Does God Prohibit Certain Foods Today. (Leviticus 11:1-46)
God forbids the eating of bacon. Is that true?" (BLT?) And, of course, if you know anything at all about the Bible, you know that there is a passage in the Old Testament where God forbids the eating of pork, as well as a whole bunch of other things. But you also need to know that in the New Testament, He declared all animals clean. So, I guess it depends on when you live. If you lived in the Old Testament, the answer would be yes, God forbids it. If you live in the New Testament times, the answer is no, God does not. So, why did He prohibit certain foods in the Old Testament? What was the purpose of the dietary laws in the book of Leviticus? Well, that's the question I'd like for us to grapple with a bit today.
We are currently in the section of the book of Leviticus that deals with ceremonial laws pertaining to their uncleanness. This is the chapter were God tells the children of Israel what can be eaten and what cannot be eaten. Some animals are designated clean, and they can be eaten, and other animals are designated unclean, and they cannot be.
The first major section of the whole chapter actually gives three kinds of animals: those that are on land, those that are in the sea, and those that are in the air. And in each case, it says some of these land animals can be eaten and some cannot, some of the creatures in the sea can be eaten and some cannot, and likewise, birds of the air. That's the bulk of this chapter. Then, he discusses some other issues pertaining to unclean animals which we will get to by and by. And finally, at the end of the chapter, he gives us the reason for all of this. This is a long chapter, and so I'm going to skate through and I'm going to mention some of the specifics, but frankly, the individual animals are not the issue.
The issue in this chapter is that some are clean, and some are unclean, some can be eaten, and some cannot be eaten. And if you walk away with that, you've got the bulk of this chapter. So, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on all the details. That's not necessary to understand what's going on here. And besides, none of that applies to us today anyway. With that in mind it still worth picking up in Leviticus Chapter 11, verse 1:
"Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, 'Speak to the children of Israel, saying: These are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud, that you may eat.'
(Lev 11: 1-3)
Now, let me pause for a second. He's now, this is the First Division, he's talking about land animals, and the first thing he does is saying here are all the animals you can eat. So, clean, and therefore edible animals in this group are actually listed in Deuteronomy Chapter 14. And I'm not going to take the time to go there but let me just tell you that the animals that could be eaten according to Deuteronomy are the ox, sheep, goat, deer, wild goat, antelope, and mountain sheep.
Nevertheless, these you shall not eat: these are animals that you shall not eat that chew the cud or those that have cloven hooves: the camel because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you; the hyrax because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you; the hare, that is, the rabbit, because it chews the cud and does not have cloven hooves, is unclean for you." And this last one, as you know, is the pig. Though it divides the hoofs, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, it is unclean to you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you.
(Lev 11: 4-8)
Now, here are the four animals you cannot eat, and among them are the camel, hyrax (whatever that is, I'm not sure, some translate it as badger, some authors say it's a rodent), then there's the rabbit, and the pig. Now, we need to look at this one a little more carefully. Apparently, the technical definition of "chewing the cud" that we would use today is not what the Hebrews understood by "chewing the cud".
Today, we use the term to describe animals that do not initially chew their food thoroughly but swallow it and later regurgitate it and then chew it thoroughly. Some of the animals described in Leviticus as "chewing the cud" do not do that. A camel is an example. However, these animals do appear to chew their food thoroughly, so that this may be the way the Israelites thought of chewing the cud.
At any rate, the camel and the rabbit are unclean because none of them have a split hoof. Now, before I go on, I've heard an observation about this that I found very interesting, and these have to do with "chewing the cud" and meditation.
So, some have come to this and see meditation as connected to this.
It's clearly connected to meditation in Psalm 1. And so, is this maybe telling us that you need to pay attention to what you think and then what you do and that you need to walk in the way of the Lord? At any rate, that passage is telling us there are land animals you cannot eat and there are land animals you can eat. That brings us to verse 9.
We're in the second division of the chapter. He's going to talk about animals in water.
These you may eat of all that are in the water: whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers—that you may eat. But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water, they are an abomination to you. They shall be an abomination to you; you shall not eat their flesh, but you shall regard their carcasses as an abomination. Whatever in the water does not have fins or scales—that shall be an abomination to you.
(Lev 11: 9-12)
So, you're not to eat certain kinds of fish etc that live in the sea, it might include things like eels, shellfish, sorry to say even the luxury end of lobster, crabs, and oysters. So, those are an abomination. The word means detestable things. So far, we've looked at animals on the land and animals in the water. Now, we're going to look at animals in the air, starting from verse 13.
‘And these you shall regard as an abomination among the birds; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the kite, and the falcon after its kind; every raven after its kind, the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after its kind; the little owl, the fisher owl, and the screech owl; the white owl, the jackdaw, and the carrion vulture; the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.
(Lev 11: 13-19)
Finally, he's dealing with animals in the air. So, he dealt with birds, and now he's going to insects.
"All flying insects that creep on all fours will be an abomination to you, so you can't eat insects.
(Lev 11: 20)
I don't think you'd have a hard time with that one." In verse 21, he allows for some exceptions.
Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth. These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind. But all other flying insects which have four feet shall be an abomination to you.
(Lev 11: 21-23)
So far, we've examined animals on land, in the water, and in the air. You can eat some, but not others, that’s the first 23 verses. The next section of this chapter delves into animals you need to be cautious about, though not necessarily for consumption. The remainder of the chapter discusses animals you may come in contact with, rather than consume.
‘By these you shall become unclean; whoever touches the carcass of any of them shall be unclean until evening; 25 whoever carries part of the carcass of any of them shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening: 26 The carcass of any animal which divides the foot, but is not cloven-hoofed or does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Everyone who touches it shall be unclean. 27 And whatever goes on its paws, among all kinds of animals that go on all fours, those are unclean to you. Whoever touches any such carcass shall be unclean until evening. 28 Whoever carries any such carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. It is unclean to you.29 ‘These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth: the mole, the mouse, and the large lizard after its kind; 30 the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon. 31 These are unclean to you among all that creep. Whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening. Anything on which any of them falls, when they are dead shall be unclean, whether it is any item of wood or clothing or skin or sack, whatever item it is, in which any work is done, it must be put in water. And it shall be unclean until evening; then it shall be clean. 33 Any earthen vessel into which any of them falls you shall break; and whatever is in it shall be unclean: 34 in such a vessel, any edible food upon which water falls becomes unclean, and any drink that may be drunk from it becomes unclean. 35 And everything on which a part of any such carcass falls shall be unclean; whether it is an oven or cooking stove, it shall be broken down; for they are unclean and shall be unclean to you. 36 Nevertheless a spring or a cistern, in which there is plenty of water, shall be clean, but whatever touches any such carcass becomes unclean. 37 And if a part of any such carcass falls on any planting seed which is to be sown, it remains clean. 38 But if water is put on the seed, and if a part of any such carcass falls on it, it becomes unclean to you. ‘And if any animal which you may eat dies, he who touches its carcass shall be unclean until evening. 40 He who eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. He also who carries its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.
(Lev 11: 24-40)
Now, we've transitioned into a different aspect. Previously, we discussed consuming unclean animals, but now we're addressing touching dead animals, resulting in ceremonial uncleanness. In this case, it only renders you unclean until evening, and if you wash, you become ceremonially clean again.
Verse 27 tackles dead animals with paws. If an animal walks on paws, like dogs, cats, lions, and tigers, and you touch their carcass, you become unclean until evening. Verse 29 discusses dead animals that creep, including rodents, lizards, and certain insects. Touching their carcasses renders you ceremonially unclean. Verse 32 outlines that any item touching these dead animals becomes unclean. If an object comes into contact with a dead animal, it is deemed unclean. Verse 33 provides specifics, stating that an earthen vessel touching these creatures is also considered unclean, making any edible food or drink contained in it unclean as well. So, any food or beverage that came in contact with a dead animal—in this case, the unclean ones was rendered unclean.
Verse 35 says, 'And everything on which a part of any such carcass falls shall be unclean, whether it is an oven or a cooking stove. It shall be broken and it shall be unclean to you.' In verse 36, a spring or cistern in which there is plenty of water shall be clean, but whatever touches any such carcass becomes unclean. So, a spring or cistern containing plenty of water was automatically deemed ceremonially clean. But whatever touched the dead body of a creeping animal was unclean. I drop down to verse 37: 'A part of any such carcass falls on any planting seed which is to be sown, it remains clean. But if water is put on the seed and a part of any such carcass falls on it, it becomes unclean to you.'
So, the whole point is if any of these things come in contact with a dead animal. One more in this section, look at verse 39: 'If any animal which you may eat dies, he who touches its carcass will be unclean until evening.' Even if the animal was designated as a clean animal, if it's dead and you touch it, you're unclean. Or verse 40: 'He who eats its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.' He also carries its carcass, and he shall wash his clothes and he shall be unclean until evening. So, the dead flesh of an animal, even a clean animal, renders you ceremonially unclean until evening. This is what you need to know at what we have seen so far in this chapter. You could divide what I've looked at so far as what you can and cannot eat and what you can and cannot touch. Actually, what you can't touch is an animal, and that includes you touching it personally or something utensils touch again. And then certain things were unclean and certain things clean. That's the chapter.
So, what's the point? Well, in the rest of the chapter, he gives us the reason. Now listen very carefully, look at verse 41:
‘And every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be [h]an abomination. It shall not be eaten. Whatever crawls on its belly, whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet among all creeping things that creep on the earth—these you shall not eat, for they are an abomination. You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps; nor shall you make yourselves unclean with them, lest you be defiled by them.
(Lev 11: 41-43)
Obviously, verses 41 through 43 is a summary of all that he said in the previous verses of this chapter. So that these verses refer to worms, snakes, rodents, and insects, and anyone eating them becomes ritually or ceremonially unclean. Those verses are just a s summary. It's not an advancement, it's a summary of what has been said.
Now look at verse 44: the verse begins with 'for.' Now, you've heard me say before and you will hear me say again, when a sentence begins with 'for,' it means I'm going to explain to you what I just said or I'm going to give you an illustration of what I just said. This clearly relates what's been going on in the previous verses to what is being said. This is one of the most important verses in all of Leviticus and all of the Old Testament. 'Why did you give us this stuff, here’s the answer.
For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
(Lev 11: 44-45)
The reason for these prohibitions is that the Lord is their God and, therefore, they shall consecrate themselves to him to be holy and not defile themselves with anything that's on the earth. That's the reason these provisions are given.Look in verse 45: 'For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.'
The reason for these provisions is the Lord said, 'I brought you out of Egypt, and I brought you out of Egypt to be your God, and I want you to be holy.' Now, the Hebrew word 'holy' means to be set apart, and he's saying, 'I redeemed you out of Egypt so that I can be your God, and I want you to be set apart to me and that means don't mess around with anything unclean that I say is unclean, and clean stuff is OK. But the point is I want you to be separated to me.' Is that clear? Keep that in mind 'cause it's going to be really interesting.
One more closing passage, the last two verses.
'This is the law of the animals and the birds and every living creature that moves in the waters and every creature that creeps on the earth, to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, and between the animals that may be eaten and the animals that may not be eaten.'
(Lev 11: 45-46)
So, he's summarizing the law of animals and birds and water animals and creeping things by saying you are to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. Got it?"
Now the question is, why did He give this? I say that so we could probe this in depth. Let me start by saying someone has pointed out there are three major concepts in this chapter.
Firstly, unclean animals may not be consumed, although there's no punishment given if you do. Interesting.
Secondly, all dead animals, whether clean or unclean, rendered the one who touches their carcass ceremonially unclean, but only temporarily.
The third observation is household articles touched by certain carcasses were also unclean. Alright, that sort of sums up the chapter.
This really gets down to what is the practical value of this passage in Scripture. There are six possible interpretations.
Firstly, all the distinctions are arbitrary. There's no significance in this other than the purpose was to test Israel's obedience. So, the Lord just arbitrarily said these are unclean, these are clean, just to see whether they...as one possibility.
Another is called cultic. Now, we use the word cult then in a wholly different way. Cultic here means religiously. This position says that the pagans used these animals, and therefore, they were unclean. They used these animals in their religion; therefore, they were unclean. So, it all has to do with the religious significance of the animals. The problem with that is that the bull is not prohibited, and we know that the Egyptians and the Canaanites both used the bull in their religious rituals. S
Another is that it all has to do with hygiene. This view has a lot of followers. Did God give us this for hygiene purposes? Some argues at this point. many of the animals mentioned were carriers of disease. For example, fish without fins and scales tend to burrow into mud. Thus, they become carriers of bacteria, bacteria that can be dangerous. The same is true of the birds of prey that feed on dead animals.
But later the New Testament declares all animals clean. I think about that. If it was for health reasons in the Old Testament, wouldn't it be prohibited in the New Testament? They're still going to cause health problems. So, I concluded that these were not intended to be for health reasons. Health was not the purpose of these laws. At the same time, now having said that, I'm going to crawl out on a limb and say, although the scripture does not give these, in my opinion, for reasons, I think there may be some health benefits. I would not object to somebody. I know people who won't eat pork, for example, so I think you might make a case for that. And if you do, I have no problem with that. Just don't think you're more spiritual." because you do that may be more healthy but not more spiritual. At any rate, the third explanation is that it's for health, and I personally do not accept that.
Number 4: the distinction is symbolic. The behaviour of the animals is an illustration of how the Israelites should live, and the unclean animals represented.
Number 5 is the distinction is aesthetic, and it was the appearance of the animals that was the issue. That one didn't strike me either.
Finally, number 6: the distinction is ethical. It's an ethic that God is trying to teach. The chosen animals start reverence for life.
The bottom line, in my opinion, is this: God's purpose is spiritual, and I think that's very obvious from the text itself. He gives all these laws. He gets down to the end of the chapter, and he says, 'Now, for... is the reason I want to be your God.' So, this doesn't have anything to do with the animals themselves being intrinsically unclean. It has to do with something spiritual. He told Israel that they were to be holy as He is holy, and therefore they are not to defile themselves.
So, under the Mosaic law, being set apart to the Lord had moral, civic, ceremonial, and dietary requirements, all of which were to remind them that they were set apart to the Lord. To say this as simply as I know how: the purpose of the Old Testament dietary laws was holiness, not health. Moreover, the New Testament abolishes the distinction between clean and unclean. And actually, after 10 (Colossians 2:16), it allows eating meat in 1 Timothy 4:1-5, provided you do it with Thanksgiving.
The primary reason seems to have been theological, to teach symbolically Israel's status as a wholly separate people of God.' It is striking that the two major chapters on unclean foods are either introduced (as Deuteronomy 14) or concluded (like Leviticus 11) with an affirmation of Israel's election to be a holy people of Go So, there are two chapters on the subject: one begins with the issue of holiness, 'God is holy, you be holy,' and the other ends with it. That's the point.
A holy people must be holy in every area of their life, and God uses food to illustrate the difference between clean and unclean. He's simply trying to say, 'Hey folks, I redeemed you out of Egypt to be your God. I want to be your God. I want you to be set apart to me. And that means there are some things in life that are unclean, and I don't want you to have anything to do with it, and I have in mind more than meat, more than food. There are distinctions in the world between right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness. The Lord taught the ancient Israelites about that distinction using food. So, He used food to teach a spiritual lesson.
By the way, every culture has a concept of dirty and clean. What is dirty may not be something that is intrinsically dirty, only something that has been designated dirty. So, if it's designated dirty, it's dirty, but it may not necessarily be dirty.
So, the Lord is teaching us that there's some spiritual dirt out there, and you ought not to be involved in that. Why? Because I'm your God; you're going to be separated unto me, and sin defiles you. Sin separates us from God. So, He wants to emphasize that. About what you eat, He's like He didn't want to touch anything dead. Once you have life.
Alright, what does the New Testament say about all this? So, I'm going to conclude by having you turn to a New Testament passage that virtually argues what Moses argues in Leviticus 11. Turn to 2 Corinthians, 6 verse 16:
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what [e]communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.”
(2 Cor 6 : 14-18)
The same exact identical argument is given by Moses and Paul What's he saying? Look, you're my child, but I want to be your father. You separate from unclean things, then I'm going to provide for you. I'm going to father you, provide for you like a father. I'm going to protect you, but I want to be your God. I want to be your father. So, stay away from unclean things. It's the same identical argument as Leviticus 11. End of the chapter, end of point. So, my point to you tonight is this: the Lord wants to be your God. He must be involved in your life. So, stay away from all those things that aren’t the sort of things God wants you to be involved with.
So, here's the point: clean up your act, get rid of all the spiritual and moral dirt, and that also goes for your attitude. And thereafter enjoy all the good things in life.