Leviticus 11:29-47
For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. – Leviticus 11:44
Click to read the passage
Jewish kosher food laws may seem far off and irrelevant to the modern Christian, but we should be careful not to dismiss them too quickly. Remember the “original sin” of Adam and Eve that brought death into this world involved food, the forbidden fruit. This was way before Israel received the Law of Moses. Even the early church grappled with dietary laws that divided Jews from Gentiles. It was so bad that Apostle Peter had to stand before the Council in Jerusalem to defend his encounter with Cornelius. The resulting consensus was that Gentiles were to be welcomed into God’s family and did not need to be Jews (to be circumcised or to follow kosher laws) in order to be Christians. They were only required to “abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:29).
So it seems that throughout the Bible, God has been quite consistently interested in what his people eat. But this interest is not due to his desire to control but a natural result of his concern for every part of our lives and desire that his holiness be reflected there.
Not many of us would object to the food laws in today’s passage (however irrelevant they may be to us today) because we don’t eat predatory birds, insects or animals with paws. But they still reveal something about God and his principle of holiness. He called Israel to be his consecrated, “set-apart” people and gave them unique laws that differentiated them from neighbouring pagan nations. The standard for their lives was to be his word, and we can see this in how many times the phrase, “unclean for you”, was repeated in Lev ch. 11: eleven times. It didn’t matter if the Canaanites were eating pork and rabbit—it was unclean for the Israelites. It wasn’t important if shrimp and shellfish were edible and good sources of nutrition—they were unclean for God’s people.
They were to follow God’s command because he was their God and he said it was so.
For the Israelites who first received these laws, they would have had to be educated to differentiate eagles, hawks, and owls, to tell apart edible insects from the unclean ones. This wasn’t just a biology lesson. It was more a lesson that they couldn’t just give into their hunger pangs and eat to satisfy without discrimination. Their eating had to be intentional and disciplined. When approaching food, they were to think first of God, not their bellies or their cravings.
The world around us is one that is driven by cravings that go unchecked and excessive appetites for what they consider basic physical needs, like food and sex. And these so-called“natural” things are not always compatible with God’s word. So when we encounter God’s commands and we are convicted that he is telling us not to do something, what is our reaction?
Sometimes we may agree—yeah, God, I don’t like grasshoppers anyway. Other times, we may be torn because those things that God is saying, “No,” to are things we enjoy, like pork belly (YUM!). We can replace “pork belly” with anything that we know displeases God, but we still can’t seem to give up. We may even look at our Father and try to tell him, “But all these other people are doing it, and they’re fine. See, Abba, it’s harmless. Can’t you just let me have this one thing? PLEEEEASE?”
If our God were Asian, I imagine his reply to be, “So if all the people of the world are going to hell, you also want to follow, is it?”
But instead I hear God our Heavenly Father gently but firmly telling us through the passage today, “No, child, that is unclean for you.” To reject something simply because God says it’s sin—that takes trust. To live mindfully, intentionally in every aspect of life so that we don’t sin—that takes discipline.
Reflection:
Today, the Lord continues to call us his holy people. We don’t live this way in order to be accepted, but because through Jesus we’ve already been accepted. Ask the Lord, “Is this pleasing to you,” before making decisions. Let’s live today intentionally, with trust and with discipline.
Prayer:
Dear Father, forgive us for the times when we lack the intentionality in our daily living. Help us to be more aware of you and your call for holiness in our lives today. May we please you in all that we do. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, Amen!
Click to read the passage
Jewish kosher food laws may seem far off and irrelevant to the modern Christian, but we should be careful not to dismiss them too quickly. Remember the “original sin” of Adam and Eve that brought death into this world involved food, the forbidden fruit. This was way before Israel received the Law of Moses. Even the early church grappled with dietary laws that divided Jews from Gentiles. It was so bad that Apostle Peter had to stand before the Council in Jerusalem to defend his encounter with Cornelius. The resulting consensus was that Gentiles were to be welcomed into God’s family and did not need to be Jews (to be circumcised or to follow kosher laws) in order to be Christians. They were only required to “abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:29).
So it seems that throughout the Bible, God has been quite consistently interested in what his people eat. But this interest is not due to his desire to control but a natural result of his concern for every part of our lives and desire that his holiness be reflected there.
Not many of us would object to the food laws in today’s passage (however irrelevant they may be to us today) because we don’t eat predatory birds, insects or animals with paws. But they still reveal something about God and his principle of holiness. He called Israel to be his consecrated, “set-apart” people and gave them unique laws that differentiated them from neighbouring pagan nations. The standard for their lives was to be his word, and we can see this in how many times the phrase, “unclean for you”, was repeated in Lev ch. 11: eleven times. It didn’t matter if the Canaanites were eating pork and rabbit—it was unclean for the Israelites. It wasn’t important if shrimp and shellfish were edible and good sources of nutrition—they were unclean for God’s people.
They were to follow God’s command because he was their God and he said it was so.
For the Israelites who first received these laws, they would have had to be educated to differentiate eagles, hawks, and owls, to tell apart edible insects from the unclean ones. This wasn’t just a biology lesson. It was more a lesson that they couldn’t just give into their hunger pangs and eat to satisfy without discrimination. Their eating had to be intentional and disciplined. When approaching food, they were to think first of God, not their bellies or their cravings.
The world around us is one that is driven by cravings that go unchecked and excessive appetites for what they consider basic physical needs, like food and sex. And these so-called“natural” things are not always compatible with God’s word. So when we encounter God’s commands and we are convicted that he is telling us not to do something, what is our reaction?
Sometimes we may agree—yeah, God, I don’t like grasshoppers anyway. Other times, we may be torn because those things that God is saying, “No,” to are things we enjoy, like pork belly (YUM!). We can replace “pork belly” with anything that we know displeases God, but we still can’t seem to give up. We may even look at our Father and try to tell him, “But all these other people are doing it, and they’re fine. See, Abba, it’s harmless. Can’t you just let me have this one thing? PLEEEEASE?”
If our God were Asian, I imagine his reply to be, “So if all the people of the world are going to hell, you also want to follow, is it?”
But instead I hear God our Heavenly Father gently but firmly telling us through the passage today, “No, child, that is unclean for you.” To reject something simply because God says it’s sin—that takes trust. To live mindfully, intentionally in every aspect of life so that we don’t sin—that takes discipline.
Reflection:
Today, the Lord continues to call us his holy people. We don’t live this way in order to be accepted, but because through Jesus we’ve already been accepted. Ask the Lord, “Is this pleasing to you,” before making decisions. Let’s live today intentionally, with trust and with discipline.
Prayer:
Dear Father, forgive us for the times when we lack the intentionality in our daily living. Help us to be more aware of you and your call for holiness in our lives today. May we please you in all that we do. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, Amen!