Deuteronomy 14:1-21 - Keeping the Law

Deuteronomy 14:1-21

Improper Mourning

1 “You are the children of the LORD your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. 2 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Clean and Unclean Meat (Leviticus 11:1–47)

3 “You shall not eat any detestable thing. 4 These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. 7 Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you. 8 Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses.

9 “These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales. 10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

11 “All clean birds you may eat. 12 But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, 13 the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds; 14 every raven after its kind; 15 the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds; 16 the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, 17 the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, 18 the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.

19 “Also every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.

20 “You may eat all clean birds.

21 “You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the LORD your God.

“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

These various ceremonial laws taught the children of God to discern good from evil as their discernment had been marred by the fall into sin in Eden’s Garden and they had to learn from God (Hebrews 5:14) how to tell the difference.  We are the same today, born with a fallen nature at enmity with our Creator and needing not various laws to adhere to in order to redeem ourselves from sin, but to come to the only one who ever kept all the laws perfectly on our behalf to redeem us by the selfless sacrifice of His own lifeblood on the cross of our curse of sin staining our souls.  Since we are also part of a holy people to our Lord, we need not concern ourselves with these laws which were to teach us to look to the Lord Christ to come Galatians 3:19, 22-23, 24-25) to find peace with God that can only be attained in Christ (Romans 5:1) and no system of religion to work ourselves to His acceptance.  We are accepted in the Beloved, beloved!  We work out the salvation we have been given by follow the moral laws of God from the heart now, not to earn our place but to please the one who chose and called us (Titus 2:14) out of darkness into his (2 Corinthians 4:6, Acts 26:18, 1 Peter 2:9-10) marvelous and indescribable light of hope as a special treasure to Him, eager to please Him and willingly following His word inscribed on our hearts with joy beyond description.  We find His Spirit now teaches us to discern the clean from unclean in our hearts, minds, and desires (and not merely in our food choices) as no rule ever could entirely or effectively.  The only prohibition that remains in place was given to the early believers and us (Acts 15:24, 29) that we do not eat what is offered to idols or the lifeblood of those sacrifices since our sacrifice [and sexual immorality since it betrays our commitment of marriage which is a reflection of the church and Christ - Ephesians 5:32] is only Jesus Christ and only His lifeblood cleanses us from (1 John 1:9) all unrighteousness.  Our righteousness is Christ’s and we are found blameless in him alone (James 2:10), He who kept every point of the Law (Matthew 5:17, Romans 10:4) that we might come to Christ by faith and stop striving to become right with God on our own efforts in keeping the Law (Romans 3:23, 6:23, Titus 3:5, 6) that we are incapable of doing.  True keeping of the Law then is believing the gospel (John 5:24, Mark 1:15, 1 John 5:13) and receiving the person and work of God’s Son who kept every word given us as only the Divine could do.