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 along the ground. I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore, be holy, because I am holy. – Leviticus 11:44-45
Do Old Testament food regulations apply today? | WATCH ON YOUTUBE
As early as the time of Noah, God made the distinction between ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ animals. However, it is only in Deuteronomy that God specifies the kinds of clean and unclean animals. Some of the food laws may have protected Israel from the disease. But health cannot be the primary reason for these laws, because God has rescinded the food laws. Jesus in Mark 7:15 says “Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
And yet, at the end of the food laws, the running theme of Leviticus is reiterated. The Lord calls his people to be holy because He is holy. That is the crux of the matter.
The prohibition of certain foods as unclean was a temporary part of God’s way of making Israel distinct from the nations of the world. With the coming of Christ, God’s people, are no longer a political-ethnic people like the Jews, but a global people, from every tribe and language and ethnicity and race.
To be holy, is to be set apart, to be consecrated for the Lord’s use. We live for His purposes, to worship Him the way He wishes to be worshipped. We are called to be slaves to righteousness, which leads to holiness (Romans 6:19).
What are you enslaved to?
Father, help me live my life as a worship to you, I pray.
Extended Reading — Leviticus 11-13
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