DO THOSE OLD DIETARY LAWS REALLY MATTER?
The 14th chapter of Deuteronomy should come with a warning label that reads; “if you start messing with people’s ideas about food; life can become very serious.
This subject could have side-effects.”
For some strange reason; no one wants to be told about maintaining a godly diet.
ALL OR NONE
Unfortunately; the Word of God is all together in one piece called The Holy Scriptures; and it seems you can’t leave a portion out and still have everything that you need.
There is a portion of the Torah that speaks of dietary laws.
God has some pretty strong ideas about food and He has commanded us about what to eat and what not to eat.
NOTHING HAS CHANGED
I can’t find anywhere in the scriptures that say any of this has changed.
However; I CAN find a few places where God asks us to have mercy and make exceptions in certain situations. Still, basically; the dietary laws haven’t evolved or changed since the People of God were crossing the Jordan and heading into the Promised Land.
It is all pretty well spelled out.
LIVING IN THE WORLD AND KEEPING THE LAW
I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t always kept these laws faithfully myself. My confession and desire to do better is yet another something to add to my list of turning during the Days of Awe.
I have repented and now I must change this part of my life.
Something to keep in mind is the fact that I’ve noticed these things come up just when God thinks they are timely; and just when we have neglected them.
I’ll work on my own problems; so don’t think I’m judging you. That is God’s job; not mine.
JUST THE FACTS
There are a LOT of facts though; hiding right inside the Book of Deuteronomy which we all need to pay attention to.
Why would I put myself under such bondage though?
Isn’t this just another one of those Old Testament things that was changed when Jesus died on the cross?
(Excuse me while I pause a bit here. Jesus dying for our sins on a cross is very, very serious and somber; but sometimes our interpretations of what that means can get stretched way out of proportion and we find ourselves believing our own lies.)
Some of those sins Jesus died for were neglect of the dietary laws by a neglectful people who were not looking out for the temple God gave them to walk around in.
WE CAN’T IGNORE ANY OF THE COMMANDMENTS
So – no; that would NOT be true. To ignore God’s commandments would still be wrong; even today in our modern world.
The fact that Jesus died for ALL of our sins should make us all want to pay closer attention to what we eat today; and not chose to ignore certain things that are not convenient.
I’ve had daily conversations with almost everyone I know almost every day over the last few years where everyone is all excited about some new found theory on food they did not realize was true.
REAL NUTRITION IS NOT TRENDY
We humans are so fascinated by all these scientific facts about food.
This one does this amazing thing, and that one does some other astounding and life-changing thing; and if you want to be healthy you MUST eat this new way. We simply fall in line like sheep.
There is another trend hitting the markets every five seconds.
Today most people take their food consumption to great extremes.
They will tell you if something has GMOs or if it isn’t glutten free, or if you should be leaving off the fats or eating more carbs; according to today’s health experts. Some folks will even look at you with pity when they realize you don’t yet know THEIR particular version of Keto.
They will follow every expert on every street corner, except for following the food recommendations in the scriptures; and I find that so amusing.
GOD OR DR. OZ?
If you had the choice of having a conversation about your health with either God or Dr. Oz; please tell me who would you decide to choose?
I’m betting on God every time.
Point taken.
It is also very amusing to observe how many people are buying and spending ridiculous amounts of money for diet plans and food recommendations to maintain a more healthy lifestyle. Their cabinets overflow with expensive supplements and diet drinks.
Do they not think God knows more about the subject of their health than the nutritionists and scientists that they all have been listening to?
GOD HAS DIETARY LAWS
Wouldn’t God have made provisions for us from the very time of creation?
I have to shake my head in wonder.
Then there are always those (most of those mentioned above and more) who never bothered to read Deuteronomy 14 (which speaks about the dietary laws of God.)
If they DO take the time to read the scriptures; they want to argue and dispute that the information is out-of-date and wrong for our modern world.
As a grandmother I am heavily criticized if I feed one cookie to my grandchild; but the same parent will pile that child’s breakfast plate with pork.
HOW TO APPROACH IN A CHRISTIAN MANNER
What approach should a Christian take on all of this anyway?
SHOULD we all be following a certain dietary plan? If so; what plan would that be?
Could it be the one mentioned in Deuteronomy 14?
A one-word answer will help you out here.
Yes.
Let’s spend a few more words, however, and explain why Christians are still being held to these dietary laws that we read about in Deuteronomy.
GOD DOESN’T WASTE HIS WORDS
Why are they written there anyway?
In all of my years of bible study I’ve been amazed at how God doesn’t like to waste words. I will rattle on and on about things; but God is so much smarter than me. He only says what is good and true, and He only wants the best for us.
He doesn’t waste words otherwise.
The scriptures make our choices plain and simple and easy. The hard part is to be obedient and follow the knowledge provided for us.
SO WHAT ARE THE RULES?
As early as verse three we hear this statement: “Do not eat any detestable thing.”
Detestable?
What does God find detestable?
These days foods that would one time have been considered “detestable” make the exotic foods list in the menus at our most sophisticated up-scale restaurants.
Be glad and rejoice brethren; because I’m going to reduce your eating-out budget with this article!
For some people today “detestable” translates to delicious. (Examples might be snails and fish eggs and I’m not so pitiful that I don’t know and understand that they are called escargot and caviar. They are snails and fish eggs just the same.)
Deuteronomy 14:7 explains more of what we need to know: However, of those that chew the cud or that have a split hoof completely divided you may not eat; the camel, the rabbit or the coney. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a split hoof; they are ceremonially unclean for you.
PORK IS OFF THE LIST OF HEALTHY FOODS
Verse eight goes on to say that the pig is also an “unclean” animal. It has a split hoof, but it does not chew the cud.
God doesn’t just say not to eat pork; He goes on further to mention that He doesn’t even want us to touch the carcass of a pig. I get the feeling that God considers pork to be one of the MOST detestable things a person can consume.
I highly suspect there are spiritual reasons for God detesting pork. The holy altars were desecrated with pork in several instances where God’s people were busy trying to save the Temple and fight off paganism. Pork was NEVER an intended sacrifice. It was an abomination that these were offered in some terrible dark times of God’s people and their survival. Many Roman and Greek idols required pork for sacrifices in pagan services in ancient days.
Pork relates to paganism. I hate to break this to all of you bacon lovers; but this is true.
God tells us that pork is forbidden for food, or for any other reasons.
SHOULD WE EAT MEAT AT ALL?
Looking back just a bit further; it seems that before the flood; people didn’t eat ANY meat at all.
Funny how not many seem to be aware of this. I wrote about this with more detail in my book called The Gospel Hidden In Genesis.
After the flood, the earth needed time to re-grow and the atmosphere had changed so much from the flood that the fruit and vegetables that were readily available for picking all year, only came ripe now in the due season.
Also; a lot less of the food sources were growing at once whenever they did become ripe. Hence; the flood changed our food choices.
It is plain to see that when God established the seasons after the flood – the whole food cycle changed.
BLOOD IS FORBIDDEN FOR FOOD
In those ancient days after the flood, people simply needed more nourishment than the earth could give, so God deliberately put more of the clean animals on the ark. Some of the clean animals became food sources with the strict stipulation that all the blood must be drained before a dead animal could be cooked.
Mankind was and is strictly forbidden to eat blood. (Another dietary law to think about.)
So; now God was making these dietary rules a little more formal and a lot clearer for the people living in the times after the flood. Several generations had passed since God had given the rules to Noah and his family. It was time to repeat them and to be more specific.
GIVEN FOR HEALTH IN A NEW NATION
Later; as God’s people entered a new land and became a new and godly nation; these rules were given to them again for the health of the people.
It was for their good as they lived within the land that was being given to them by God. God desired for all of them to be healthy and strong. He wanted them to multiply and prosper in the earth.
In the past we have discussed that many of the forbidden foods are now scientifically proven to be unhealthy. Most of these types of food are predators and they are known to eat dead and/or diseased animals. Therefore; they are more likely to pass those germs on to us if we chose to consume them as food.
WHAT FISH CAN WE CONSUME?
In the case of fish; those that do not have scales and fins are usually bottom feeders; and again we notice that they are known predators of the ocean, picking up mercury as well as other detrimental food sources to pass on to whoever decides to consume them.
God desires the very best health choices for us today.
Who would be better at knowing what makes a human body work best than the One who created it?
WHAT WE CAN EAT
In the 14th Chapter of Deuteronomy God gives a list of all the animals that CAN be eaten: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep. (Any animal that has a split-hoof divided into and chews the cud.)
ANIMALS WE CAN’T EAT
That leaves all the others; or the animals that do not have a split/divided-hoof, and/or do not chew the cud; out of our healthy dietary plans.
The camel chews the cud but does not have a split hoof, same for the rabbit and the coney. These are forbidden for food. They are considered “unclean” for eating; along with the pig.
Those are the rules for eating mammals; but there are also ways to tell “clean” and “unclean” for fish, birds and reptiles.
MORE RULES FOR EATING FISH
To make your decisions simpler:
For any creature living in the water (for example; a fish) you can eat any of them as long as they have fins and scales. If they do not; they are unclean to you.
EATING BIRDS
Birds are considered “clean” unless they are eagles, vultures, black vultures, red kites, black kites, ravens, owls, osprey, cormorant, stork, heron, hoopoe, bats and falcons.
EATING INSCECTS
Flying insects that swarm are unclean for food. Any winged creature that is clean can be eaten though.
In the new testament we read of John The Baptist eating locust and honey. How could he do so? Because if the locust walked and hopped with jointed legs; they were clean for food. We read this in Leviticus 11:20-23. This means it is perfectly fine if you are craving katydids. Feast on.
Keeping a proper diet is pretty simple actually; just follow the scriptures and you can’t go wrong.
OTHER RULES
As already mentioned; God warned them not to eat blood.
He also said not to eat anything that was found already dead.
Some other rules are that you should not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. Every time I read this I cringe. It just seems too cruel.
REMEMBER TO MAKE FOOD OFFERINGS
God provides healthy food for us and in return we are to give a portion (a tenth) back for an offering.
Verse 22 says; Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.
These days we may not actually be producing the food ourselves; if that is the case we would need to take one tenth of whatever we are using to be profitable and offer it to God as a first-fruits offering.
That is the harvest of our labors.
God commands that we do this.
THESE LAWS COULD BE A TEST
Like so many things that God asks of us; this is sometimes a test. We know that God doesn’t need anything; but He gives us the chance to prove our loyalty and obedience in this way.
These are the things that we eat with God at His table in the midst of the congregation in the day that we bring the early first-fruits for the harvests. There are several harvests each year; one at Passover, one at Pentecost and a late harvest in the fall around the time of The Feast of Tabernacles. We bring our offerings to God; the offerings of our labor that has been profitable and then we feast before Him with thanksgiving.
FOOD IS FOR THANKSGIVING
If the place where God has put His name is too far for us; we are to sell our offerings and spend the money going to the place where God has put His name.
Three times a year we are to go up to a designated place and worship God with our offerings and give thanks for His provision.
God is so kind to us that he tells us to use the silver retained for our offerings we had to sell to buy whatever we like; anything that we wish! This is one aspect of the celebration at The Feast of Tabernacles. It is symbolic of how God will give us the desires of our hearts in eternity if we belong to Him and obey and follow His ways.
The point (part of it) is to have the whole family together, in One place and in unity to worship and celebrate the Feasts of God.
CLEAN FOODS ARE FOR FEASTING
As we think of Feast Plans; we are reminded to give to those who need our help.
In the ancient days the Levites had no money and it was up to the people of the land to give to them so that they could go up to the Feasts of God and serve in God’s ministry to the people. The people would save aside a portion for those who needed help, and every three years an offering would be taken up and used to provide for The Levites, the aliens, the widows and the orphans.
No one should ever miss a feast because they are unable to come.
God’s people provide for each other and God provides all that is needed and more.
I find it interesting that the dietary laws and the feast procedures and provisions are all mentioned here together.
Is this because God desires for all of his feasts and festivals to be holy and clean and amply provided for all?
I suspect this may be the case; among other good reasons.