The blood of the sacrifice

Deuteronomy 12:23, 27: "But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat... Present your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God, both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured beside the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat." (NIV)

There's something to be said for repetition. I've only read five books of the Old Testament, and already I've lost track of the number of times blood is mentioned. We are told how to use blood as an offering of atonement, sprinkling it upon the sanctuary of the Tent of Meeting; we are told how to present the blood of animal sacrifices when making an offering to the Lord, sprinkling it a certain number of times on the altar; and we are strictly prohibited from eating the blood of our meat, instead ordered to "pour it out on the ground like water." Each of these uses of blood is outlined in the first five books several times over. (It makes for some pretty upleasant reading, if you ask me.)

But if something is mentioned that many times, I figure it must be important. But until reading this passage, I only vaguely understood why the Old Testament seems to have such a fascination with blood. Here in Deuteronomy 12, Moses says that blood is- quite literally- the life of the person or animal it belongs to. And he says that when you sacrifice an animal on the altar, lifting it up as an offering to Lord, you may eat and enjoy the meat; but the blood, the life of the animal, must remain on the altar. I see this as an analogy.

We are the animal; the blood of the animal is our blood, our life. When we accept Christ, we are free to take our newly sanctified selves and live in joy and peace and freedom. But our blood- our plans, our lifestyle, the wants and desires and hardships that make up our lives- must remain on the altar, in the presence of our God. We must pour out the blood of our self-sacrifice at the altar of the Lord, and hold nothing back; and He will hold nothing back from us.

Romans 6:5: "If we have been united with him [Jesus Christ] like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection."