#252 Made Clean

9 ‘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. 10 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. 11 They shall be an abomination to you; you shall not eat their flesh, but you shall regard their carcasses as an abomination.12 Whatever in the water does not have fins or scales—that shall be an abomination to you.

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, 14 the kite, and the falcon after its kind; 15 every raven after its kind, 16 the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after its kind; 17 the little owl, the fisher owl, and the screech owl; 18 the white owl, the jackdaw, and the carrion vulture; 19 the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.

20 ‘All flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination to you. 21 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. 22 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. 23 But all other flying insects which have four feet shall be an abomination to you. Leviticus 11: 9-23 NKJV

I have heard several schools of thought on the meaning of the dietary laws, and there is certainly a logical premise for many of these ideas, but is it strictly from the sense of nutrition or health? To this, I would have to answer, no. There is a little more at steak here than telling someone to "eat your vegetables", or that pork could carry trichinosis, and shellfish can make one sick. There is here the picture, the doctrine, the idea of clean and unclean, but also of God's sovereignty in the moral development of right and wrong. Some of the most common and widely used animals would fall to these list, and this mixed with the kosher preparations would isolate God's people from the people of the land. If God decides right, wrong, clean and unclean, then His people have become peculiar, and separate in their ideals. They have not started out clean themselves, but are being taught that they must be made clean. The influence of the world, their appetites, their emotions or preferences do not weigh in, but all these things are being reshaped. What does God hate? That is what I shall also despise. These dietary laws were also for a dispensation showing what had once been separated under the law. In Acts chapter 10, we see Peter reluctant to give up this earthly picture, this sign, for its spiritual fulfillment. The curtain is torn and now the ceremonial separations are also gone, bringing in the time of the gentiles.

9 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”

14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”

15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” 16 This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. Acts 10:9-16

Peter is uneasy with this, and lest we forget, none of us breached the womb knowing everything and neither those being born again. He has lived his whole life trying to be clean, but then he met the only one that ever was. Is the idea of this flock, gentiles, foreign to the Old Testament, or is it in seeing they did not see and hearing they did not understand? 

indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.18"In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."19So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived at Beersheba. Genesis 22:17-19

5 

“And now the Lord says,

Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

To bring Jacob back to Him,

So that Israel is gathered to Him[a]

(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,

And My God shall be My strength),

6 Indeed He says,

‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob,

And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;

I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,

That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’” Isaiah 49

And once again, salvation is of the Lord.

5 “An