The Law Concerning The Eating of Hunted Down Wild Beasts And Birds (Leviticus 17:13-14).
“And whatever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird which may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood, and cover it with dust.”
When a beast or bird ‘which may be eaten' (compare Leviticus 11) is taken in hunting, and the main stress here is on the hunting of clean beasts and birds, their blood must be poured out on the ground and covered in dust. On no account must the blood be eaten. Again this applied to both Israelite and resident alien. All life belonged to God and He had the sole right to its disposal. The flesh of such animals could be eaten, but not their blood.
“For as to the life of all flesh, its blood is all one with its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, You shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.”
For the blood represents the life of the animal or bird. It is its life principle And no one was to seek to partake of an animal's life principle. Men and women were made in the image of God, and were of a different nature to wild beasts. To seek to imbibe an animal's life principle was therefore to seek to alter one's nature, and to turn oneself into a beast (which indeed was what they saw as one of its purposes, to give them the ferocity and/or strength of the beast). It was an example of what would later be described as ‘confusion' (Leviticus 18:23; Leviticus 20:12).
This teaching concerning the blood brings home the fact that we too can find life through blood shed, the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). It is through His life given in death that we can find forgiveness and new life. Jesus even spoke of ‘drinking His blood' (John 6:53-56), but the thought there also was of putting Him to death and benefiting by it (compare Isaiah 49:26; Zechariah 9:15 LXX; Matthew 23:30; 2 Samuel 23:17). Men ‘drank His blood' when they killed Him as they had the prophets (Matthew 23:30). We ‘drink His blood' when we claim and participate in the benefits of His death.