  Every aberration to God’s design is hurting somebody, and usually many “somebodies”, if not immediately, it will down the line a bit.  Remember the sermon on the concept “No one is an Island?”  Remember the dominoes.  There is no such thing as a secret, and there is no such thing as a harmless sin, or a victimless sin.

Most likely, “Blood Sucking” isn’t a temptation to you.  But what does seduce you?  What does tempt you?  What pulls at your heart to fill the voids with forbidden fulfillments?  We need to be reminded that the Israelites were so confused by the culture around them that many of them bought into the pagan lie that tripped them up.  The lie said something like this, “Offering blood sacrifices on our own isn’t going to hurt anything.”  Or, “There’s nothing wrong with drinking blood, my friend down the street swears it brings him all kinds of powers and benefits to them.  What can it hurt?”  According to God, this degraded life, so it was an offense to Him, after all, He created Life.  Life is pretty good stuff.  God understands the gift of life, even if we haven’t got a clue how it works.  In the pagan culture, in some cases, animals were being eaten while still alive much like wolves lapping at the blood ravenously while it was still pumping it’s last fleeting beats of life.  Pagans, like these blood thirsty wolves, but this time not for physical hunger and appetite but for spiritual appetites were eating flesh still quivering with life, and drinking blood, still warm with life.  The fresher the better.  This was a severe disrespect for life, and the creator of life.

Let me assure you that the pressure to watch and do as our culture does is great.  Are you willing to stand up and be counted as different for holiness properly understood?  If many Jehovah’s Witnesses are willing to sacrifice their own lives for a holiness improperly understood, can we stand up under pressure for holiness properly understood?  In the language of God himself, it is all a matter of choosing to be faithful to God, rather than prostituting ourselves to our wrongfully trained appetites.