PH 3-minute Bible teaching
The Bible diet
This week, our “You Asked for It” question was a great one about the Old Testament dietary laws. Are we picking and choosing which parts of the Bible we want to follow if we don’t keep those statutes and say, “Well that was for them way back then, but not for us?” And if not, what do you say to those who accuse otherwise?
The truth is that there is great wisdom and meaning in these pages of the Old Testament if we’re willing to seek it. Here’s a clip from it that I hope will challenge you. If you want the audio-only version, click here.
If you want to see the full sermon associated with this clip, you can find it here.
Transcript: The Bible diet
Wed, Nov 8, 2023 : Peter Heck
(Begin transcript)
It may seem silly, but a certain diet sets people apart. And you know that if I said, what group of people are meat eaters, you would tell me? Carnivore. So it's like one person that knows what a carnivore is right? You see somebody tearing into a rack of ribs. You got yourself a carnivore right there. That's what that is.
If I said to you, somebody, a group of people that don't eat meat, you tell me they are vegetarians, right? And if I said this other group of people…what did you say? Herbivore? Maybe we shouldn't do the crowd participation thing.
If this is a person that doesn't eat anything from animals, which means no fish, no eggs, those people are? Vegans. Did you say miserable? Totally agree. They, they are vegans, right? So this is, you see how this works. A certain diet will set apart a certain group of people now go with me on this, you go back into this era. And when you had people that wouldn't eat bacon, what did they all realize they were? Oh, that's a follower of Yahweh. It set them apart. That's the key.
That's the reason behind, the goal of these diet laws. Their diet set them apart as His people that everybody else would recognize. God does this all the time. He gives physical signs that help his people understand things or remember things. The rainbow we remember God's promised to never destroy the earth for its depravity. We celebrate communion, we just did. Why? To remember Jesus's sacrifice on the cross. That's why this church does it weekly. The early church did it.
Circumcision was a physical sign that reminded the people of God's covenant with Abraham to bless all humanity through him and his lineage. All of those were meant to remind God's people of his nature and his covenants with man. And I'm going to suggest to you that his demands to have a pure diet reminded those Israelites daily that God's very essence was purity, and he took purity very seriously. This is what they would have thought following all of these laws. If God has these kinds of expectations on my food, I worship a God that is very serious about purity.
Addie is obsessive about the gluten in her diet. Like everything she looks at, the ingredients on the whole thing. Does this have gluten in it? She's always looking to see if it's there. People who are on a keto diet, they do the same thing. You know anybody on a keto diet? Very high fats, no carbs. They're always looking at the ingredients is this have any carbs in it? I can't have too many carbs. My father in law who had heart surgery, low sodium diet, he's constantly calling Jenny to sneak him some sodium because Ann is like a, anyway, you have to follow that strict diet. Bingo.
God’s nation is obsessive about purity, which is exactly what he desired. He put the Israelites on an impurity free diet. And the lesson for us. To me when I read the passage in Leviticus is this is a God who's serious about purity. He expects the same of me.
(End transcript)