20140107 Tuesday, January 7 2014
Deuteronomy 14: You Are What You Eat

by Wayne Blank
See also 1 Year Holy Bible Reading Plan

The first human was created from the "mist" and the "dust" of the Earth (see Adam and Adamah). Every human ever since has the same composition (see The First Souls).

"2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:6-7 KJV)

The human body is about 75% water. Chemically, about 95% of body weight is composed of just four Earth elements: oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen (water is just a molecule of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen i.e. two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to a single oxygen atom, as stated in the well-known H2O equation). The remainder are lesser and trace amounts of other Earth elements such calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, magnesium, chlorine, and sulfur.

All living creatures must replenish what they are made of by consuming water and food for energy and maintenance. But does it matter what is consumed? Water is water, but would you prefer to drink from a clean spring, or from a sewer drain? Most people would surely choose water from a clean spring.

What about food then? Would you prefer a rat, rather than chicken or beef? Or, if you're a vegetarian (as all humans were until after the Flood - see Genesis 1:29 and 9:3; see also Seed-Bearing Plants: For Food Or For Folly?), would you prefer to eat poison ivy or tobacco, rather than wheat or beans? That isn't a difficult choice either, for most people.

The LORD (Who was and is Jesus Christ - see Genesis 1: In The Beginning Was The Word and The Kingdom Of The LORD God) gave His "clean" and "unclean" dietary laws as a means for humans to be healthy. It isn't about "religion."

Some creatures were designed for food, while others were designed to maintain the health of the environment by cleaning what is unclean, thereby taking upon themselves uncleanness. If you look at the general listing of the "clean" and "unclean" animals, it's based simply on what they themselves ate or were exposed to as a matter of their nature. Generally, "clean" animals, for food, are vegetarian (e.g. cattle, sheep) while "unclean" animals, for food (apart from their usefulness in nature), are either carnivorous (i.e. meat eaters e.g. wolves, dogs) or omnivorous (i.e. eat almost anything e.g. pigs, crows). For fish, those that live and feed in upper and mid-level freshest water are "clean" (e.g. trout and bass), while bottom-dwellers, where all of the natural waste and muck accumulates, are "unclean" (e.g. catfish and shellfish).

"14:1 Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 14:2 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.

14:3 Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. 14:4 These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 14:5 The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois. 14:6 And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat. 14:7 Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you. 14:8 And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.

14:9 These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat: 14:10 And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you.

14:11 Of all clean birds ye shall eat. 14:12 But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, 14:13 And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind, 14:14 And every raven after his kind, 14:15 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, 14:16 The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, 14:17 And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant, 14:18 And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.

14:19 And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten. 14:20 But of all clean fowls ye may eat.

14:21 Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk." (Deuteronomy 14:1-21 KJV)

Ancient Israel was an agriculture-based society and economy. Tithing (see Numbers 18: The Inheritance Of The Levites to understand how and why the people and the LORD tithed) was stated here in the context of the dietary laws.

"14:22 Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year. 14:23 And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always. 14:24 And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: 14:25 Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: 14:26 And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household, 14:27 And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.

14:28 At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: 14:29 And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest." (Deuteronomy 14:22-29 KJV)

Fact Finder: What gave life to physical matter? What would happen to all living creatures if that Spirit were withdrawn?
See What Makes Physical Life Possible?