SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 11
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
1. ‘Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”) [Mark 7:18-19] Why does God declare some foods unclean? Why does Jesus change this, declaring all foods clean?
2. Notes on this passage in Leviticus suggest that there were spiritual and hygienic reasons for this laws. It is suggested that the things designated unclean posed health risks. These laws protected Israel from bad diet, dangerous vermin, and communicable diseases. The spiritual meaning was symbolic, to clarify the distinction between good and bad, moral and immoral, holy and unholy. Because God was holy (set apart from, pure, perfect), the people were to set themselves apart by these clean and unclean distinctions.
3. Jesus moves beyond both the hygienic and the symbolic meaning to the real issue, the state of the heart. After showing that the real issue is not what goes into the body, He goes on to say, What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ [Mark 7:20-23]
4. Reading these words of Jesus, and reading the words of Leviticus with Jesus, leads me to sense the need to look at the things in my own life that are clean or unclean. Are there attitudes, habits, behaviours that I allow in my life that are expressions of these sins Jesus refers to from the heart? Am I as concerned about being set apart from sin, being set apart for the Lord, and for what is good? Do I see the seriousness of sin, and of the need to be holy?
5. As an exercise, today I want to consciously name the ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ things that I encounter through the day, whether in conversation, in my thoughts, in what I read in the paper or see on the news, or wherever. I will intentionally name what is good, and what is not good.
PRAYER:
Lord, purify my heart. Open my eyes to see what is not clean, and give me a determination to strive to be holy, like You.
God had chosen the Israelites as His people and as such they were to be separate from the people around them. These dietary laws make them different from their neighbors – set apart – be holy for I am Holy says the Lord. Do not defile yourselves.
As people set apart, there needs to be obedience. Once again, do this and live. Do not eat of these . . . going back to the garden. Living for Jesus requires obedience no matter how good the food may look such as Adam and Eve. I am not different with my choices. I too need to guard my appetite to stay separate, distinct, away from sin.
God has called me also to obey His Word. How is my separateness seen this day? How am I set apart for service. As His follower, what makes me different because I follow His law? Help me this day Lord to do good in Jesus’ name. Lead and guide me in the way everlasting by Your Spirit.
Purer yet and purer, I would be in mind,
Dearer yet and dearer, every duty find;
Hoping still, and trusting God without a fear,
Patiently believing He will make all clear.