“I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground.”
~ Leviticus 11:44
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you only eat meat that comes from clean animals or do you eat meat that comes from unclean animals, too? Do you work at keeping spiritual laws? Do you work at living holy, clean lives? If you were living 3450 years or so ago on planet Earth and your dad and ma were from the Israelite people group of guys and gals, God expected your dad and ma to live clean lives that were holy in God’s eyes. God over 3450 years ago gave His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, worship laws that would have them only worshipping Him. God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to focus every aspect of their life on Him. If you were an Israelite people group kid who lived on planet Earth 3450 years ago, you could only eat animals, fish, birds and insects that were clean. Your dad and ma – and you, were never to for any reason touch the carcass of an animal, fish, bird or insect that had died or have the carcass of an animal, fish, bird or insect that had died touch your dad or ma – or you. If a guy or gal touched the carcass of an animal, fish, bird or insect that had died or have the carcass of an animal, fish, bird or insect that had died touch him or her, he or she would be unclean or unholy in God’s eyes. Moses scribed in Leviticus 11 the life laws regarding what God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to eat. God gave Moses these life laws while Moses with Him on the top of Mount Sinai. The reason that God gave His specially chosen guys and gals a series of different laws – including laws on what animals, fish, birds and insects they could eat and what animals, fish, birds and insects that they were not to eat was to preserve or insure the sanctity or holiness of the Israelite people group of guys and gals who God especially chose for Himself.
God’s laws for His specially chosen guys and gals regarding what kind of meat that they could eat were defined by a set of criteria that included chewing a cud, having split hoofs, having fins, having scales and having jointed legs. God was even more specific when He identified animals, fish, birds and insects that He definitely said that they were never to eat. God’s specially chosen guys and gals were never to eat camels, conies, rabbits, pigs, weasels, rats, lizards, geckos, skinks, chameleons, eagles, vultures, kites, ravens, owls, gulls, hawks, cormorants, ospreys, storks, herons, hoopoes and bats. God did tell His specially chosen guys and gals that could eat locusts, katydids, crickets and grasshoppers. God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to obey every one of the laws that He passed on to them through Moses. Verse 44 says, “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground.”
Do you think that God’s specially elected guys, gals and kids today should obey the life laws that God gave to His specially chosen guys and gals over 3450 years ago? When God – as God the Son, did what He came to do on planet Earth – which was less than 2000 years ago, which was to let His body be hung on and nailed to a cross as a ransom payment, the suffering and death of God – as God the Son, on that cross, replaced the laws that God gave through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals to faithfully lives their lives by. You may eat the meat today that God specifically told His specially chosen guys and gals that they were never to eat. If 3450 or so years ago you had an Israelite people group’s dad and ma, you could not eat pork. God has no problem with His especially elected guys, gals and kids today eating pork. Each year that your grandmaa and grandpaa were the administrators of the rural resident Bible training center in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez – an isolated rural community that is located in eastern Bolivia, your grandpaa would buy a piglet when module classes began in January. Your grandpaa would put the piglet in a corral type pen that was located right behind the structure where the meals were prepared over an open fire and where bread buns where baked in a beehive oven. The piglet during the year would be given the scraps of food to eat that the Centro de Capacitación (Learning Center) guys and their families did not eat. The tiny skinny piglet by the end of each year would grow into being a big fat pig. The pig would become the star of a meal that the wives of the Centro de Capacitación guys would prepare on graduation day – which would take place at the end of the last trimester of the year at the rural resident Bible training center in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez. The pig’s meat would be marinated in papaya milk – which would make the meat really tender, plus some spices. After the pig’s meat had been marinated in the marinade of papaya milk and spices, the wives of the Centro de Capacitación guys would put the pig’s meat into the same beehive oven that they used to bake bread buns to roast the pig’s meat. Your grandpaa hopes that you will have the chance someday to eat pig’s meat that has been marinated in papaya milk and spices and then slowly roasted in a beehive oven. Pork that is prepared that way is really tasty. When your grandpaa was in Chile several years ago, the Chilean guys who your grandpaa was with decided to stop to eat for their noon meal at a place that served a meal of pork in a ceramic pot. Your grandpaa was with four other guys. The very large ceramic pot that the guys ordered was full of pork. The pork had been prepared in different ways with different spices. There was a whole pig’s leg in the ceramic pot along with pork chops, pork ribs and other cuts of pork. When your grandpaa saw the ceramic pot full of pork, he thought that there was no way that all the pork that was in the pot would get eaten but . . . your grandpaa was glad that day that he did not have to live by a Levitical law that said that he could not eat pork. Are you happy that you do not have to live today by any of the Levitical laws?
Leviticus 11 (533)