D14-7: The Kosher Food Laws Have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING To Do With Health And Hygiene

Before we dive into the details of God’s Kosher food rules as outlined in Deuteronomy 14, there’s something really important I need to make sure you understand.

Although I’ve spoken about this before, I intend to drive the point home today with an unstoppable explosive force that will result in a crystal clear level of clarity we have not yet achieved on this topic.

So here goes.

I hereby affirm unequivocally and unyieldingly that the kosher laws of clean and unclean foods that the Lord established…

…have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH HYGIENIC OR HEALTH REASONS.

Got it?

Any dietary or health benefits one might seem to get from following a kosher diet is completely secondary to the REAL REASON behind why God declared some foods fit for consumption and others not so.

The notion being promoted today by all those Hebrew Roots teachers and their ridiculous Youtube documentaries that the foods listed as clean are in and of themselves healthier than the list of unclean foods is super booooooool sheeeeeeeet.

That theory simply doesn’t bear itself out in reality.

Now I’m not saying that the Lord won’t bless you with good health for following a Biblically Kosher diet.

He may very well reward you with good health for being obedient to His Torah.

But understand such health blessings have nothing to do with any innate or inherent quality of the food.

I’ve said this before but look at the Japanese.

They have literally perfected the art of un-kosher cuisine.

Restaurants that serve pork and bottom-feeders are all over the friggin’ place here in Japan (I currently live in Tokyo). 

Yet the Japanese are famous for having extraordinarily healthy and long life spans in spite of subsisting heavily on a diet of unclean foods that the Bible specifically bans.

Or how about the Chinese?

They eat animals that have paws (yeah, you read that right).

These creatures are specifically forbidden for food by the Scriptures.

Yet there isn’t any evidence that the Chinese live shorter lives than someone who follows a Kosher diet.

So let’s get this straight for all time and forever.

The idea that the list of biblically kosher foods was based on hygiene and health is just plain WRONG.

Apparently, this notion was first promoted by some famous Jewish physicians during the Middle Ages.

Nevertheless, the idea has very little basis in reality.

Now that I’ve gotten that point out of the way, let’s get down to the REAL REASON why the Lord established the Kosher laws.

It’s actually pretty simple when one reads the Scriptures minus any presuppositions.

The ONLY REASON why God required Israel to eat Kosher is because Israel was to be holy AND…

…keeping God’s dietary laws was one of the ways they maintained their holiness when done in a spirit of trusting and loving Him.

That’s it.

That’s the only reason.

The Kosher food laws (as well as all the other commandments in Torah) are a reflection of God’s holiness.

Period.

When a believer eats as God has commanded him to eat, he or she is in some mysterious way reflecting God’s holiness as established in the heavens.

And the same thing could be said for the other areas of a believer’s life.

When a believer’s sexual activity is kept restricted to the boundaries established by God’s commands, he is reflecting the Lord’s pure and perfect holiness.

Or when a believer treats his fellow man in the way the Scriptures instruct that he should, he is properly mimicking his Father in Heaven. 

What’s interesting is that there are some sections in the Tanach where the Canaanites decided to adopt some of Israel’s agricultural food laws.

However, their motivation for doing so had nothing to do with loving and trusting the God of Israel.

They saw how God had blessed Israel with abundant crop yields and they selfishly wanted the same for themselves.

In other words, they were attempting to mimic the holy for material gain.

And the truth is, by letting their fields rest every seven years per the Torah command, they certainly may have gained a stronger or more abundant crop yield.

But in no way was God’s holiness imparted to them nor did they receive any spiritual blessings from God simply because they were obeying the commands meant for Israel in a mechanical fashion minus any really trust or knowledge in God.

This is really important to understand.

It is obeying God’s commands PLUS trusting Him and loving Him that’s important.

Both are important.

Merely mechanically obeying God’s commands minus trusting Him won’t cut it.

And merely loving God in your mind minus actually keeping His physical commands like the Christians with their “Jesus did away the Law BS” won’t cut it either.

BOTH ARE NECESSARY.

Got it?

Here’s another really important thing you’ve got to understand.

If you’ve heard or learned this before, well then consider this to be a good reminder.

NOTHING in this universe (or any other universe for that matter) has inherent holiness but the God of Israel.

Every procedure…

…or priestly ritual…

…or animal…

…or instrument or object…

…or instruction from God…

are only holy because God has declared them to be holy.

And those things ONLY MAINTAIN THEIR HOLINESS WHEN USED IN THE PROPER CONTEXT AS GOD HAS INSTRUCTED WE DO.

Nothing in this world but the Lord has inherent holiness.

And that includes believers.

You, as a follower of the true God of Israel and one who has attached him or herself to Messiah Yeshua, are holy only because God has declared you to be HOLY.

It has nothing to do with your works or because you keep his commands or eat kosher or whatever.

You obey the Law because HASHEM has declared you holy, NOT to acquire holiness.

Again, it is impossible to acquire holiness.

Only God can declare you holy.

I’m starting to repeat myself here, so let’s close.

To conclude, just understand that the reason behind the division and separation of food into clean and unclean is because they are a reflection of God’s holiness as established in the heavens.

That’s the only proper and logical reason you’re gonna get from the Scriptures.

And don’t ask me why God declared some animals clean and others not so.

I don’t know why and neither does anybody else in the universe.

God has declared it so and I accept it.

What I can say is holy things are only intended for holy people.

If you are a faithful follower of the Lord, then you have been declared holy.

If so, then live holy by obeying HASHEM’s commands.

The result will be blessings both in this world and the next.

I’m done.