If GOD tells us how to eat in the bible, why do MEN now say we can eat as we please, i.e., pork, shellfish, etc.? Doesn’t it please GOD anymore to live like He told us to from the beginning?
Janice Zuliani |
Actually, this may seem to be a simple question but, in fact, it is not.
God does not tell us exactly how to eat in the Bible. What the Bible does say is that there are certain foods that are clean and certain ones that are unclean. Deuteronomy 14: 3-21 gives us a list of the animals, fish and birds that are considered clean and those that are considered unclean, including the statement in verse 21 that “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
This is basically all the Torah has to say about what you can eat, i.e., what is considered clean and what is considered unclean. It remained for the Rabbis to interpret the simple injunction in the Torah. So, the statement “you shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk” is interpreted to not eat meat and milk dishes together. Don’t prepare meat dishes in the same vessels in which you prepare milk dishes, etc. It is very complicated and, of course, your question is what of it, how much of it are we required or obligated to observe today. The answer to the question is actually “none.”
In Acts 10, when Peter is at Joppa and sees the vision of a great sheet being let down in which there were all manner of fowl and beasts, a voice from Heaven said, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” And Peter objected, saying he had never eaten anything that was common or unclean. And, then the voice spoke to him a second time and said, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.”
I believe that there are certain foods that are nourishing and good and certain foods that it would probably be better if we didn’t eat. Of course, it depends upon the individual, too, as some people suffer from food allergies and others can eat anything. So, I think the bottom line here is to use common sense, but as far as one being condemned by what they eat or what they don’t eat, that is another subject. Quite frankly, I don’t think that God cares one way or another, as long as whatever you do – whether it be with meat or drink – that you do all as unto the Lord.
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