Day 16: Bleeding Out

While normal menstrual flow barely gets much notice from women who have been ovulating for years, there are times when we see the blood and cry. When we’re struggling with infertility and have our hopes up that this cycle might have "achieved pregnancy," the sign of blood is hugely disappointing, telling us our body is still unwilling or unable to conceive. When we’re recently pregnant, a flow of blood signals miscarriage. When we're in the third trimester, blood tells us to expect trouble, maybe even endangered lives.

One phrase I have heard on occasion in connection with pregnancy catastrophes was the term “bleeding out.” I didn’t know if that was an actual term, but it sounded really bad. Bleeding until all the blood is out? So I looked up the term to find out more, and Wikipedia says that “bleeding out” is the colloquial term for the official word: exsanguination. It is a very rare way to die.

But what was also said about this term is that it is a method for slaughtering animals. And getting back to Jewish sacrifice and dietary rules in the Old Testament, exsanguination was required as part of the slaughtering process, because Jews were forbidden to eat blood. Even before Moses was writing out and setting up the Levitical codes, this was a big deal. Genesis 9, when a new covenant is made with creation and the human race descending from Noah, God makes it clear that lifeblood matters. He forbids any eating of animals that still have blood in their bodies, and then talks about how he will demand an accounting of all life blood. It seems that respect for the life of fellow humans is connected to respect even for the lives of the animals that are slaughtered for food. Leviticus 7:22-27 warns of the punishment for eating blood or fat of an animal: being cut off from the community. Leviticus 17:10-14 repeats this and gives a clearer explanation why:

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. 11 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. 12 Therefore 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, 14 because 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."

There are a couple interesting things that I’ve started to think about, and that I’ll be digesting more through future writings. The “because” of verse 14. “The life of every creature is its blood.” I usually picture the life of people as in their breath. But I guess that isn’t so different, though, because the respiratory and circulatory systems are so connected. I took a refresher CPR class last week and was reminded that compressing the chest of a non-breathing person is pushing air through them, because it is pumping the oxygen-filled blood through the body. The breathing we do is in order to put the oxygen in our blood. Our blood is our life.

The other interesting thing is how they were commanded not only to drain out all the blood of the animal, but also to cover it with earth. It seems to show a respect for the life of the animal, by respecting the actual blood enough to give the blood a decent burial.

The third interesting thing is how the end of verse 11 gives so much power to blood: “It is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” It isn’t the act of properly sacrificing an animal, it isn’t the prayer, or the repentant heart, or the obedience to the command that makes atonement, it is the blood. Something about that blood. What is the blood doing? How does blood have the power to make atonement?

Reading all the laws and rules that Leviticus mandated for the Hebrew people is strange because the consequence is so serious for breaking many of them: death or being cut off from the people. What has happened since then so that these rules either don’t matter in my life, or they matter but I am completely ignorant of my offense? I don’t even know if I eat blood in my meat. I know that when my pot roast was thawing in the frig yesterday, I didn’t have a plate under it and a pink liquid leaked all over the glass shelf. Was that blood? Or is that just juice? I don’t even know. And back then people were getting kicked out of town if they neglected to drain out all the blood and bury it in the ground. Things are so different.