To Eat Or Not To Eat

One day while I was driving home, I stopped my car to observe a crow eating the remains of what was left of the carcass of a dead squirrel lying in the road. I have seen this scene many number of times with other types of scavengers and with other types of dead creatures’. We have all at one time or other noticed the natural function of birds and animals and how they are designed to clean up our environment. This function of how wildlife behaves is very natural to us and we would not think it to be unusual. But why is this natural? Is this the function of some evolutionary process? If there were a natural process in which our environment behaves then one would have to wonder if there is anywhere else in our universe where this kind of “care for the environment” is occurring. It is easy to see that these creatures do what they do naturally and that they are programmed to function as they do. To carry this thought further, if this function of scavengers is to operate on the land as they do, then is it far fetched to think that cleaning up our waterways would undergo the same scrutiny? If the laws of nature operate this way in one instance, then I would have to believe they would function the same way in the other.

Otherwise, our environment would be chaos .

I bought a new Ford pickup truck and it included an important document on the care of my vehicle, called “owners instruction manual”. If the manufacture of a vehicle would think it necessary to issue an instruction manual, then it would be natural for our creator God and Father to have done the same. God has given us instructions in the Bible to instruct His children how to receive blessings and keep ourselves in good health. He wanted us to understand that His creation is perfect and He gives us information on His health laws that we would never find out on our own.

There was a time when the nation of Israel was in bondage in Egypt and had forgotten God’s law. After the Exodus we can read of the establishment of the law, including the laws pertaining to our flesh bodies in maintaining good health. We can read of His dietary laws in Leviticus the eleventh chapter and in Deuteronomy the fourteenth chapter. Some say that these laws are done away because of one reason or another. If these laws are done away, that would mean that God lied to His people concerning what we call clean and unclean food. Food that would be fit for or unfit for human consumption .We have the same body as they did and if these dietary laws were not good for the nation then, how could they be good for us now?

Deut. 14:3, “Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing”.

These are pretty strong words. God wanted to keep His people in good health and be an example to other nations that they would come in contact with.

Deut. 14:8, “ And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet not cheweth the cud, it is unclean unto you; you shall not eat their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass”. Verse 9, ‘These you may eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat”: verse 19, “ and whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean to you.

The subject of Gods instruction concerning clean and unclean food carries through in the New Testament also.

Acts 10:11, “And ( Peter ) saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto Him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth”. Verse 12, “ wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things , and fouls of the air”. Verse 13, “ And there came a voice unto him “ Rise, Peter; kill and eat”. Verse 14, “ but Peter said, not so Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean”. Verse 19, “ while Peter thought on this vision, the spirit said unto him, Behold three men seek thee”.

Peter knew that God didn’t change any of His dietary laws but that the Gentiles who were thought to be unclean by the Jews were now part of the same following as Peter.

Verse 34,“ Then Peter opened His mouth, and said, “ Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons”: Verse 35, ‘ But in every nation he that feareth Him. And worketh His righteousness, is accepted with him”.

The lowering of the sheet with unclean creatures in it was God’s way of telling Peter that all people are God’s children. That is the subject of the tenth chapter of Acts, that whosoever wants to draw close to God is welcomed and received. There is no one who have a priority over someone else. A second witness to that statement is found in the Psalms.

Psalms 107:43, “Whoso is wise and observe these things, even they will understand the loving kindness of the lord.”

The Apostle Paul instructs Timothy on this subject also.

1st Tim. 4:2, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils”; Verse 2 “ speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron”; verse 3, “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats ( food ) which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth”.

God didn’t create all of His creation to be good for the diet of man, only those foods which God created to be received. Some were created to clean up our environment including our waters as well as on our land.

Verse 4, “for every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer”.

The creature in this verse is created by God for a specific purpose. Creature is the word ktisma in Hebrew and means that it was created for a specific purpose by its creator. The word refused is apobole in the Hebrew and means cast off or reject as in elimination of any of God’s creatures from our natural environment

When we go to the word of God for answers, the subject of clean or unclean food is made very clear. Some of God’s creation is fit for our consumption and some of God’s creation is designed for cleaning up our environment.

We who live in the United States of America are lucky to be living in one of the wealthiest nations of the world and yet we have more than our share of sickness, more hospitals, health practitioners and drugs, yet the human body isn’t as durable as it could be.

I’m sure our instruction manual, the Bible, enforces the cause and effect laws. ( To be continued in part 2).

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