Hi! How’s it going? Something new in the brew…  

Hip Hip Hooray for Q & A!  

With this morning’s Bible study, I want to kick off a new feature… a Q&A session on the 1st post of the month. I want to open the floor to questions, issues that have never been resolved in your mind, and anything else that Mean Old Mr. Doubt (or any of his other diabolical dudes) have troubled you with.  

Questions and Answers. If you have questions, we’ll look to scripture for the answer. And friend, there is an answer 🙂  

Don’t be shy 😉 Fret not, little missy. Take your best shot, Bruno!  

The neat thing about the Q&A here is that we’re going to look at the “Universal Source Book” for the answer. And I am sooo confident in that Source Book, (given its Eternal and Divine properties, hint hint), we’ll find the right answer.  

Okay? Ready? Need some time to think? Got one right now?  

Ask away,
Jim

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stump the pastor? very nice… okay, i have one for you… how come in the old testament, we are told that eating pork (and other cloven-hooved animals) is unclean, yet christians hold no restriction against it? there are so many bizarre passages in the OT and frankly, i’ve never really known how serious to take it because it seems overly concerned with cultural context. if we can eat pork (i say thi sas a vegetarian), then what other rules of the OT are admissable???

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Thanks for your questions!

On the surface, OT dietary laws given to the Israelites by God through Moses and Aaron seem archaic yet are still observed by many modern-day Jews. Modern day “Kosher” foods find their origin way back then. But the truth is these dietary laws are no longer binding on Jew or gentile. Let’s review the Record…

Pre-Moses, every animal was fair game (pun intended). Noah, who was even pre-Abraham was told this by God…

Genesis 9:3
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

So bacon (among everything else) was okay to eat. I wonder what a Dinoburger tasted like 😉

Hundreds of years later comes Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation. Abraham’s sons and their descendants are the ones who grew in size to become the Jewish nation under Egyptian bondage to slavery…

Exodus 1:5-7
All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

The fascinating account in Exodus shows God delivering His people from slavery. Moses was the go-to guy on the ground…

Exodus 10:3
Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

God, now having His people set apart physically from other nations, puts in place lots of statutes and ordinances to culturally and morally separate His people from these other nations as well. 

Everything had a reason or purpose; the 10 Commandments (to show us our sin), the sacrificial system (typifying God the Father sacrificing His beloved Son Jesus on the cross), the feasts (remembering the Passover), etc. And one such difference was in diet…

Leviticus 11:7
And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.

God’s people were to be holy. They were to be so radically different from the polytheistic pagan societies around them that those people couldn’t help but notice. Israel was the nation God chose to be a witness to the world…

Deuteronomy 4:6
Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

Studying all the sacrifices and special days and ceremonies and customs in the Pentateuch (1st 5 books) may seem like dry reading, but learning and then knowing the meaning behind them brings great joy. Christ can be seen in so many things in the OT. God really was (and still is) playing out His Providential plan.

Now go waaaayyy fast forward to the NT. Jesus has some words concerning these laws…

Matthew 5:17
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

And fulfill them, He did. When He died on the cross, He finished His work and made it possible for wicked and sinful men to be reconciled to Holy and Almighty God. The curtain of the temple was torn from top to bottom, signifying access to God through Christ, not some Levitical OT priest. In fact, the temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans… and the sacrificial system ceased at that time too.

Stay with me… Now some time after Jesus’ ascension, Peter, a full-blooded Jew and the leader of the Lord’s apostles had an interesting vision…

Acts 10:11-15
[Peter] … saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: Rise, Peter; kill and eat. But Peter said, By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice came to him again a second time, What God has made clean, do not call common.

Whoa! God tells Peter to accept all foods… and foods here are analogous to people… In particular, accept and witness to those icky gentiles!

So when Christ died, He fulfilled the law… the ceremonial laws. The moral laws are still active, but the ceremonial laws and dietary laws served their purpose, pointing to Jesus, and have been fulfilled. All those blood sacrifices over all those years found their end by Christ’s blood shed upon the cross.

Looking back to the temple sacrifices, the writer of the Book of Hebrews shows the difference between the old way and the new way…

Hebrews 9:9-12
According to this [old] arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the [new] good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Getting back to food specifics, God’s children may enjoy everything in the buffet…

1st Corinthians 8:8-9
Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the [spiritually] weak.

In conclusion, I would not disregard the OT “rules”… the ceremonial had their purpose and are no longer needed but useful to understand. And the moral (10 Commandments and loving God with your whole heart, etc.) are still active.

Luke 21:33
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

True believers long to please God and cringe at the thought of thinking lighty toward His word. I hope this helps. Come back with more, if you like 🙂

Peace,
Jim