You Are What You Eat
Daily Old Testament Reading: Leviticus 11-14
Daily Focus Passage: Leviticus 11
It has often been said, “You are what you eat.” This statement indicates that one’s ability to maintain health includes partaking of healthy food that provides nutrients for the body. In a spiritual sense, a believer must partake of healthy spiritual food to live in obedience and to promote spiritual health and growth. In Leviticus 11, the Lord commanded Moses to instruct the people about what food was considered clean and unclean for partaking. The importance of this chapter does not center on the food itself, but about the faithfulness to follow the ways and commands of the Lord.
THE DIETARY LAWS ARE FOR OUR BENEFIT
The dietary laws came from the Lord for the benefit of the people. The laws provided evidence that the Lord provided for the people’s physical needs as they journeyed toward the Promised Land. When the people followed the dietary laws, the people demonstrated faith in the Lord that he would provide for their needs.
We do not have the same dietary legalities as the children of Israel did while marching toward the Promise Land. In fact, in of Acts, the Lord informed Peter that the former unclean animals were no longer unclean because the Lord created them all. Like the children of Israel, we must trust in the providence and care of the Lord as we journey with him. Do you trust in the provision and care of the Lord.
THE DIETARY LAWS ARE FOR OBEDIENCE
The people had a choice concerning the dietary laws. The people could choose to follow them in faithfulness or face the consequences of not following the regulations. The act of obedience provided an opportunity of worship. Obedience reflected honor to the Lord and demonstrated an active lifestyle of worship. The laws provided the people with guidelines to live in the pursuit of holiness and faithfulness to the Lord.
We may not have dietary laws to follow from the Lord, but we do have the ways of the Lord found in His Word that we must follow. Obedience to the will, ways, and Word of the Lord allows us to worship the Lord through our lives by obeying him. At the same time, such a life of obedience mirrors the call of the apostle Paul in Romans 12, where we receive the call to present our lives as a living sacrifice as our act of worship.
THE DIETARY LAWS ARE ABOUT THE PURSUIT OF HOLINESS
The dietary laws set part of the parameters to pursue holiness. The boundaries provided the course to live in obedience or disobedience. The focus centered on the pursuit of purity and to battle against defilement. As the children of Israel journeyed toward the Promised Land and followed the Lord, they were called to live in holiness because the Lord is holy. The dietary laws present one of those areas of pursuit.
We have the same expectation. We must pursue holiness and purity before the Lord. We will not be perfect in this, but our lives need to be a constant pursuit of living in this manner. We trust that the Word of the Lord presents us with the needed parameters to pursue holiness and to live pure before the Lord. It also presents us with the hope of forgiveness when we falter.
The dietary laws may seem foreign to us today but the reality comes that we truly are what we eat. If we feast on the things of the world, then we will struggle to live in obedience to the will, ways, and Word of the Lord. What are you feasting on today? Are you pursuing holiness and purity?
