Deuteronomy 14:1-21; Acts 10:1-23

Behaving as Sons of the LORD

Preached at Sycamore RPC

Kokomo, IN

January 6, 2002

Sermon Text

1 “You are the sons of the LORD your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave your forehead for the sake of the dead.  2 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

3 “You shall not eat any detestable thing.  4 “These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,  5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.  6 “Any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in two  and chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat.  7 “Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these among those which chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in two: the camel and the rabbit and the shaphan, for though they chew the cud, they do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you.  8 “The pig, because it divides the hoof but  does not  chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.

9 “These you may eat of all that are in water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat, 10 but anything that does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

11 “You may eat any clean bird.  12 “But these are the ones which you shall not eat: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard,  13 and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds,  14 and every raven in its kind,  15 and the ostrich, the owl, the sea gull, and the hawk in their kinds,  16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,  17 the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant,  18 the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat.  19 “And all the teeming life with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten.  20 “You may eat any clean bird.

21 “You shall not eat anything which dies  of itself. You may give it to the alien who is in your town, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Genesis 1-3 is the context for every passage of Scripture.

This was the repeated lesson of Dr. Clark Copeland to my Biblical Interpretation class in seminary. Everything in the Bible must be understood in the themes and symbols of those themes that are first introduced there.

• The creation of the heaven and earth;
• the perfection and glory of God;
• the formation of man and woman;
• commands regarding marriage, children, worship, and work;
• the trees of life and the knowledge of good and evil
• the temptation by Satan in the form of the serpent
• the fall into sin and the curse God pronounces
• the message of grace found in Genesis 3:15, as God pronounces the seed of the woman shall triumph over the seed of Satan. There will now be two types of people in the world – the wicked and the righteous; those under the dominion of the evil one, and those who are called sons of God

Like trying to read a book without the introduction, without understanding these first three chapters, the rest of the Bible will not make sense, or will be wrongly interpreted.

Let me give an example of how that last theme I mentioned helps us to understand the rest of Scripture. In Matthew 3, John is proclaiming that the Messiah will come, and flocks of people are journeying out into the wilderness to hear him and be baptized by him in order to prepare them for the coming Christ. Among them are Pharisees and Sadducees, and when John the Baptist sees them he first says to them in Matthew 3:7, “You brood of vipers!” He then accuses them of trusting in their religious duty for salvation rather than true repentance. If we read John the Baptist’s statement out of the context of the Bible, then calling these people vipers amounts to name-calling. But if we remember that Genesis 3:15 calls those who are under the darkness of Satan sons or seeds of the serpent, then we grasp the covenantal force behind John’s words. “You devils! You slithering, deceiving people! Who warned you of the wrath to come?”

As we come into list of clean and unclean animals here, if we do not remember the context of Genesis 1-3 we will read this and be confused. We will toss this out as meaningless ceremonial law, or be more concerned about our diet than the true message of the passage, a message that has something to do with the example of vipers I just gave. You are to be holy without being arrogant about it.

I. Analyzing the lesson of the unclean animals.

In verse 1-2 the reason is given for avoiding the unclean animals. Israel was considered to be the “sons of the LORD God.” They were called “the holy people of God,” those who had been chosen out to be “God’s own possession.” Verse 21 concludes this passage with the same reminder – “you are to be a holy people to the LORD your God.” So please understand then that the reason for this commandment was not dietary concerns, but for Israel to be holy, to teach Israel they had been adopted as the unique children of God. This description of Israel is the same one made in the New Testament concerning the church.

• In Matthew 5:48 Jesus says, “You are to be perfect (holy), just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The holiness we are to have because of our position as sons is declared here. God is our Father.
• Peter to the church says, “You are a chosen people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who brought you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
• Ephesians 1:4-5 “He chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons…”

Reason for these commands then is not so you will have good health, or because you are better then other people. The purpose was to show they were God’s people by living holy lives.

So how did avoiding certain animals do that? Verse 1 tells us that they were not to mark their forehead in mourning for dead. This would separate them from heathen people and their practices. As we look at particular animals we see the same concern.

In verses 3-8 Moses speaks of the large land animals. Most of these listed here are familiar to you, but perhaps not the “shaphan.” It was also called a rock hyrax. The shaphan is an animal about the size of a rabbit which lives in little caves and clefts. It is brownish gray or dull yellow in color with a white belly. Cute, playful little critters who sit up with others in troops to watch for predators, similar to a prairie dog. The commentators Keil and Delitsch say this about them: “The Arabs eat them, but they do not place them before their guests.” So a shaphan probably shouldn’t be served at Fellowship Lunch today. The distinguishing mark about all of these animals is they cannot chew the cud or have a split hoof. If they do, they are unclean. We also see pigs are not kosher. Here the preacher is speaking on this when just this week he filled his freezer with pork from a hog farmer, and he helps coach basketball with two other hog farmers. Am I unclean? I’ll answer in a minute, but let me just note that these animals are dirty creatures – living in the dust and/or getting their food from the dust.

Verses 9-10 talk about the sea animals. If the fish has fins or scale, it was permissible to consume. Since many fish were clean, that is why you would find many Jewish fishermen, like the disciples, but not many Jewish pig farmers. What kind of water animals were unclean? Eels, jellyfish and sharks are good examples. These are fish that slither, devour, or poison.

Verses 11-18 speak of the birds or the winged creatures. Note the ones that are listed as unclean. Eagles, vultures, falcons, owls, gulls, storks and herons are all found on this list, and they have something in common. In one form or another, they are predators. (Interestingly, the New Geneva Study BIble in its notes states that these “scavenger birds are unclean, probably because of their contact with carrion.” In their words, this contact with dead animals “poses a health risk.” It may be, but this is not the reason for the command!). Another bird we find here is the hoopoe, or lapwing, found in Syria, Arabia and Egypt. We find that it has a disagreeable smell, which some attribute to going to marshy districts looking for insects and worms. However, the common belief among natives is that it builds its nests out of human dung!

Verse 19 speaks of the teeming or swarming things. These would be smaller animals such as mice, lizards, moles, carnivorous and slimy insects and creatures.

In Leviticus 11, which has a parallel listing of these animals, it also calls all dead animals unclean. Then it says in verses 44-45, “ For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the LORD who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” Again, let the emphasis that these were restrictions were made for the singular purpose of holiness be made.

In summary then, Israel could not eat animals that were:

• Carnivorous, preying upon the dead
• Living in the dirt or underground, or eats dust as it slithers along
• Slimy or snakelike

This distinction between clean and unclean animals had been made since the fall, for on the ark there were both clean and unclean animals. So as we now try to understand it, remember the context is Genesis 1-3. We know from there that a snake came into the garden, whispering poisonous lies, preying upon man and woman, and leading them to death and destruction. This serpent was cursed with crawling on its belly and eating the dust. These laws then regarding clean and unclean animals are an object lesson to us. They are to teach us to avoid Satan and his activities. Like a roaring lion, a slithering serpent, he is seeking someone to devour. God wants you to avoid the uncleanness and death he brings.

II. Accepting the responsibility of the unclean animals.

Understand then that just as the Passover Lamb was to teach us our need for blood atonement provided by Christ, so these laws have a picture for us. It is the same object lesson God was teaching Israel. It meant Israel was to avoid evil ways and practices. If anything smelled of death or evil, they were to flee from it.

In last week’s message from our guest, we heard quite a list of things you may want to consider avoiding. I am not going to be specific, but rather say this:

• If it smells of death, rid yourself of it!
• If it looks like it comes from the pit of hell, flee from it!
• If it tempts you closer to that pit, turn from it!
• If it feels slimy, spurn it!
• If anything in your life that could give someone just cause to question whether you are a son of God or not, if it causes you to compromise, causes you to exalt self over Christ, then get it out!

If you are here today and you feel slimy, sinfully dirty, deathlike, trapped in Satan’ schemes, then remember God’s object lesson. Only one way exists to be cleansed. It is through that Lamb, the perfect One without spot or blemish, who was slain before the foundation of the earth. His blood was spilt at Calvary’s cross to bring cleansing and holiness into your life. Believe upon Him. Trust Him to cleanse you. Recall the Pharisees were called a brood of vipers, or sons of Satan, because they thought they could cleanse themselves. They forgot the law taught them that if you are unclean, you are unable to cleanse yourself. You only dirty up yourself and whatever you touch. The only way for cleansing is through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Seek Him. Heed His call. Receive His holiness and then live in that holiness.

Friend, the lesson apparent in this list is that there are only two types of people. The clean and the unclean. The sons of evil and the sons of God. The sheep and the goats. Those who reject Christ have Satan as their Father. Many try to slither through life, deceiving others with their talk of piety or religious works. Many are like pigs, who get cleaned up for the county fair only to run back to the slough. Be holy, be of the clean, friend, in Christ.

III. Avoiding the mistake of the unclean animals.

The early church made a mistake when it came to the lesson of the unclean animals. It was actually a mistake of reading the Scriptures wrongly. If can happen to you as well if you are not careful.

We can see this mistake, and how God overcame it, in the passage we read from Acts 10. Recall Peter was praying on the housetop when he falls into a trance and sees a sheet with animals upon it. He is told to eat, but is revolted by the unclean animals on the sheet and so protests to God. The Lord tells him that he is not to call anything He has cleansed unclean. This happens three times, leaving Peter scratching his head in wonder of what it meant.

At that very moment three Gentiles, sent from the house of Cornelius, show up. We know that Peter eventually realized that his vision was to teach him to preach the gospel not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles. God was using those “cleansed unclean” animals to tell Peter and the rest of the church they had wrongly interpreted the Scriptures and had fallen into pride. The first words out of Peter’s mouth at Cornelius’ house were “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality” (Acts 10:34). When Peter relates to the church at Jerusalem what had happened, the leaders state, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18). The clean and unclean distinction was not to be made between Jew and Greek, but between the righteous and the wicked, be they Jew or Greek!

Friends, we can read the Scriptures wrong and make a grave mistake. We can begin to take pride in our cleansing, and so we don’t or won’t associate with the world. We should not have any pride, for our cleansing was a repentance granted to us by God in Christ, who saves Jew and Gentile alike. If we fail to remember the glorious work of Christ in suffering for sinners like you and me, then we can fall into the unbelief that thinks certain people are off limits to gospel. We are to preach to all. If we ever become a church that seeks to keep out the undesirables whom God is cleansing, then we will begin to look like the swine and smell like the hoopoe bird to God!

There are only two types of animals, because there are only two types of people. Be holy in Christ and live holy for Christ. Yet never let your holiness blind you to the power of Christ to convert the unclean to the clean, a son of disobedience to a son of God, to change a pig into a sheep.