SCRIPTURE: Leviticus 11
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
‘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?
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.
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]
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?
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.
Do this and live.
That was the command to Adam and Eve. That was the command to His people, Israel. That is His command to me. Follow my Word and you will have Life.
And when I follow His Word, I am also set apart. As Israel was set apart as His people, so too I am set apart for His service. Following His way. Wholly/Holy unto Him.
The people were not even to touch these unclean things. Stay away from those animals for it will be the death of you. Don’t even see how close you can get to the edge before falling into sin, but keep yourselves pure.
The bottom line. Obedience. Obey.
Do this and live.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Refrain
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.