We must never take for granted that we are “the children of the Lord [our] God” and “a holy people to the Lord [our] God” (vv. 1–2 nkjv). These are privileges that we don’t deserve and that we could never earn, and we enjoy them only because of God’s love and grace. The Lord announced to Pharaoh, “Israel is my son, even my firstborn” (Ex. 4:22; see Jer. 31:9), and because Pharaoh wouldn’t listen and obey, Egypt lost all their firstborn.
At Sinai, before He gave the law, the Lord announced to Israel, “And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19: nkjv). Because of their unique relationship to the Lord as His chosen people and special treasure, the Israelites were responsible to obey Him and truly be a holy people. Their relationship to the Lord was the most important factor in their national life, for without the Lord, Israel would be like all the other nations. As a holy people, they had to learn to distinguish the things that differed.
The holy and the unholy (vv. 1–2). The Hebrew word translated “holy” means “that which is set apart and marked off, that which is different and wholly other.” Our English word “holy” comes from an Old English word meaning “to be whole, to be healthy.” What health and wholeness are to the body, holiness is to the inner person. As a holy people, the Jews were set apart from all the other nations because the holy presence of the Lord was with them and they had received God’s holy law (23:14; Rom. 9:4). Because they were a holy people, they were not to imitate the wicked practices of their neighbors, such as cutting their bodies or shaving their foreheads in mourning (1 Kings 18:28; Jer. 16:6; 41:5). This reminds us of Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
This section opens and closes with the same reminder: “Thou art an holy people unto the Lord” (Deut. 14: and 21). In the book of Leviticus, the Lord told the people, “Be holy, for I am holy” (11:44–45; see 19:2; 20:7, 26; 21:8), an admonition that Peter quoted in his first epistle for the church to obey today (1:15–16). The local church is a holy temple (1 Cor. 3:17) and a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5), and therefore believers should separate themselves from the defilement of the world and seek to perfect holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1). It’s depressing to read statistical surveys and discover that, when it comes to morality, professed Christians don’t believe or live much differently from unconverted people. And yet God’s people are supposed to be “set apart, marked off, different” so we can “advertise” the glorious virtues of the Lord (1 Peter 2:9).
The clean and the unclean (vv. 3–21). The people of Israel were to “demonstrate the difference” even by what they ate. We’ve already seen that the Jews were not permitted to eat meat with blood in it (12:16, 23; 15:23), and now Moses reminded them of the creatures they were permitted to eat (see Lev. 11:1–23).
The distinction between “clean and unclean” sacrifices was known in the days of Noah (Gen. 7:1–10) and therefore must have been told to our first parents when God taught them to worship. In the Jewish law, the words “clean” and “unclean” have nothing to do with the intrinsic nature or value of the creatures themselves. This was a designation given by the Lord for reasons not always explained. Some students believe that the Jews enjoyed better health because they avoided certain foods, but both Jesus and the apostles declared all foods clean (Mark 7:14–23; Acts 10:9–25; Rom. 14:1—15:13), the so-called “healthful” foods as well as the “unhealthful.” Fasting is an accepted spiritual discipline, when connected with prayer, but “food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the better” (1 Cor. 8: nkjv). Believers who think they’re more spiritual than others because of what they eat or don’t eat need to ponder Colossians 2:16–23.
It’s likely that God declared some creatures “unclean” as a means of teaching His people to exercise discernment and to behave like a holy people in the everyday activities of life, such as eating. The same principle applies to believers today: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10: nkjv). When we give thanks and ask God’s blessing before we eat a meal, we’re not only acknowledging His faithfulness and goodness in supplying daily bread, but we’re also telling Him that we want to honor Him in what we eat and the way we eat it. The Jew who wanted to glorify God would refuse to eat anything that the Lord had forbidden.
Another factor in the dietary laws may have been that the prohibited creatures were in some way associated with the pagan worship that Israel was to avoid. The admonition about boiling a kid in its mother’s milk (Deut. 14:21; Ex. 23:19; 34:26) may fall into that category. Some scholars think this was a pagan “fertility rite” and that the milk was sprinkled on the fields to encourage bountiful crops, but we have no archeological evidence to back up this interpretation. We do know that this strange law explains why orthodox Jews do not have milk and meat together at a meal.
The list includes land animals (Deut. 14:4–8), water creatures (vv. 9–10), fowl (vv. 11–18), and flying insects (vv. 19–20). The water creatures and birds that are scavengers were prohibited, perhaps because those who ate them might pick up parasites and become ill. We remember that John the Baptist’s diet was locusts and wild honey (Lev. 11:20–23; Matt. 3:4). Finally, we must admit that we don’t know what some of these creatures were and can’t identify them with creatures we know today. For example, the hare (Deut. 14:7) certainly isn’t the same as our “rabbit” even though the NIV gives that translation. The rabbit doesn’t chew the cud, although the movements of his jaw and nostrils may look like that’s what he’s doing.
The final admonition to refrain from eating creatures found dead (v. 21) involved the important rule that Jews were not to eat blood, and there was likely blood in the carcass. Another consideration was that Jews were not to touch dead bodies because this made them unclean (Lev. 11:24–25; 22:8). If a Jew found a dead animal, he could give it to a resident alien in the land or sell it to a visitor, because neither of them would be under the jurisdiction of the Jewish law. There are some things that the people of the world can do that Christians can’t do and should not even want to do, because Christians belong to the Lord and want to obey Him. As the familiar adage says, “Others may—you cannot.” God has every right to tell us what we can have around us (Deut. 12:1–3) and what we can put within us.