Leviticus 11
Dear RTB’ers,
Question: Clean and unclean and worship… We don’t know of anything inherently bad about eating those foods that God called unclean for the Israelites. Some of those foods, in fact were staples in my childhood diet (rabbit, catfish) and today (pork). It seems to me that God was teaching them spiritual discipline. Following those “simple” food regulations might make it easier to stay away from greater temptations.
We were then asked to consider changes in their habits that God’s living among them brought about, with two New Testament references. I reflected further on God’s living among us today.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
I Peter 1:14-16
…put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24
Ever since Pentecost we have God living among us, as Jesus had promised at the Last Supper, in the person of the Holy Spirit. Our Archbishop Foley Beach asked us time and again to ask daily and multiple times daily to be filled with the Holy Spirit. …put off…, …put on…
Blessings!
See also: February 1 (2023) / Leviticus 10-12
I’ll briefly answer question 2 today, which is a relatively easy question about what the Lord commanded us when it comes to defilement. He said that it wasn’t what went into a person that defiled him (specifically eating) but what came out of him — meaning sin in all its forms. Looking up the Mark 7:14-23, Jesus specifically lists: evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. That certainly covers much of the 10 Commandments and then some. I’m not quite sure what is an “evil eye” unless it means some kind of sorcery — like wishing ill luck on others and somehow making it happen.