God’s Commands re. the Earth’s Animals Present Us with a Dilemma

Leviticus 11:1-8

The Lord spoke again to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘These are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth. ³ Whatever divides a hoof, thus making split hoofs, and chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat. ⁴ 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. ⁵ Likewise, the shaphan, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you; ⁶ the rabbit also, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you; ⁷ and the pig, for though it divides the hoof, thus making a split hoof, it does not chew cud, it is unclean to you. ⁸ You shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.

Thoughts on the Passage

Once again, we are faced with the dilemma of “how much of these commands apply to us today?”  The fact remains that not all of us follow these rules. We eat various foods mentioned in this passage.  Some don’t because they believe this applies to God’s people even today. Others don’t because science has said they are bad for us, at least in larger quantities.  Others just can’t stand the thought that they are eating some of them. Others won’t eat them because doing so is cruelty to animals.

So, what can we take from it all that most of us can agree with?

Chuck Smith says when we look at these practical laws, we need to be thinking of the spiritual laws that God has laid down for us. The bottom line is that if we seek to follow God’s laws we will be blessed and if we neglect to do so, we will not. And Smith has the references in Scripture that back him up. If we start with the Spiritual laws, including the law to obey God, the issue then becomes how far down the “commandments” towards the practical (read ‘food’ laws) do we need to go to still have the blessing?

Smith sees it this way. Those food laws show that God is in interested in our health and wants us to have strong bodies. If He were talking to us today about this topic, He would probably hit on ‘junk food’.  He shares the story about going “home from Bible school at night and buy ice cream and chocolate syrup and whipped cream and the whole thing. And then some guy would say, "Who's going to ask the blessing?" I said, "You can't ask God to bless this. It's no good for you, you know, it's not good for you." Eat it and take the consequences, but don't ask God to bless it.”

On the other hand, we can’t misquote I Corinthians 10:23 where Paul states, “all things are lawful for me” and claim that we can eat all the pork, ham, and bacon we want. We cannot misquote God in Acts 11:9 when He says, “Don’t call unholy what I have cleaned.”  That does not mean you can eat anything you want. Why? Because the passage is not about food – it’s about Paul taking the message to the Gentiles who were considered ‘unclean’ by the Jews up to that point.

The animals God lists here as being off limits to the Jews were animals that carried disease, especially if not cooked thoroughly. This is especially a problem in warm climates, according to Robert Jamieson. David Guzik notes that God wasn’t just coming up with new rules here about what animals were clean and what were unclean. In fact, these distinctions were known way back in the days of Noah (Genesis 7:2 and 8:20).

Matthew Henry reminds us that “God’s Will” is a manifestation of “God’s Wisdom”. So, anything He commands that we obey is ultimately the wisest decision we could make.  God was interested in teaching His people then and His people now that we are to distinguish ourselves from other people, not only by our belief in Him, but also in our practices, day to day.

We just presented the background to these verses and tied them in with some other passages in both the Old and New Testaments. It is now up to each of us to become aware of what God had commanded, and to decide what He intends for us today, and then to follow through on that decision. Here’s to your health and mine.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.