(22) And the Lord spake unto Moses.--This formula introduces a fresh communication made to the lawgiver (Leviticus 7:22-27), containing explanations and restrictions of the precept laid down in Leviticus 3:17, about the fat and blood of animals. The section before us, therefore, supplements and expands the previous law upon the same subject, just as the foregoing section supplemented and expanded the regulations about the different sacrifices.
Verses 22-27. - Repetition of the prohibition of eating the fat and the blood, addressed to the people in the midst of the instructions to the priests. Ye shall eat no manner of fat must be taken to mean none of the fat already specified, that is, the internal fat, and, in the case of the sheep, the tail; It is uncertain whether the law as to fat was regarded as binding upon the Israelites after they had settled in Palestine. Probably it was silently abrogated; but the prohibition of blood was undoubtedly perpetual (Deuteronomy 12:16), and it is based on a principle which does not apply to the fat (Leviticus 17:11).
7:11-27 As to the peace-offerings, in the expression of their sense of mercy, God left them more at liberty, than in the expression of their sense of sin; that their sacrifices, being free-will offerings, might be the more acceptable, while, by obliging them to bring the sacrifices of atonement, God shows the necessity of the great Propitiation. The main reason why blood was forbidden of old, was because the Lord had appointed blood for an atonement. This use, being figurative, had its end in Christ, who by his death and blood-shedding caused the sacrifices to cease. Therefore this law is not now in force on believers.
saying; as follows.