Sola Scriptura-13

Why don’t pastors/shepherds ever teach that Jesus did not abolish the Law? Is it because we are too accustomed to ignoring many elements of the Law that we think don’t apply to us? Which ones are most often ignored or simply considered culturally and historically trapped in history but not in our ‘modern’ society? We will do a brief review of the ‘clean’ laws.

Moses and Aaron were told God’s Laws and commanded to keep them, all of them. How serious is God about keeping His Laws, Commandments, and Statutes?

Leviticus 10:8  The LORD then spoke to Aaron, saying, 10:9  "Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die—it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations— 10:10  and so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean, 10:11  and so as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them through Moses."

Clearly there are both clean and unclean elements of every society, just as there are holy and unholy/profane elements. The nations surrounding the ‘Promised Lane’ were neither clean or holy.

The entire chapter 11 in Leviticus is devoted to clean and unclean animals. God created both, so how can some be unclean? This could be also considered unhealthy. The animals, fish, birds, and other creatures that are not clean are God’s garbage cleaners. We have heard of fish being bottom feeders. What does that suggest? To keep the earth clean and viable, the ‘garbage and refuse’ needs to be taken care of and removed. Some simply decay, but others are consumed by animals specifically created to digest them. What about buzzards and vultures? Don’t we often see them on the side of the road eating ‘road kill’? This is just one example. God is not arbitrary or confusing.

Leviticus 11:44  'For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. 

11:45  'For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.'" 

11:46  This is the law regarding the animal and the bird, and every living thing that moves in the waters and everything that swarms on the earth, 11:47  to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, and between the edible creature and the creature which is not to be eaten. 

Another example that many may have heard is when someone is called acting squirelly. What does this mean? It is a fast movement, jittery or, twitchy actions much like a squirrel. Squirrels are full of parasites, parasites that often find their way to the brain. People who eat squirrel often begin to show this behavior. Even though the squirrels are cooked, it doesn’t kill the parasites.

Pigs are also full of parasites and all kinds of toxins. They don’t sweat, they have a single stomach and therefore cannot adequately digest food, unlike cattle who have two stomachs. Pigs eat anything. Even when you try to feed them ‘cattle’ feed, the problems remain. So if parasites survive cooking in squirrels, it would seem reasonable that they may also survive cooking in beef.

Does God want to withhold good things from us or protect us from bad/unhealthy things? Well both! Since God created all creatures, He alone can tell us which are best for us.

How serious is God about keeping His Laws?

Levitus 10:1  Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. 10:2  And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 

10:3  Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the LORD spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.'" So Aaron, therefore, kept silent. 

10:4  Moses called also to Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, "Come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp." 10:5  So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had said. 10:6  Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the LORD has brought about. 10:7  "You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for the LORD'S anointing oil is upon you." So they did according to the word of Moses. 

10:8  The LORD then spoke to Aaron, saying, 10:9  "Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die—it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations— 10:10  and so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean, 10:11  and so as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them through Moses." 

God repeated His warnings and so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean,  and so as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them through Moses.

Aaron watched as two of his sons died by fire from the LORD. He was not allowed to show any mourning. Keeping God’s commandments applies to all, even to Aaron’s sons.

More next Saturday.