So as I said, turn in your Bibles please to Leviticus chapter 11. Leviticus chapter 11. Our study this morning resumes at verse 1. This really doesn't require any kind of review because this actually marks another transition in the Lord's instructions to Moses where the subject turns from the priesthood and how they were to perform their duties relative to the offerings made by the people to the dietary laws that the people were expected to observe. So read with me beginning at verse one. Here we read, the Lord spoke again to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, these are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth. Whatever divides a hoof, thus making split hoofs, and chews the cud, among the animals that you may eat, Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these among those which chew the cud or among those which divide the hoof. The camel, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof. It is unclean to you. Likewise, the chiffon, For though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you. The rabbit also, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you. And the pig, for though it divides the hoof, thus making a split hoof, it does not chew cud, it is unclean to you. shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their carcasses. They are unclean to you." Let's just stop there because, pun fully intended, there's quite a bit to digest here. First and foremost, let me just remind you again that these dietary laws were given to the Israelites as a means of ensuring that they would remain ceremonially clean before the Lord, and secondly, they were temporary. Peter found this out, as you recall, over in Acts chapter 10, where having been beholden to these dietary laws for his whole life, and certainly this applied to the Jews with whom he associated and with whom he grew up. These Israelites were long accustomed to following these dietary laws, but you'll recall in Acts chapter 10, the Lord lowered a sheet down from heaven, as it were, filled with all of these animals, including those previously declared unclean. And he told Peter, eat, eat freely from whatever you want to eat. And of course, Peter being Peter, he objects and the Lord reminds him, don't call unclean what the Lord has called clean. And so this ushered in a new phase among the believing Jews. They were no longer beholden to the dietary laws. This is also stated by Jesus over in Matthew chapter 15, if you care to go over there and look as well. Number three, the keeping of these laws, we need to understand these laws only guaranteed outward or superficial cleanliness. In other words, As is true with the rest of God's ceremonial law, these dietary laws could have never guaranteed actual cleanliness. We've talked about this Numerous times before this is actually not only true of the ceremonial law. I might come as a surprise to you But this is true of the moral law as well, even though the moral law exists in perpetuity We're always beholden to God's Ten Commandments as it were we're always beholden to those moral standards that God set in place Back in Exodus 20 and and those things that Christ himself reiterated were very important during his own ministry especially in the Sermon on the Mount, we're always beholden to the moral law of God. God has these standards, and they are to govern our behavior. But we should never draw the conclusion that in keeping these things, salvation can be achieved. or merited. We know that there was only one who was able to keep the law of God, whether that be the civil, ceremonial, or moral law of God. Only one man was ever to keep the law perfectly, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And so, being in Him we are automatically reckoned as righteous before God the Father because in Him the law is kept. In Him we are able to keep the law. It's only as we're clothed in the righteous robes of Christ that God is able to look beyond our own failures, recognize the success of His Son, and reward us accordingly. Again, I don't know about you, but this is an astounding thing to consider. The fact that God rewards me so richly on the basis of the obedience of another. The fact that God has taken away the penalty reserved for me and placed it on his son. Him who knew no sin became sin on our behalf so that God's righteousness might be withheld. that God's wrath might be appeased. And again, if you don't think about that very often, you should think about that very often. God is pleased only in the sacrificial death and the obedience of his son. Now, it's at this point that many believers today choose to move on to other parts of the Bible that are seemingly more applicable. You've probably done this yourself. You get to Leviticus and you're like, yeah, yeah, you know, don't eat this, eat this, do this, don't do that. Okay, what relevance does this have to me as a believer and so on and so forth? And I'm not going to say that you're not at least partially justified in doing that, because again, the performance of the law is not what saves us. But having said that, the book of Leviticus is placed exactly where it is for a very good reason. The whole of the word of God is beneficial to us. Remember, the Word of God, as Paul understood it in 2 Timothy 3.16, all of the Word of God, which would have been exclusively the Old Testament at that time, all of it is breathed out by God and is therefore profitable. for teaching, for reproof, for correction, training, and righteousness. So we would do well not to skip any part of the Bible, but to dig in and perhaps even go slower. I've told you before about the need that we have to slow down. and meditate on what the Word of God is trying to teach us, even in cases like Leviticus, where we might not understand exactly everything that's going on. Do not relegate Leviticus to the status of being not applicable, because it is. It's so applicable. It's probably not applicable in ways that you might imagine, but again, if you slow down, as we're doing now, and just take it all in and try to discern what the Lord is trying to teach us through this. You'll find far more benefit than you probably realized was there. Alan Ross, I'm not really sure who he is, but I've read a few things from him here and there by way of commentary. He's written a commentary called Holiness to the Lord, a guide to the exposition of the book of Leviticus. And I kind of stumbled on this in my studies this past week, but listen to what he wrote here, particularly about Leviticus 11. He says, because Leviticus 11 is a detailed classification of the animals for Israel's food as either clean or unclean, it's unlikely that too many Christians will feel compelled to study the chapter in any detail. This is unfortunate. because this very remarkable chapter formed the basis of the daily dietary regulations for the Hebrews and served to reflect the holiness of God and its message should not be missed. The principle design of laws like these enabled the Israelites to exist as a distinct people in the land of Canaan. The underlying motive was doubtless to prevent them from being influenced by the beliefs of the neighboring nations and to preserve them from the degrading defilements and vices of the Canaanites. The distinction in foods was the greatest value in attaining this objective. Close personal friendships are easily formed over a shared meal, but it's far more difficult to develop a relationship with people with whom one can neither eat nor drink. And if these people have an abhorrence of the food that one eats, then there is even a greater obstacle to a close relationship." I think that's spot on. I think sometimes we miss the forest for the trees and we don't really understand enough about the times in which Moses is writing here. They had their own customs. They had their own courtesies. They had their own traditions. One of the greatest things and I think I shared this with you last week. One of the greatest things among the Israelites. This is why I think most of them would be Baptist today. Because they love food. Right? Am I wrong? No. They loved food and they saw in the shared meal something more than just eating together. They saw unity. They saw a cohesiveness in terms of how they thought about certain other things. If you can break bread with someone, then that means you're at least on the verge, if not have already created a close bond with them. Have you ever noticed that we really only eat with people that we like? I mean, Thanksgiving aside. Again, be honest, right? I think yesterday was a good example of that at the Christmas party. You know, I was remarking to a few people, we had like, how many did we end up, 88, 89, 90 people, something? I mean, the fellowship hall was full, and we had people eating together and talking together. That's really kind of a foretaste of glory, in my opinion. It was really a beautiful time together. And we really enjoy our fellowship meals every Sunday afternoon where we get to come together and enjoy that time over food. And the Israelites were the same. They loved their feasts. They loved these festivals. They loved the food that was provided. But the best way to keep outsiders away is to not serve things that they eat or to abstain from eating things that they eat. And this is at least in part part of God's rationale for creating these dietary laws. He says the Canaanites will eat anything. The Canaanites don't have any dietary restrictions that we know of. The Canaanites need to see you people as separate and distinct. And so there's really the overarching principle here. All of God's people should be separate and distinct from the world in which they live in so many important ways. In this case, it just happens to be the dietary laws that made them separate. There was really no other way, more tangible way, for them to denote their separateness. And here, God says, okay, let's start with food, and you're going to set apart yourselves as holy, And so this will cause the others around you to wonder what's different about you. Think about all the ways we as believers can separate and distinguish ourselves. We should be doing that at every opportunity, not in some haughty, arrogant way. Oh, no, I don't do that because only lost people do that. No. But letting our light so shine before men that our father is glorified in heaven being the salt and light that we're called to be There's enough going on in the world around us that we can abstain from in the interest of being separate To keep us occupied for till the Lord comes home right to take us home, right? So Again, this is part of what's going on here. Now, with all this considered, let's look a little more closely at what the Lord prescribes here. The first category that the Lord addresses here are those animals that have split hooves and chew the cud. These, he says, may be freely eaten by the Israelites. But what exactly does this mean? Well, if you're kind of new to the animal scene, a lot of people have not been raised around animals. I grew up around farms and in ag class and FFA and and things of that nature. So animals are kind of second nature to people growing up where I grew up. But some of you grew up in the city. You really haven't had any exposure to animals. So some of what's being said here is a little bit mystical. I mean, what is cud? And why do they chew it? Well, if you don't know what cud is, and you're thinking gross, you're exactly right. You're exactly right. You know what a split hoof is? A split hoof is a hoof that's divided into two parts and it's split all the way through. You can see this on various animals. I'm not gonna go into all that, but chewing cud is really kind of a, it's gross, but it's necessary. These animals that chew their cud are called ruminants, and that's because they have a compartmentalized stomach. How many of you ever heard that cows have four stomachs? They don't. They have one stomach divided into four compartments. But this first compartment is called the rumen. They eat grass. This is where all the veggies they intake In order for them to be digested and pass through the other chambers of the stomach, they have to be digested as thoroughly as possible. So what do they do? The food goes into the rumen, comes right back up, and they re-chew it. Right? I mean, sometimes after some particularly spicy Mexican food, that might happen to us, but. Okay, that's a little too far. But it makes a good point. We don't have a rumen, right? I mean, we don't need to re-chew our food. The cow does. They re-chew it, they swallow it again, it goes through the chambers of the stomach, and then they eat some more and the whole process goes along. Now, you'll hear that cows chewing their cud are in a relaxed state. Well, all that means is everything's working properly. Right? If the food happens to pass through the first chamber, the room and onto the other chambers, you can get things like bloating and all kinds of bad things can happen to cows and you have to poke a hole in them and let the gas out. And I'm not going to go into all that detail, but the cow's not the only one who does this. Sheep are also of this variety. Goats, deer, they all regurgitate their their food as ruminants. So let me just stop here for a minute. Is this particular requirement of God's law simply His way of Using things that really have no deeper meaning? I mean, should we be looking for some deep meaning in everything we read in Scripture? No. We really shouldn't. And let me caution you again against doing that. A lot of people have gone to the Word of God and they think that there's some mystical meaning in every passage. There's not. Sometimes it means just what it means. And in this case, it means just what it means. These are the animals you can eat. These are the animals you can't eat. Period, end of story. The reason I say this is because, again, in my reading I came across a commentary by F.B. Meyer. A lot of you know who F.B. Meyer is. He was a contemporary of Spurgeon in London back in the late 1800s. F.B. Meyer is otherwise a fairly solid expositor of the scriptures, but Especially during this time, the late Victorian period, these types of interpretive methods were being used a lot. This was, as you'll recall, the beginning of the downgrade that Spurgeon so lamented in England at the time. Listen to what F.B. Meyer said. He had a really interesting take on this. In his estimation, the inclusion of animals that chewed the cud was possibly intended to convey to the Israelites their own need to slow down in their approach to the Lord's instructions and meditate on or chew on them carefully. No. No. There's no basis for that, right? Remember, every text without context is a pretext. And so what F.B. Meyer is doing, he's just imagining that, okay, applicationally, this might be God's way of saying, like the cow, like the goat, like the sheep who chew their cud, we all need to slow down and chew on the word of God. I think if that was the intended meaning, we would find that somewhere in these instructions. That's obviously not the intended meeting. Now, it is good advice. I've told you before, slow down, meditate on the Word of God. Let it have its work in you. As the Lord said, the Word will not return into him void, but will accomplish the purpose for which he sent it. That's all well and good. But we don't take passages like this to make that otherwise fairly common point throughout Scripture. Be careful that you don't apply things or interpret things in a way that You really have no license to do from the word itself. And that's not to throw F.B. Meyer under the bus. I mean, this was fairly common back then. They kind of intermingled their practical application with their exegesis. So just take that for what it's worth. But I don't think it's appropriate. cases like this. Anyway, the next category of animals that the Lord said the Israelites must not eat is in verses 4 through 7. These include the camel, the chiffon. If you're not familiar with what a chiffon was, a chiffon was a hyrax or a rock badger. Apparently this little creature also meets the qualifications of that, which is not to be eaten, along with the rabbit and the pig. All of these animals chew their cud, but they don't have split hooves, which renders them unclean. Now at this point, if you're familiar with rabbits, you might be thinking, well, wait a minute, I've never seen a rabbit chew its cud. Rabbits don't chew their cud, do they? They actually do. And if you think regurgitating food and chewing it up again is gross, I hesitate to tell you what rabbits do. They don't regurgitate their food and chew it again. They let it make the whole circuit. And then they eat it. Got a dachshund that does the same thing. I'm totally serious. I'm not going to go into any great depth there, but this is why they're detestable in that way. They. They yeah. Now, how do we square that with what the scripture says about chewing cud specifically? Well, you know, as is the case with a lot of Hebrew phrases. In English. Chewing the cud is the closest we can get to the principle that's being spoken about in Hebrew in Hebrew It doesn't say chewing the cud in Hebrew the phrase simply means re-eating that which has already been eaten That's all it means. And we've interpreted that in the closest way we can by referring to it as chewing the cud. So the rabbit does whatever the Hebrew says these animals do. And let that be another lesson. A lot of times translating foreign languages into English or vice versa is very problematic. There's really not a Sunday that goes by where Freddy doesn't come to me, our Spanish interpreter, and we laugh together because he says, you know, something you said just doesn't translate. You know, and he says, I did the best I could. Last week you heard me reference the phrase that my mother used all the time, what on earth are you doing for heaven's sake? He said in Spanish that has no parallel, there's no meaning there. And he said, but I did the best I could. So understand this about languages. A lot of times when we're translating from the Hebrew, and this is true of the Greek as well, it just doesn't come across as helpful as we might want it to. Anyway, if you're wondering what rabbits do, that's called refection. So it sounds kind of like confection, doesn't it? No. Well, speaking of protesting about what's written here, there are some who insist that camels do in fact have split hooves. In a sense, they do. But if you've ever seen a camel, the bottom of the camel's foot is solid. The bottom of the camel's foot has like a sole, almost like a tennis shoe on it. It's only the top part that's split, and so it's not split all the way through, and that's why. We have those animals in this particular category. So again, we have to ask the question, why does the Lord make these distinctions? I thought rabbits were a fairly good source of protein. During basic training, they served as rabbit a lot, which is kind of concerning because if you've ever been on Lackland or Kelly Air Force Base, there's jackrabbits all over the place. I'm pretty sure these were commercially purchased, but you never know. Right. But rabbit is good. Anybody like rabbit? Yeah. Rabbit's good. But according to the Lord, we're not to eat rabbit for those obvious reasons. I actually like Matthew Henry here. Listen to what he said. His commentary here is much like the commentary I just read from Ross a minute ago, but listen to what he said as well. He says, these laws seem to have been intended, one, as a test of people's obedience, as Adam was forbidden to eat the tree of knowledge and to teach them self-denial and the government of their appetites, and two, to keep the Israelites distinct from other nations, as we just talked about. Many of those forbidden animals were subject to being objects of superstition and idolatry to the heathen. Number three, the people were taught to make distinctions between the holy and the unholy and their companions and intimate connections for the law for bad, not only the eating of the unclean beasts, but the touching of them. Those who would be kept from any sin must be careful to avoid all temptations to it or coming near it. The exceptions are very minute and all were designed to call forth constant care and exactness of their obedience and to teach us to obey. Whilst we enjoy our Christian liberty and are free from such burdensome observances, we must be careful not to abuse our liberty. For the Lord hath redeemed and called his people that they may be holy, even as he is holy. We must come out. and be separate from the world, we must leave the company of the ungodly and all needless connections with those who are dead in sin. We must be zealous of good works, devoted followers of God, and companions of his people." And again, I think that's spot on. It goes perfectly in line with what Ross just said about these things, but it adds another layer. Not only are we not to engage in the things that the heathen do, we're also to avoid even any association with them other than for evangelistic purposes. Paul said to the Thessalonians that we are to avoid all appearances of evil. And again, that's very sound counsel. Not only should we not partake in the things that are common among the pagans, the heathens, we're not to even come close in appearing to take part in those things. Now again, I'm not gonna stand up here and be your Holy Spirit. I'm not gonna say, that means that you can't do this and you should do this. No, the Holy Spirit can work in you just as he works in each of us to bring about his desired ends. But I will say this, be mindful of what the scriptures say relative to the danger and the lack of wisdom that comes with getting too close to the world around you. That's just Bible 101. Why it is that there are so many, and well, I know why it is, it's immaturity. There are so many who insist that, no, we actually need to be more like the world in order to win the world. We need to show the world around us that we can enjoy the same things they enjoy. We can do the same things they do because they're not really sin, they just, in the minds of some appear to be sin. Let me just say it again. If it appears to be sin by anyone, don't do it. That's not a legalistic statement. We've already talked ad nauseum about Paul's thoughts on eating meat sacrifice to idols, on doing various things that might cause the weaker brother to stumble. And we talked about this kind of escape mechanism that people love to use. Well, that's just the tyranny of the weaker brother. No, it's really just obedience to God's word or not. Don't do that, which might be considered evil by those around you. It's not that difficult. Now again, are you free to do those things which others might consider evil? Yes. You are free to do that if your calloused conscience will allow you to do that with impunity and seemingly with no care for what others think about you. You go do that thing, but understand that's not God's ideal for us. God's ideal for us is that we would be so separate, so distinct, so holy, so set apart that others would look at us and say, there's something about you that's not like everybody else. One of the reasons I believe the church at large has become so watered down and ineffective in the world today is because we have allowed, or churches have allowed, certainly not here, churches have allowed pragmatism to enter into their ranks and they're able to justify almost anything they do because, hey, it draws people in, right? I mean, so does a train crash. But we're not going to be crashing trains every Sunday. I mean, there are all kinds of ways you can draw people in that are not good. And one of those ways is to resort to pragmatic means, seeker-sensitive approaches, which are intended just to draw people in. Folks, if the Word of God cannot draw His people together every Lord's Day, then so be it. If the faithful preaching of the Word of God alone is not what people are looking for in a local church, then they need to look elsewhere anyway. Our number one claim to fame here is that we boldly and unashamedly declare, thus saith the Lord. There are a lot of people who are not interested in that. They want to go somewhere where they can, again, they can hear their latest gospel hits and they can sway rhythmically with a fog machine and light show and all. Okay, you know, there's a place for that, by the way. It's called a concert. But it's not in the local church where the primary emphasis should be on the Word of God rightly divided and responsibly taught. And if we don't grow any more than as big as we are now, then that's going to be the Lord's doing. And we need to understand that. We will not compromise. We will not be pragmatic. in our approach. Now, we'll certainly enjoy the gifting of those who can minister to us. We've got one of the premier musical accompaniment teams, I would say, in the city, but we don't focus on that. We don't make them the object of all of our admiration. Who is the object of our admiration in this place? It's him. To the extent that others can facilitate our worship of Him, all the better. But that facilitation is not the main thing. Sadly, in a lot of churches, the facilitators are the main thing, right? What God is doing among the Israelites, He's giving them very practical ways to separate themselves. from those around them. And this hopefully makes what follows a little easier to understand verse 9. He says these you may eat whatever's in the water. All that have fins and scales, those in the water, in the seas, or in the rivers, you may eat. But whatever's in the seas and in the rivers that does not have fins and scales among the teeming life of the water, and among all the living creatures that are in the water, they are detestable things to you, and they shall be abhorrent to you. You may not eat of their flesh and their carcasses you shall detest. Whatever in the water does not have fins and scales is abhorrent to you. This is why shellfish, were and are prohibited for consumption by the Israelites. Now, if you consult the Jewish rabbis about these prohibitions, they'll generally tell you that the Lord prohibits the eating of certain things for health reasons. That's just another attempt, I believe, at justifying so many rules and regulations that really don't have any other foundation. They say, well, you know, and there is some wisdom there. You know, if you eat uncooked pork, insufficiently cooked pork, you're subject to getting trichinosis, little wee beasties in your body that will do you no good. If you eat certain things on this list, there are other better things you could eat. But certain people have shellfish allergies. I understand that. But to say that God has our health in mind is really kind of disingenuous. That's probably a part of it, but that's not really his main thrust. His main thrust was to, again, separate the people from those around them. And any health concerns are just extra, if that happens to be the case. Moving on in verses 13 through 23, we have even more instruction concerning things that were not to be consumed and those which were approved for consumption. These, moreover, you shall detest among the birds. They are abhorrent not to be eaten. The eagle and the vulture and the buzzard and the kite and the falcon of its kind are in its kind, every raven in its kind, and the ostrich and the owl and the seagull and the hawk in its kind, and the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl and the white owl and the pelican and the carrion vulture and the stork, the heron in its kinds. And the hoopoe and the bat all the winged insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you Yet these you may eat among the winged insects which walk on all fours those which have above their feet jointed legs With which to jump on the earth Those of them you may eat the locust in its kinds and the devastating locust in its kinds and the cricket in its kinds and the grasshopper in its kinds but all other winged insects are four-footed which are four-footed are detestable to you and This is just strange, right? I mean, we don't typically eat insects. Some of you do. I mean, a nice chocolate-covered cricket is always a delight. Huh? Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah, that's enough out of you. Ten spiders every night? Yum, yum. Anyway, but this is just strange. I mean, why would the Lord make such distinctions between all of these, such seemingly minute distinctions between even those things in the insect world? Well, after looking all over the Internet, trying to find some rationale for these things, I came across something that is actually pretty good when it comes to, it's not as wild a conjecture as what F.B. Meyer did, but it's conjecture nonetheless, but I think it's good conjecture. If you'll notice, if you go through this list, there is a recurring pattern, and a lot of rabbis even chimed in and agreed with this. Everything prohibited All the animals that are prohibited seem to be those which eat or kill and eat other things. They're predatory. The animals that are allowed to eat are not predatory, but are those which eat vegetables, the fish that eat the plankton and the other things, detritus that floats around in the water. The things prohibited seem to be those things that take the lives of other things in order to sustain them. I think that's really interesting. So could it be that the Lord is trying to teach the Israelites something about the sanctity of life? Not plant life. I mean, I'll stop eating salad whenever my salad screams at me when I eat it, right? I mean, it's not One of the reasons we eat, you know eating beef is the kindest thing you can do for a vegetarian. I'm eating this cow because he was eating your food. That's okay, there's more where that came from. But I think that's a good principle though. These animals that eat other things that have to die first. Maybe the Lord is trying to teach us something, and certainly the rabbis feel that this is probably at least a portion of what's going on. We don't really know for sure, but it is interesting nonetheless. We don't eat things that prey on kill and eat other living things. Anyway, in verses 24 through 28, the Lord takes a minute to explain that even touching the carcasses of some animals could render someone unceremonially or ceremonially unclean. He says, by these, moreover, you will be made unclean. Whoever touches their carcasses becomes unclean until evening. And whoever picks up any of their carcasses shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. Concerning all the animals which divide the hoof, but do not make a split hoof or which do not chew cud, they are unclean to you. Whoever touches them becomes unclean. Also, whatever walks on its paws, Among all the creatures that walk on all fours are unclean to you. Whoever touches their carcasses becomes unclean until evening, and the one who picks up their carcasses shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. They are unclean to you." Again, what does it mean to be unclean? Unclean simply means that you're no longer able to participate in the ceremonies among the Jews. You couldn't bring animals for sacrifice if you're unclean. You couldn't participate in the meals that were offered following the sacrifice. If you were unclean, you couldn't partake in any of their other rituals, any of their other traditions. If you were unclean, this would include Sabbath days, feast days, everything that was prescribed by the Lord to be observed by the people. If you were in an unclean status, you had to wait until you became clean again. in order to participate in those things. Verse 29. Another reminder. Now these are to you, the unclean among the swarming things, which swarm on the earth, the mole and the mouse. What? Have you heard? Moles and mice swarm? Yes. Go online sometime, go on YouTube and look up swarming mice. I saw this video where this guy walked into an old barn and the minute he opened the door, thousands, if not tens of thousands of mice just started scattering everywhere. Wouldn't that be fun? But just to answer the question, yes, they swarm. That's another Hebrew word that the best word we can supply is the word swarm. They don't swarm like bees or anything, but they do swarm. The word simply means large gatherings of them move about in unison. So this is true of moles and mice and the great lizard in its kinds and the gecko and the crocodile and the lizard and the sand reptile and the chameleon. These are to you the unclean among all the swarming things. Whoever touches them when they are dead becomes unclean until evening. Also anything on which any one of them might fall when they are dead becomes unclean, including any wooden article or clothing or a skin or a sack, any article of which use is made. It shall be put in the water and be unclean until evening. then it becomes clean. As for any earthenware vessel into which one of them may fall, whatever is in it becomes unclean, and you shall break the vessel. Any of the food which may be eaten on which water comes shall be unclean, and any liquid which may be drunk in every vessel shall become unclean. Everything moreover on which part of their carcasses may fall becomes unclean. An oven or a stove shall be smashed, They are unclean and shall continue as unclean to you nevertheless a spring or a cistern collecting water shall be clean Though the one who touches their carcasses shall be unclean If a part of the carcass falls on any seed for sowing which is to be sown it is unclean Though if water is put on the seed and a part of their carcass falls on it, it is unclean to you. Also if one of the animals dies, which you have for food, the one who touches its carcass becomes unclean until evening. He too who eats some of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening, and the one who picks up his carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. Now every swarming thing that swarms on the earth is detestable not to be eaten. Whatever crawls on its belly and whatever walks on all fours, whatever has many feet in respect to every swarming thing that swarms on the earth, you shall not eat them for they are detestable. Do not render yourselves detestable through any of the swarming things that swarm, and you shall not make yourselves unclean with them, so that you become unclean. For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God. Thus you shall be holy, for I am holy." This is the law regarding the animal and the bird and every living thing that moves in the waters and every thing that swarms on the earth, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, between the edible creature and the creature which is not to be eaten." So again, that's a lot to digest. That's a lot to take in when it comes to understanding the things that God prohibits. And again, the answer as to why is just not clear. I think all these other commentators are spot on. I think this is just God's way of separating His people from the rest of the people. These rules might have some merit in terms of health concerns, but by and large this is just God saying, I'm God. And as a demonstration of my own holiness, I am imposing on you these various dietary laws which, if observed, will prove not your holiness, but your striving for holiness." And this is really an important distinction to make. Again, observing all of these dietary laws would not render one holy. It would only indicate a desire to be holy. Only Christ can take that which is mundane or ordinary and make it set apart, consecrated, or holy. But again, this is to get them to think, I need to strive for moral purity and holiness, and God has told me that the best way at this current state of the unfolding of His plan of redemption, the best way to demonstrate that is to be obedient to the things that He has commanded, regardless of whether I agree with them. You know, you can imagine certain ones among the Israelites, after hearing all this, saying, come on, really? The sad reality is many professing believers read the scriptures and at every turn, when God prohibits something, when God suggests some measure that we might take in order to present ourselves as being separate and distinct, a good number of professing believers today have the same attitude. Really? This is really just a replay of what Satan did with Eve in the garden. I want you to understand that any form of disobedience, any seeking to obfuscate the clear teaching of the Word of God, to make loopholes, to always be in pursuit of exceptions to the rule, things that might allow me to behave in ways that God might not be pleased with, all of those things are simply a replay of the lie that Satan told Eve in the garden. Has God really said I don't know about you, but I don't want there to be any question. I don't want to walk around asking myself, wait a minute, can I do that or can I not do that? Has God really said that I shouldn't do that? Much better just to leave myself to the operation of the internal Holy Spirit. If you even have that thought of whether it might be wrong or right, what should your automatic response be in the striving for holiness? Reject it. You don't need it. So just reject it. Much safer to reject those things than to dabble with them in hopes that you'll be able to find a loophole of some kind. Some way that you can excuse your participation in that thing. Leave that Much better, again, to go with your Holy Spirit-informed conscience with regard to those things. And just think about the number of places in Scripture where we are actually commanded to pursue holiness. Matthew 5, 48. Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Striving for perfection, although it's unachievable, you'll never be perfect this side of glory, but striving for perfection is the best way to ensure that we don't come close to that edge that I'm always talking about. Striving for perfection will keep us solidly in the center of God's will, at least to the best of our ability. We'll not be looking to stray one day. extreme to the other will find great comfort and great peace in staying right in the middle of his will. First Corinthians 3 16 and 17. Do you not know that you're a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you if any man destroys the temple of God God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are. You're set apart. What should that be a deterrent against? Well, I mean, we would never carry anything into the temple which would even run the remotest possibility of defiling the temple, would we? I hope not. Well, that's true about the things we put into our bodies as well. And again, I'm not going to give you a list of what those things are or what they aren't, but just use your noodle and think, would God have me do this thing? Because studies have proven that this activity can be harmful. We should avoid that. Why? Because our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1.4, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. To what end? that we would be holy and blameless before Him." Now again, that's an in Christ statement. In so far as we are in Christ, in so far as we are clothed in His righteous robes, we stand before the Lord positionally as holy, as righteous, as set apart. But does this mean that we don't also strive for superficial holiness? We should. Do you not want your outside to match your inside? It should. Whatever's on the inside should work itself out practically on the outside. 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16. Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. Be different. Be set apart. Be distinct from the people around you. 1 Thessalonians 4, 7, for God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Here's kind of the flip side of that. Strive for holiness, but make sure you're striving for holiness and you're becoming more set apart with each passing day. Sanctification is not just a point in time reality, which it is. Our justification was secured in eternity past in the mind of God. It was worked out in linear time in our salvation, in our righteous standing before God, but it's also ongoing. I've often said that when we receive the righteous robes of Christ, they are 10 sizes too big. But the Lord is gracious. to allow us in sanctification to grow into those robes. We eventually, by God's grace, grow into those robes. That's called sanctification. Hebrews 12, 14, pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which none will see the Lord. And again, this doesn't mean that you are in and of yourself perfect. Does not mean that you've achieved a status of perfect consecration and set-apartness. It just means that you are in a constant pursuit of holiness. Just throw another book recommendation at you. J.I. Packer wrote a book years ago about the Puritans, and the title of the book is The Pursuit of Holiness. I'd recommend that for any of you who are inclined to read that kind of thing, but it's really good. If anything can be said about the Puritans themselves, they were striving for individual holiness, individual piety. And this is why they get the name Puritan as a pejorative because they were so different from everyone around them. Their way of looking at life was so alien to the way people around them looked at life. Their practices were so bent on doing that which God approved of and not doing that which God prohibited that they were castigated for that. They were relegated to this Puritanical people And that's a good thing. Now certainly, we're not gonna burn any witches at the stake. I mean, there are some downsides to that. Because the pendulum swings wildly from one extreme to the other. But understand what they were striving for. They were striving to behave in a way that God would find acceptable. With all their faults, with all their mistakes, with all of that, they were still trying to conduct themselves in an admirable way before the Lord. They weren't seeking the approval of men. They were seeking only His approval, and I think we could all benefit greatly from that.