Good Fluid
By Jim Huskins
McDowell County
Our culture is enamored with the mortician’s art. Most Americans feel obligated to provide their loved ones the full trappings of the modern funeral industry, including, of course, embalming. Only the US and Canada routinely embalm their dead, but embalming was rare in the states before the middle of the Nineteenth Century. Many considered it a violation of Christian principles. The wholesale slaughter which we call “Civil” War created a need for acceptable methods of preserving corpses long enough to be shipped home. A relatively recent interest in cremation may be challenging this national fixation, but embalming is remarkably common.
Abraham Lincoln’s assassination may have helped popularize the procedure. He was shot on April 14, 1865, but he was not buried until May 4. His body lay in state in DC until his official funeral, then it was transported by train through seven states on route to Springfield, IL. The trip was more than 1650 miles. The train never exceeded 20 mph, and it made numerous stops. People along the route flocked to pay their respects. At a time when most corpses were buried within one or two days, Lincoln was not interred for almost three weeks.
I intended to present detailed procedures associated with embalming, but I don’t have the stomach. Look them up if you like. I do need to mention the primary focus of modern embalming. Using pressurized equipment, blood is drained from the circulatory system and replaced with a toxic chemical cocktail intended to delay decomposition. Believers should be aware that granting permission to carry out this process has the effect of conveying to embalmers a sacred trust. When we hire their service, we empower them to handle and dispose of blood.
The Bible has much to say about blood. Every believer is familiar with the precious nature of the blood of Christ, but Scripture says that all blood—including animal blood—is a treasure to our Creator. The sacredness of blood is foundational to the Levitical sacrificial system. We have been taught the lie that nothing worthwhile can be gained by studying the Mosaic Covenant. In reality, every detail of the divine instructions conveyed to Israel at Sinai is essential for those who want to please and honor God. Jesus made this profound claim in Luke 24:44. “Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” We cannot know Him as we should unless we are grounded in those portions of Scripture.
God’s perspective on blood includes Leviticus 17:10-14. The passage begins and ends with prohibition against consuming any type of blood. Appalachian culture focused on raising hogs and using every part. This included many variants on blood pudding and blood sausage. God says that everyone who eats blood will be “cut off” from His people.
The reason we must never eat or mishandle blood is that “life is in the blood.” When a hunter kills an animal, its blood must be fully drained, poured on the ground, and covered with earth. If blood was not sacred to God, then it could not have served as a medium for conveying His grace during the sacrificial rituals. “I have given (blood) for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.” A theme found throughout Scripture is recorded in Hebrews 9:22: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Leviticus 17:11 says, “It is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”
Many believers are shocked when they study the Levitical rituals. Those sacrifices were necessary for restoring people to a ritually pure state known as “clean.” No one who was not ritually clean could be allowed to stay inside Israel’s camp because God dwelled among them. The result of entering Holy God’s presence in an unclean state is death. Every cause of ritual impurity is covered by one or more sacrificial rituals.
The second benefit of the sacrificial system was providing forgiveness for unintentional sin. When I am asked to explain why Christians are expected to follow God’s Law, I am frequently accused of attempting to “earn salvation.” This claim is absurd since the Law never provided absolution for intentional sin. Most of my sin is intentional. Even if I had kept the Law perfectly since the moment I realized I am a sinner, the best I could have accomplished is to have maintained ritual purity and forgiveness of that tiny portion of sin which I never intended to commit. The Law was never a means of salvation. Salvation has always been by grace through faith. That is the thunderous message of Hebrews 11. The Law is God’s attempt to teach His people how He wants us to live. At the core of those instructions is the fact that we are expected to treat blood with all the respect due its sacred nature.
If animal blood is so precious to God that He requires hunters to drain it and cover it with earth, should those same rules be applied to meat packers? In our industrial food system, blood is a byproduct which is ultimately converted to income. Should human blood be respectfully disposed? During embalming, blood is flushed into the sewage system. I am not proposing answers to these questions, but I am convinced that they need to be considered in light of Scripture.
Among embalmers, one is likely to hear a phrase associated with the practice of their art. “He took good fluid” is a post-embalming complement. Part of the implication is that, through the process of removing blood and replacing it with a toxic substitute, the dead person now looks “more lifelike.” The irony is mind numbing. The subject is dead! Death, no matter how skillfully masked, can have no part with life.
This world offers many substitutes for that life sustained by the blood of Jesus. Every one is toxic. They all result in the ultimate conversion of one’s life into sewage.
Obedient Heart Fellowship meets each Sabbath (Seventh Day) at 3023 US 221 N. Marion, NC. 10:00 A.M. 828-460-7913
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Jim & Beverly Huskins are members of Obedient Heart Fellowship in McDowell County. Beginning July 2, 2022 Obedient Heart Fellowship will meet at 10:00 Each Sabbath (Seventh Day) at 3023 US 221 N. Marion, NC. 10:00 A.M. Call 828-460-7913 for info.
You can read more good Christian news from Jim HERE.
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