What to Know About the Food Laws

 

Image source: unsplash.com

After the Israelites successfully escaped their slavery in Egypt and were able to make it to Mount Sinai, God established several different laws that He wanted them to follow. Ten of these laws you are probably very familiar with: I am talking about the Ten Commandments. God told Moses to climb up to the top of Mount Sinai for forty days to receive these ten important rules and engrave them into two stone tablets, so he could bring the tablets back down to the Israelites, who were not allowed to go up themselves as the area was considered holy at that time. As you probably know already, these commandments warn us about sins such as idolatry, adultery, gossip, and more obvious ones like theft and murder.

However, the Ten Commandments were not the only laws that God had prepared for His people. There was another set of rules that we are meant to follow which was first revealed in the third book of the Torah (the Torah is the name for the first five books of the Bible): Leviticus. Leviticus is filled to the lid with important laws for us to follow, so I highly suggest that you start reading through it whenever you are able to. One of these sets of laws is the one I want to talk to you about today: the food laws.

By food laws, I mean laws regarding which meats we are permitted to eat. There are currently no laws mentioning which vegetables or fruit you should or shouldn't eat, so feel free to eat all the salad you want, as long as there are no bacon bits, which we will get to later on. But meats are the main thing we need to be careful about.

Before we get started with taking a look at which animals are clean and which are unclean, I would like to take the time to inform you that any verses I quote in this post are directly from the KJV Holy Bible and have not been modified or changed in any way. Alright, time to get started.

I will be starting in Leviticus, as mentioned above, in chapter 11, beginning with verse 1, when God begins to speak to Moses and Aaron, telling them about the food laws. He begins by listing the three requirements that a mammal must meet in order to be clean, in other words, in order to be worthy to be slain and eaten as meat.

"And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them,

Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.

Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat."

I have made the three requirements in verse 3 bold, so you can easily see what they are. I will also briefly describe what each requirement means. The term "parteth the hoof" and "clovenfooted" refers to a mammal that has hooves on its feet, but the hooves must be parted, in other words, a hoof which is split into two separate toes. "Cheweth the cud" refers to a phase of a few kinds of mammal's digestion process; mammals that chew the cud are known as ruminants. The partly digested food comes back up from the ruminant's stomach to inside the mouth, then the ruminant chews the food once more and swallows it, and the process repeats a few times. The partly digested food is known as cud, as you probably guessed.

But in the next verse (verse 4), God mentioned that the animal in question must meet all three of these requirements, meeting just one requirement is not good enough. He even gives us an example of an animal like this: the camel.

"Nevertheless, these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean to you."

Here, God explains that just because an animal has cloven hooves, or chews the cud, does not mean that it is fit to eat. I would highly encourage you to think twice before eating any kind of meat. Try to think to yourself, "Does this animal have cloven hooves, and does it chew the cud?" Cows, for example, meet all three of these requirements, so you should be safe eating a food product that says it is all-beef on the label.

Moving on to verse 5 and reading until verse 8, God explicitly lists three more animals that are not worthy to be eaten as well as why, just like the camel example we saw earlier.

"And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean to you.

And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean to you.

And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.

Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you."

Since the three unclean animals mentioned in those verses are listed in Old English terminology, you may or may not know what they mean, so I would be happy to explain them. The coney is probably the least known out of all the creatures spoken of in this passage. Conies are actually the same thing as hyraxes, an often overlooked mammal who is a member of the order Hyracoidea. These adorable critters can measure anywhere between 12 and 28 inches long, and they can weigh between 4 and 11 pounds. As mentioned in verse 5, they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves. Therefore, conies, or hyraxes, should not be eaten.

The hare is probably a more familiar term, even today, but I will still explain what they are just in case you may not have heard about them. "Hare" is simply a term for "bunny," an often domesticated animal in the order Lagomorpha. You will know what I mean if you have ever heard the popular children's story of the tortoise and the hare. Basically how the story goes, is that a hare, or bunny, was racing against a tortoise, or turtle, and the bunny began feeling conceited, so he took a nap, thinking that he could wake up and the turtle would still not be near the finish line. However, to the bunny's surprise, the turtle ended up winning the race. Just like hyraxes, bunnies chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves, so therefore, bunny meat should not be consumed. It probably isn't even the best idea to do it in Minecraft, as sinning in a video game could potentially cause you to eventually want to try it in real life.

Hold on to your seat, because last up, we have a meat that is loved by almost everybody: pig meat, AKA pork ("swine" in the Bible). Pork is often a key ingredient in foods such as barbeque, meatballs, hot dogs, sausages, bacon, and deli ham. While pork is a very common and well-loved meat, known for its ease of preparation, good texture, and savory taste, it is actually wrong to eat it. God says Himself in verse 7 that even though pigs have cloven hooves, they do not chew the cud and so you may need to give up eating bacon for brekky. However, you can still eat turkey bacon and lid bacon. Both of these alternatives are kosher-friendly ("kosher" is the term for meats that are worthy to eat), and they taste very similar to the real thing.

God proceeds to say in verse 8 that we should not consume the meat of any of these animals, nor come into physical contact with their bodies after they die, as they are unclean to us. He also says in verse 25 that if our clothing was to come into contact with a dead unclean animal, we must immediately remove the contaminated article of clothing and wash it before wearing it again.

"And whosoever beareth ought of the carcase of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even."

We must also break any item that touches the unclean carcass immediately, as we see in verse 35.

"And every thing whereupon any part of their carcase falleth shall be unclean; whether it be oven, or ranges for pots, they shall be broken down: for they are unclean, and shall be unclean unto you."

To learn more about food laws as well as which sea creatures and which birds we are permitted to eat, I recommend that you read the rest of Leviticus 11 on your own, as well as Deuteronomy 14:1-21 (which gives us some examples of animals that are acceptable for food), and study it as hard as you can.

In conclusion of today's post, I would like to encourage you from now on to think before you eat. Also, remember to check the ingredients label for any and all meats you are considering purchasing from the grocery store. However, everybody makes mistakes, so if you do end up consuming a forbidden meat, pray to God and ask Him to forgive you. And since we serve a merciful and forgiving God, He will. 1st John 1:9 says that:

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

I hope this post was helpful to you, and I'm sorry I haven't posted since over a month ago; I just kept forgetting.

May God be with your day.

--ILikeSlugs