Deuteronomy 14:3-21

Well, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. We're at Deuteronomy chapter 14, Deuteronomy chapter 14. We're going to look at verses three through, let's see, I think it's 21. Yep. Three through 21. We're going to talk about all the things you could and couldn't eat if you were an ancient Israelite. So we're going to start getting into the specific laws. So let's have some coffee. We'll pray and you'll find out. No, no coffee. OK, let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for your word. Please help us, Father, to understand it. Lord, we pray that you apply it to our lives and that we would glorify you as we think about all the things that you have instructed us in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. Deuteronomy chapter 14, beginning at verse three.
You, Nathan, do you want to read that first big paragraph or do you want to read this? OK. You shall not eat any of this... This... Where's my glasses? They're over there. All the way over there. I just gave you those glasses before we started and then you put them down. That's my problem with my glasses. I set them down and then they're see-through. You can't see where they're at. Alright, so go ahead.
You shall not eat any just the testable thing there are the animals which you may eat the sheep the goat the deer the gazelle the ox the roe roe deer the wild goat the mountain goat the antelope and the mountain sheep and you may eat every animal which with cloven cloves having the split into two parts, and that chews the cud among the animals. Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as the camel, the hare, the rock, the rock, the rocks, for they chew the cud, but do not have the cloven hooves. They are unclean for you. Also, the swine, oh no, but I like him, is unclean for you, because it has clove and hose, and yet does not chew the cud. You shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses.
These you may eat of all that are in the waters. You may eat all That have fins and scales. Scales? And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat. It is unclean for you. All clean birds you may eat, but these do not eat. The eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the red kite. The type of bird? Kite. the falcon and the kite after their kinds, every raven after its kind, the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the seagull, the hawk, and their kinds, the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, the jackdaw, the jackdaw, I don't know what that is, the carrion vulture, the vulture owl, the stork, the heron after its kind, and the Also, every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you. They shall not be eaten.
You may eat all clean birds. You shall not eat anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. You for you are a holy people to the Lord your God you should not boil a young goat in its mother's milk Okay, so what do you think this is talking about? What you eat, what you not eat.
Right. What they were to eat and what they were not allowed to eat. So we can go into all the specifics. Right. But I'm not sure that's going to be very helpful because what was the main point of all of this in their life, in the in the economy or the historical point of Israel being a nation? What was the point of all these dietary restrictions?
It's kind of funny how God does this. He's like. Twenty one. to the last actual paragraph is the main point. And it's like, oh, also, you shouldn't not boil a young goat. Mm hmm. But but what's the main point that they are holy people? Yeah, exactly. That's the main point of all of this in verse twenty one. For you are a holy people to Jehovah, your God. And how are they going to show that they were holy? That they were set apart, that they were special people.
Yeah, right. So that that's why God gave some of these laws, right? It's kind of interesting that they could kill one of these animals and give it to somebody else. Well, the specific there isn't isn't for that. It's for if they have an animal that kind of just dies. Right. And they don't know why it died. Maybe they have a sheep or they have a goat or something. It dies. They find it in the field. Right.
They're not allowed to eat that. They're allowed to give it to their servants and stuff like that. But they're not allowed to eat it themselves. yeah that would be different right because they wouldn't want to give something that's spoiled and rotten or maybe deadly really like remember we watched Little House on the Prairie and there was the sheep dying of anthrax yeah all right so it's not talking about something like that well if they didn't know of that then that would have been then they wouldn't know right so that'd be a different type scenario but the whole point of this right whether it's Uh, you know, the the animal with a split hoof or the or the, you know, the the full hoof chewing the cud, not chewing the cud, all this stuff is meant to show them that God was the king. He's the one who said, here's how you're going to be different than everyone else. And they were to follow it. Do you think this would have been easy for them? No, I don't think it'd be easy for them at all.
Right. But the point is, that's how they were going to show that they were devoted to the Lord by how they ate. So the question is, then why do I buy ham for you to eat? If this is in the Bible saying you shouldn't be eating this wine. Yeah. Well, yeah, I eat ham. I love bacon. So why, why are we allowed to do this then? Okay. So in the book of Acts, right? Peter has a vision that God gives him and there's a sheet that comes down from heaven. There's all sorts of animals on it.
And God says, go and eat. And Peter says, no, Lord, I want to vile myself. And the Lord says, do not all unclean what I have declared clean. God has made all animals clean now. He's taken away that dietary restriction in the new covenant. If he had not done that, then we probably would still be. But God did do that. And so there's no longer this separation between Jew and Gentile. That dividing wall has been torn down. We're made one in Christ Jesus. It's no longer about the dietary laws. It's about Jesus. Jesus fulfilled those dietary laws. How are you set apart and made holy now? The principle of holiness still stands.
How do you glorify God with your body now that's different than the rest of society? All right, well, how do we live our lives? How do we treat our bodies specifically with sexual immorality? Right. Do you not know that you were that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit and that the Spirit of God lives in you? You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God with your body. Right. So how we live our bodies now. We went to the gym really early this morning. Right. Part is because this is the body the Lord has given us.
Why doesn't daddy go sleeping around with prostitutes? Well, yeah, that would be horrible to your mother, right? But it's also hold on, right? I'm united to Christ and I'm one with your with your mom, right? And so I'm not to go in and break that that that bond. to go after something unholy by joining myself with another woman, right? That would be wrong. That'd be not showing myself as set apart for God's use. And so I think we glorify God now with our bodies, but not at the dietary restrictions, but in different ways, right?
Because Jesus has fulfilled these laws. He has set us apart to be holy, but in a different way. Oh yeah, we kind of did skip over all that. So we did A, we did B, what's the best verse? Best verse would be verse, the second part of verse 21. You are a holy people to the Lord your God. Seek calling. What are we called to do? What would you, how would you say it? That we are not our own. And I think we can also live it out in our lives. That we're not like the rest of the world.
Okay, so the calling isn't to put away lobster and shrimp and ham? Go back to the dietary laws? Well, no, they couldn't. No, lobsters don't have scales. Lobsters should have scales. No, so you can go and enjoy a good piece of lobster. Not that we normally afford that, but you could have that, right? So, yeah, I think that's our calling. Okay, you want to pray or you want me to pray? Okay.
Father, we pray that we would indeed glorify you with our bodies. We will glorify you in the way we speak. We will glorify you in the way we think. We will glorify you in seeking out sexual purity. Lord, we know that we are not our own, but we were bought with a price. So, Father, please fill us with your spirit that we indeed would be people set apart wholly unto you. For you have redeemed us, body and soul. In Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you seek his face, walk in his ways, and we'll see you next time. Say bye. Bye.