“Do not eat any detestable thing.”
-Deuteronomy 14:3
Right off the bat from verse 3, the Lord sets the tone for the content that is to quickly follow.
No Israelite is to eat anything disgusting or abominable.
The original Hebrew being used here is TO-EVAH.
TO-EVAH is a particularly strong Hebrew term and in Scripture is applied only to those things that are especially unclean, unholy or unlawful.
This is a word reserved for the worst of the worst of those things that are the most displeasing to God AND…
…have absolutely no place in the life of one who claims he or she is a follower of the God of Israel.
To that point, let me remind you of another principle the ancient Jewish sages have properly understood concerning the kosher food laws.
Just because something is edible and able to be digested does NOT make it food.
Got it?
This is one of those areas where the Jewish mindset clashes with the gentile way of thinking, a mindset which always has to find a scientific reason behind everything.
So let me say that again.
From a Scriptural perspective, just because something can technically be eaten, does not make it legitimate food.
If you think about it, there’s a lot of things that are technically edible that we don’t consider to be food, like earthworms for example.
Or mice or rats.
Would you fry up a rat for dinner?
It’s technically edible, so why not?
You’re probably thinking…“GROSS!”…right?
Well, it works exactly the same way in Scripture.
Biblically declared “unclean foods” were not even spoken of or even classified as “food”.
Period.
It may have been edible, but to the ancient Hebrews, it was NOT FOOD.
The term “food” wasn’t even applicable to any item the Lord had declared unclean.
I’m done.
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