Ezekiel 46:19-20

Some of the meat from the *sacrifices was for the priests. It was their food. This meat was *holy. So there were special *holy rooms where they had to eat it (42:13). And near these rooms, there were kitchens where they could cook the meat. The priests had to keep this meat separate from the people.

Jesus may have referred to the ceremony when the priests ate the *sacrifices in John 6:53-55. He used this as a word picture of his death. People had ‘to eat his body and to drink his blood’, he said. He meant that people must accept him into their lives. Otherwise, they would not benefit from his *sacrifice.

So the priests ate the meat from the animals. But actually, they did not drink the blood. People in many countries do use animal blood as food, but the *Israelites have never done this. God’s law did not allow them to eat it (Leviticus 7:27). That was because the blood was a word picture for the animal’s life (Leviticus 17:14). And all life belongs to God.