Get Your Grub On-

Leviticus 11

Do you ever look at a certain animals and think of it as disgusting. Maybe it is like a snake or even a rat and it just makes your stomach turn. Most people can look at a dog and think how cute, while others can look at a pig and call it a pig. The priests were given instructions on what animals were considered clean and unclean. The difference were which ones they were able to touch and which ones they were able to eat.

What is Kosher?

Israel was able to eat the certain animals that chew the cud and have cloven footed hoofs that is “Grade A” ok to eat. But you can not eat certain animals that chew the cud but do not have cloven footed hoofs. Cud is the food that returns from the stomach a 2nd time around. The animal will chew on the digested food and re-digest it again, sounds very exciting. They needed to have a hoof that was cloven footed   The example of the animals that you could not eat would be a camel, rock badger, the hare (rabbit), and the pig.

You can even eat certain things that are in the water that have fins and scales (fish). You can not eat those that are in the water that do not have fins and do not have scales. 

God then gives what birds you should not eat. The birds that are described are ones that eat flesh. God wanted them to stay away from that and even bats. They are detestable and should not be eaten or touched.

The insects that are winged and walk on all fours except for grasshoppers, locust, or the cricket. You can get your grub on with those, yummy yummy.  I went to Cambodia for about a month and a family wanted to serve cricket soup to us. I am thankful that we had other plans that evening and I did not have to go on the fear factor challenge of cricket soup. 

Now you need to stay away from the swarming things, which would be mole rat, mouse, lizard, gecko, and chameleon. Don’t forget the snakes which crawl on its belly. These are the animals that are clean and can be touched and could be eaten and the ones that can not be touched or not eaten. God set the rules up for a reason. Some of them my be customs, some may be even sanitary, and others for the purpose of what other animals or just scary. God placed these for a purpose for Israel to follow.

We need to follow certain cleanliness rules as well. The Bible tells us that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit (1st Corinthians 6:19). We were bought at a high price in which we could never pay our debt. We are called to keep our minds pure as well as what we do with our bodies. It is easy to become legalistic but what matters is that we know that we are called to be pure and flee from sexual immorality. What is considered clean and unclean to you?