9/4/2008 9:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Land animals
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Leviticus 11:1-8
Message of the verses: “1 ¶
The LORD spoke again to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, 2 "Speak to the sons of Israel
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.”
Today
begins a new chapter in Warren Wiersbe’s book on Leviticus, and he entitles
this chapter “Cleanliness and Godliness.”
This chapter form his book is commentary on chapters eleven and twelve
of Leviticus. As I have said in other
SD’s there is a sentence at the beginning of his chapter that kind of give the
outline of the chapter and it is as follows in this chapter, “In order to
maintain ceremonial purity, each Jew had to obey God’s law in several areas of
live.” The first area of life is eating
and it goes from verses 1-23 of Leviticus eleven. The section that will be covered in this is
“land animals.” Not all of the animals
are listed in the Bible that were clean and unclean to the Jewish people, but
there were qualifications and categories that are listed in order for the
people to know what was clean and what was unclean. I believe that the major reason for this was
for spiritual reasons, although there are also health reasons involved here
too. Paul speaks on this subject in the
NT along with Jesus and Peter too as the diet in the NT became a real problem
for some of the believers and for the most part Paul is the one who addresses
this issue. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The
spiritual principle of separation from defilement applies to the people of God
today. The fact that we know God must
make a difference in every aspect of lives.” “For you have been bought with a
price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory
of God.”
I must give
my opinion here as far as the health reasons as to why God gave these laws and
although I would not follow the diet in the OT for spiritual reasons I would
follow it for health reasons. Let me
give one example as to why I believe that the diet God gave in the OT is worth
following at this time for health reasons.
The fish and other animals in the ocean that God called unclean to the
people of Israel
The two
requirements for land animals were that the animal chew the cud and have a
split hoof. If the animal only chewed
the cud and did not have a split hoof it was unclean or if an animal had a
split hoof, but did not chew the cud it was unclean, a pig is an example of
this. The following is a definition of
“rabbit or hare from the Online Bible dictionary, “1) hare
1a) probably an extinct animal because no known hare chews
its cud, exact meaning is unknown, and best left untranslated as
"arnebeth’”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: This list of food is very near and dear to my
hearts from a physical point as I have IBS and believe that this kind of a diet
will be helpful to me. With that said I
think there is surely a spiritual principle in this section and that is that
because I am a believer in God through Jesus Christ and have the Holy Spirit in
me to guide and direct me that I am to keep myself clean in order to be able to
serve the Lord and to have fellowship with Him.
There are things that if I do them will defile me and therefore I will
not have the kind of fellowship with the Lord and thus will not be able to
serve Him in the way that I should and desire to.
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
- Keep a short list with my Lord.
- Trust the Lord to guide my path today.
- Give myself to the Lord for service and worship.
- Put on the whole armor of God.
- Continue to learn contentment in my life through the difficult times that we are going through.
Memory verses for the week: Exodus 20:4-9
- You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
- You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and forth generations of those who hate me,
- but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.
- You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
- Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
9/4/2008 10:43 AM
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