AM Bible Study Group; June 22, 2011
Deuteronomy 14:1-21a
Theme: In this chapter, God’s people are instructed to be ‘separate’ in they way they mourn and in the way they eat.
God calls His people to be holy (that is, separate from the ways of this world, and set apart unto Him for His pleasure and purposes). And this holiness is to be expressed everything they do—even in such everyday details of life as mourning for their dead or selecting what they shall eat.
They are to be . . .
I.. SEPARATE IN THE WAY THEY MOURN (vv. 1-2).
A. The people of Israel had just been delivered from four-hundred years of enslavement to the pagan peoples of Egypt. And now that God had redeemed them to Himself and was taking them to the land He had promised them, they must unlearn the pagan ways of the Egyptians with respect to mourning for the dead. Note that this is because they “are the children of the LORD your God” (v. 1). They must behave like what they are (see Leviticus 20:23-26).
B. Moses reminded them of the commandments that God had given in Leviticus 19:27-28 and 21:1-5. They were not to cut themselves, or shave the front of their heads “for the dead”. These were practices of the pagan peoples (Jeremiah 16:6; Ezekiel 7:18) in the hopeless way that they mourned (see 1 Thessalonians 4:13) and in a manner that sought to appeal to pagan deities for the spirits of their loved ones.
C. In saying this to the people of Israel, Moses emphasizes their identity: “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (v. 2). Nothing demonstrates our hope in God, and our identity as those who belong to Him, as much as the hope we have at a time of death. How we deal with death says much about who we are. As God’s people, we’re not to adopt the ways of mourning that characterize unbelieving people in their mourning.
II. SEPERATE IN THE WAY THEY EAT (vv. 3-21a).
A. What they may eat of animals (vv. 3-8). It’s important to remember that the people of Israel suffered under the diet of a slave for four-hundred years. They were forced to eat anything they could find—even that which is “detestable”. But now that they are take out of their slavery, they are to demonstrate their identity as a people who belong to God through the things they eat. Beyond the things they are said that they may eat in verses 4-5 (which were primarily mountain-fed and grain-fed animals), God instructs that they may eat that which has both cloven hooves and which chews the cud. Those animals that have only one and not the other, or neither, may not be eaten. The reasons may be because of sanitation and health concerns; but it may also be God’s way of keeping them separate from the practices of pagan peoples in the way that they eat. Some Bible teachers suggest that the cloven hooves suggest the kind of separated “walk” that should characterize the believer; and that the chewing of the cud suggests the kind of ‘meditation on the word’ that should also characterize the believer. To only meditate on the word, but not walk separate from the world not acceptable for a child of God; nor is it acceptable to try to walk a holy life, but not under the rule of scripture.
B. What they may eat of fish (vv. 9-10). Similarly, only sea life that has fins and scales may be eaten by them. This eliminated shell-fish and bottom-fish from their diets. Note that God’s restrictions concerning what is clean or unclean has been lifted; and that we, today, are free to eat such things (Acts 10:9-16).
C. What they may eat of birds and insects (vv. 11-20). Certain scavenger and carrion birds were forbidden. Also, the people were free to eat insects that had jointed legs and that hopped (see Leviticus 11:20-23); but flying insects were forbidden. They may eat all clean birds (v. 20).
D. What they may do with that which dies of itself (vv. 21a). Things that died of themselves were forbidden from the children of Israel to eat. This, too, may have been for reasons of sanitation. But it would also have, no doubt, involved the fact that such animals had not been properly drained of their blood (see 12:16). The resident alien among them may eat such things, or they may sell it to a foreigner. But they themselves were not permitted to eat it; “for you are a holy people to the LORD your God”.
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This illustrates the manner of life that God requires of us, in the treatment of our bodies as His children by faith, with respect to this world:
Depart! Depart! Go out from there,
Touch no unclean thing;
Go out from the midst of her,
Be clean,
You who bear the vessels of the LORD
(Isaiah 52:11; see also 2 Corinthians 6:17-18).