Topical Sermon partly on Leviticus 11
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 2/5/2022
©2022 by Maylan Schurch
(To hear the worship service containing this sermon, click the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWF6fN_svAQ
Please open your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 11.
By the way, if you like to take sermon notes, we won’t be having the usual kind of numbered sermon points today. The ideas I found didn’t seem to arrange themselves that way this week. So just settle back and open your Bibles to Leviticus 11.
This is another sermon in our “Finding God’s Heart” series, which goes along with our daily Bible reading plan. Each Sabbath I preach, I will create my sermon on one of the chapters in that week’s Bible reading plan. (You’ll find a copy of the plan on the greeters’ table, or the hallway counter, and on our website too.)
Even though it’s early February, I would encourage you to jump into that plan, and just pick it up right where we are now. There are some breathtaking things I’ve been learning as I’ve been reading along again this year.
And as I go along, I have decided to see what I can find out about the heart of God as I read, and how I can put what I’ve discovered into my life.
So as we are reading through the Bible, along came Leviticus 11 this week. This is a helpful chapter when you’re talking about some of what the Bible has to say about health.
We need to keep in mind that the Bible doesn’t have as much to say about health as, for example, medical science today. One reason is that the Bible didn’t have to say a lot about health. People were already doing a lot of healthy things, because there simply wasn’t any other option. There weren’t such things as electric bicycles, or regular bicycles, or even skateboards. No cars, of course. Most people walked a lot every day, and worked hard with their hands and their muscles–which is why God never had to prescribe exercise for people.
And God never had to urge people to stop eating refined, heavily-processed foods, because there weren’t any. People ground wheat in millstones to make coarse whole-wheat flour, without any unnatural preservatives. And since there was no refined sugar or chocolate, you didn’t have to be warned against those things.
And of course since there wasn’t any refrigeration, you couldn’t have a hamburger whenever you wanted. And there were no such things as hamburgers, since there were no meat grinders. People did eat meat, but usually only at the feasts, or if there was some other important celebration.
And I don’t think sugar even existed, the way it does now. People had honey, but they got it only rarely, when somebody discovered a beehive. And then it was gone, and you had to hunt up another beehive, and watch out for the bees (which may have involved a bit of spasmodic exercise now and then).
There was, of course, wine – both fresh-squeezed grape juice as well as the fermented kind which could get you drunk. One of the things I find disturbing among conservative Christians these days is that some are drinking alcoholic wine. Shelley and I get the magazine Christianity Today, and it’s surprising how often you hear about evangelical Christians drinking wine and beer.
Every once in a while an article will come out saying that a little wine is good for the heart, but other researchers remind us that it’s not the alcohol that’s good for the heart, but the grape juice part of the drink.
Back last June, the business magazine Forbes quoted an Oxford University study about the impact of drinking on brain health. Their conclusion was (quoting here) “No amount of drinking alcohol is safe for brain function.” The last paragraph of the study reads like this: ““No safe dose of alcohol for the brain was found,” researchers write. “Moderate consumption is associated with more widespread adverse effects on the brain than previously recognized.”
On Thursday, January 20, of this year, the World Health Federation released a policy statement saying the same thing.
And of course the Bible strongly warns against strong drink, in a number of places.
And as you know very well, our modern culture is discovering a lot of Eden-based eating principles. This happens again and again.
If you’re on our church email list, you probably saw the link I sent you this week which features Dan Buettner, the “Blue Zones” author, appearing on the popular Rachael Ray cooking program. For several years Dan has studied the areas of the world where people live the longest, and one of those areas is Loma Linda, California, where a lot of Adventists live.
In that five-minute clip, we saw a large kitchen counter on which Dan had placed examples of food eaten in those “blue zones.” Dan Buettner went from food display to food display, talking briefly about it. The last display was the Seventh-day Adventist diet. It was interesting because, for each of the previous displays, there was basically one dish with a prepared meal in it. But when it came to the Adventist display, it was larger than any other display. There on the counter were mangoes, avocados, apples, raspberries, oranges, strawberries, and four different kinds of nuts.
Talking about the Loma Linda Adventists, he said, “These people live about seven years longer than the people in the next town over. One of the reasons is it that they take their diet directly from the Bible. In Genesis it talks about the diet of the garden of Eden. ‘Every plant that bears seed’ — that’s what Adventists are mostly eating.” It was fun to hear health evangelism from someone who’s done his research. Here’s the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4MjGC-XX90
But this morning we’re going to take a close look at Leviticus 11, which talks about meat eating. Let’s dive right into the chapter, because to me, there are some surprises there.
Leviticus 11:1 – 8 NKJV: Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth: Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud—that you may eat. Nevertheless these you shall not eat among those that chew the cud or those that have cloven hooves: the camel, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you; the rock hyrax, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you; the hare, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you; and the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. They are unclean to you.
The footnotes of the Andrews Study Bible mention that the cloven hooves and cud chewing were things that people could see, which helped them quickly and easily decide which animals to eat and which to avoid. It seems that the clean animals were basically vegetarian, whereas the unclean animals were scavengers, whose systems could eat and ingest things that would be dangerous to people.
My parents served us ham until I was about eight years old. But they had just moved into an Adventist community, and they discovered that the Bible clearly says that pigs were actually unclean food. And my folks decided that if the Bible said it, they were going to follow it.
I still remember what ham tastes like, but haven’t eaten it – that I know of – since then. And of course I’ve never been tempted to try a camel steak or a rock badger burger.
Now God turns His attention to fish. (And remember, these are direct quotes from God. In fact, as we mentioned a few weeks back, these were most likely direct quotations from Jesus, since Jesus Himself seems to have been the member of the Trinity to interact with human beings throughout the Old Testament.)
So here’s what the Lord says about birds.
Verses 9 – 12: ‘These you may eat of all that are in the water: whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers—that you may eat. But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water, they are an abomination to you. They shall be an abomination to you; you shall not eat their flesh, but you shall regard their carcasses as an abomination. Whatever in the water does not have fins or scales—that shall be an abomination to you.
And again, this seems to be a matter of who are the scavengers and who are not. Who are nature’s garbage disposers, and who don’t eat nature’s garbage (decaying corpses, for example).
I wonder if you’re noticing something unusual in the verses so far, about the words God uses. God could have simply said, “Don’t eat this, don’t eat that, because they are not healthy.” But instead He uses the word “abomination.” The NIV, the ESV and the New Revised Standard Version use the word “detestable.”
Just how strong a word is that word “abomination”? It’s the Hebrew word sheqets, and another form of the word is shiqquts. That’s the word used in 1 Kings 11:5, where it says, “For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.”
It’s the same word that’s used in Deuteronomy 29:16 – 17, where Moses tells the people, “ . . .for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold . . .
So “abomination” or “detestable” is a strong word. In other words, as we’re going along a restaurant buffet line choosing what to eat, when we come across the unclean foods, our response should not so much be, “Well, guess I won’t have that one today.”
Instead—according to how God puts it in Leviticus 11–our reaction instead should be, “Yuck! Who put that out as food?” (We wouldn’t say that out loud, of course.) The way God phrases it, our reaction to unclean meat should be visceral, just the way our reaction to idol worship should be.
And the same thing holds true for the birds. It’s interesting that there are no physical characteristics like cud-chewing or cloven hooves which you can use to spot whether a bird is clean or unclean, so God just goes ahead and tells you which birds to eat in which not to.
Verses 13 – 19: ‘And these you shall regard as an abomination among the birds; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the kite, and the falcon after its kind; every raven after its kind, the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after its kind; the little owl, the fisher owl, and the screech owl; the white owl, the jackdaw, and the carrion vulture; the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.
None of these scavenger birds tempt me in the least. The only bird I ever ate a great deal of was chicken (and I think that was a clean bird), but I haven’t had a piece of chicken since I had a bad experience with a chicken wing in 1977. Quail must have been okay, because in Exodus 16 the Lord provided a whole bunch of quail for the wilderness Israelites’ supper once in awhile.
But the unclean birds, according to verse 13, have that same “abomination” Hebrew word applied to them that was applied to the detestable idolatries of the pagan nations in the land of Canaan.
So I guess, a kind of a surprise for me as I was reading through this chapter again was the intensity of feeling God wants His people to have about the things He said not to eat. It seems to be more than just “Oh, that’s not healthy.” It seems that what God is looking for is be more of a “Now that is just gross” response.
Here comes another surprise, which I was surprised about (and maybe you were too) back when you first read this chapter.
Verse 20: ‘All flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination to you.
Makes sense to me. No argument with this verse. But look at the next verses:
Verses 21 – 23: Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth. These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind. But all other flying insects which have four feet shall be an abomination to you.
Back when I was a kid in the Seventh-day Adventist one-room elementary school I attended, one of the other kids came to school one day and asked us if we had heard about chocolate-covered grasshoppers.
Naturally, the rest of us were horrified. But the teacher chuckled and said, “But grasshoppers are clean to eat.” The kid who had told us about them said that he had even eaten one, in California, and that it tasted pretty good – mainly because of the chocolate – but it was a bit crunchy.
Do you know what to me is the most precious word in the verses we just read? It’s the word “may.” Take verses 21 and 22 for example: “Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth. These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind.”
Did you catch my “most precious word”? It’s the word “may.” If God had said, “These you shall eat,” and went on to list all those insects, this would mean that my brain would need a serious reboot. I know that some cultures are probably fine with gnawing away on the occasional croclet, but not my culture.
When I study for my sermons, I always study from four Bible versions – the New King James, the New International Version, the English Standard Version, and the New Revised Standard Version, in addition to the Hebrew or Greek. Last night I looked at each of those English versions, and they all use the word “may” and not “shall.” So this means that John the Baptist can munch on all the locusts he can eat, but I don’t have to.
So, let’s see if we can bring this chapter home to February 5, 2022 this morning. This is where what I found most surprising in this chapter comes in.
As the chapter goes on, it talks about avoiding touching the carcasses of these unclean animals, and what to do if you accidentally do this. It mentions how reptiles are unclean, and the mole and the mouse. But then comes what I considered another surprise. Let’s start with verse 44.
Verses 44 – 45: For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the LORD who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
To me, this is surprising – yet it shouldn’t be. God is firmly shouldering His way into an area we might’ve assumed was up to us to decide about. But God not only says, “Don’t eat pork, and be choosy about the insects you decide to lunch on.” He comes right out and says that food choices are a matter of holiness.
“Holiness” is another important Hebrew word. It’s the word qadosh, and it’s the exact same word used in Exodus 19:6, where God says to the Israelites, “And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” It’s the exact same word which is used in the earlier and later parts of Leviticus to refer to the Holy Place in the tabernacle.
So knowing this, what do we do now? Specifically, what do we do with Leviticus 11? How can we bring its spirit, its principals, right alongside us as we walk out of the sanctuary today?
Well, I believe that we need to let the Lord remind us of what holiness is. A major meaning of that Hebrew word qadosh is “separate, set apart.” When God asked us to be holy, He asked us to be “set apart” from the average human being. Think about all of the Bible characters we name our children after, and you’ll find that most if not all of them had to step aside – spiritually, and even physically sometimes – from their culture, to stop traveling the world’s way and start traveling God’s way, to God’s destinations.
Noah had to build a boat, and preach while he built it. All the people laughed at him, until the sky grew dark and cloudy.
Abraham had to move his entire family and farmhands and servants and animals all the way from Iraq to Palestine. Talk about ultimate separation.
Joseph had to separate himself from the unholy attitudes of his brothers.
Joshua and Caleb had to separate themselves from the negative attitudes of the other spies when they gave their Canaan reconnaissance report.
Samuel served the Lord in the literal “holy place” of the temple, yet had to separate himself from the careless, immoral attitudes of high priest Eli’s sons.
Daniel and his three friends had to separate themselves from the worship practices—and even the eating practices–of the pagan nation where they were held captive. Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego had to be willing to stand calmly upright on their feet amid acres and acres of people flat on their faces.
Glance back at verse 44: For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy . . . .
Do you see that word “consecrate”? That’s the verb form of the word for “holy.” So God is really saying, “Separate yourselves (holy-fy yourselves), and you shall be holy.”
This principle really came through powerfully to me this week. As far as Leviticus 11 goes, I believe that I’ve separated myself from eating unclean flesh food. I haven’t even eaten meat, period, since about 1982. So maybe this can be an opportunity for us to examine our eating practices, and align them more with what the Lord wants.
As you probably know, the last couple of verses of Genesis 1 state that every creature in the garden of Eden, both human and animal, was vegan. Not just vegetarian – they were vegan. God’s diet did not prescribe cow’s milk or chicken eggs. It was the Dan Buettner Loma Linda diet which I saw on display in Rachael Ray’s kitchen.
And as the Bible goes along, it sends a stronger and stronger signals that in heaven, we can scrap the meat regulations because we won’t be eating meat. Isaiah 65:25 quotes the Lord as saying, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, The lion shall eat straw like the ox . . . . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain.”
But it goes well beyond flesh food. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” In that verse is in the context of being careful to be sensitive to others who might right now have different lifestyles than you do.
And of course, this is a matter of the heart. Because everything we do and the way we do it leads either to holiness or unholiness. It’s a heart matter. In one of His most vulnerable moments, God says to Moses, in Deuteronomy 5:29, “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!”
I don’t know about you, but I want to say to God, “I want that heart, Lord.” Would you like to say that too? Raise your hand if that’s your desire.