Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 483 | Eat This, Not That

Transcript

483 | Eat This, Not That · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  God is in control.
• 0:05
  She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman
• 0:10
  at the Well Ministries, where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus
• 0:15
  like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
• 0:18
  Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
• 0:21
  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
• 0:25
  or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
• 0:31
  to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
• 0:37
  Living her life for Christ She's a happy girl.
• 0:38
  Music.
• 0:48
  She's a happy girl.
• 1:02
  Have you ever wondered why God gave the Israelites specific rules about what
• 1:07
  they could and couldn't eat?
• 1:09
  Deuteronomy chapter 14 might seem like just a list of do's and don'ts,
• 1:13
  but at its heart, it carries a powerful message.
• 1:16
  God calls his people to be distinct and set apart for himself.
• 1:21
  This chapter begins with a bold reminder. You are the children of the Lord your God.
• 1:26
  It's a profound truth. We are chosen, created, and deeply loved by God.
• 1:31
  With this identity comes a call to live differently than those around us,
• 1:35
  from the way we grieve, to the food we consume, and even in how we manage our resources.
• 1:40
  While we no longer follow the dietary laws of the Old Testament,
• 1:43
  the underlying message remains unchanged.
• 1:46
  God's desire is that our lives clearly reflect our relationship with Him.
• 1:50
  We are called to holiness, not merely by following rules, but by letting our
• 1:54
  actions demonstrate our love and commitment to God.
• 1:57
  Join us in this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast as Erica
• 2:01
  Close explores Deuteronomy chapter 14, centering on verse 2.
• 2:06
  For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen
• 2:11
  thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations that are upon the earth.
• 2:16
  Let's discover together how God's call to holiness and distinct living is just
• 2:21
  as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.
• 2:25
  Join with me as we hop right into Deuteronomy chapter 14.
• 2:30
  Ye are the children of the Lord your God, ye shall not cut yourselves nor make
• 2:34
  any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
• 2:36
  For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen
• 2:41
  thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
• 2:47
  Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. These are the beasts which ye shall
• 2:52
  eat, the ox, the sheep, and the goat,
• 2:55
  the heart, the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat,
• 2:58
  and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois, and every beast that parteth
• 3:03
  the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the
• 3:06
  beasts, that ye shall eat.
• 3:09
  Nevertheless these ye shall not eat, of them that chew the cud,
• 3:12
  or of them that divide the cloven hoof, as the camel, the hare, and the coney.
• 3:16
  For they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof, therefore they are unclean unto you.
• 3:22
  And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud,
• 3:26
  it is unclean unto you, ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass.
• 3:32
  These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters, all that have fins and scales
• 3:36
  shall ye eat, and whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat, it is unclean unto you.
• 3:42
  Of all clean birds ye shall eat, but these are they of which ye shall not eat,
• 3:47
  the eagle, the osifrage, and the osprey, and the gleed, and the kite,
• 3:51
  and the vulture after his kind,
• 3:53
  and every raven after his kind,
• 3:55
  and the owl and the nighthawk and the cow and the hawk after his kind,
• 4:00
  and the little green owl and the great owl and the swan and the pelican and
• 4:04
  the gear-eagle and the cormorant, and the stork and the heron after her kind,
• 4:09
  and the lapwing and the bat.
• 4:11
  And every creeping thing that flyeth is unclean unto you, they shall not be eaten.
• 4:15
  But of all clean fowls ye may eat.".
• 4:19
  He shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself. Thou shalt give it unto the
• 4:23
  stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it unto
• 4:27
  an alien, for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God.
• 4:31
  Thou shalt not seed a kid in his mother's milk.
• 4:34
  Thou shalt truly tithe the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.
• 4:41
  And thou shalt eat before the
• 4:42
  Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose to place his name there,
• 4:47
  the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, of thy oil, and the firstlings of thy herds
• 4:52
  and of thy flocks, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always.
• 4:57
  And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it,
• 5:01
  or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to
• 5:05
  set his name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee,
• 5:09
  then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand,
• 5:12
  and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose.
• 5:16
  And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after,
• 5:21
  for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink,
• 5:24
  or for whatsoever thy soul desireth, and thou shalt eat there before the Lord
• 5:29
  thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thine household.
• 5:33
  And the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him,
• 5:37
  for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.
• 5:41
  At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithes.
• 5:46
  Of thine increase, the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates.
• 5:50
  And the Levite, because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,
• 5:54
  and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow which are within thy gates,
• 5:58
  shall come and shall eat and be satisfied, that the Lord thy God may bless thee
• 6:04
  in the work of thine hand which thou doest.
• 6:08
  Can we just go ahead and call this the meat chapter.
• 6:12
  There are many chapters in the Old Testament that are just chock full of commands.
• 6:17
  Traditionally, it's said that there are 613 laws in the Jewish law.
• 6:22
  248 of the laws instruct the Israelites to do something, while 365 are things they should not do.
• 6:29
  Chapter 14 of Deuteronomy has a mix of do's and don'ts, and like every Old Testament
• 6:34
  law, the commands in this chapter are designed to demonstrate the need for a
• 6:38
  Savior and the need to be a people set apart for Him.
• 6:42
  Chapter 14 is bold in its opening. It opens with this phrase,
• 6:47
  You are the children of the Lord your God.
• 6:49
  That single phrase is full of truth.
• 6:53
  Moses was telling the Israelites that they were God's children.
• 6:56
  They were His family. They were owned by Him.
• 6:59
  They were created as a nation by Him. They were loved by Him,
• 7:03
  and they were created individually by him.
• 7:06
  This opening phrase sets the stage or the tone for all of the instructions that are to follow.
• 7:12
  In the rest of chapter 14, verse one, the scripture talks about a specific way
• 7:18
  that the Israelites were commanded to be different than all the nations that were around them.
• 7:23
  It was a practice of those around the Israelites to cut themselves in their grief.
• 7:28
  Verse one says, you shall not cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
• 7:34
  Literally, don't cut yourself or shave your hair in a time of mourning.
• 7:40
  This practice was superstitious. There was a belief that harming oneself or
• 7:44
  spilling one's blood appeased other gods, but that was not God's plan for his people.
• 7:50
  They were to dedicate their bodies to the Lord and not to disfigure it.
• 7:55
  God's desire was for their grief to turn them to him and not to harm. program.
• 8:01
  The end of verse 1 is sandwiched between the powerful opening phrase,
• 8:05
  ye are the children of the Lord your God, and a verse, verse 2,
• 8:08
  that lays out who the Israelites are to be in light of that truth.
• 8:12
  They are to be a holy people, dedicated unto the Lord because the Lord himself
• 8:17
  chose them to be a peculiar people unto himself.
• 8:20
  They are a people that God himself set above all the nations on the earth.
• 8:25
  What's key in this verse is that God selected these people to become his peculiar.
• 8:29
  People. They were not chosen because they were the most obedient or dedicated,
• 8:34
  but because of the love he had for them.
• 8:36
  It was the love of a father for his children, and God's family was to be set
• 8:40
  apart for him, qualified by him, and made holy by him.
• 8:46
  Verses 1 and 2 set the stage for the rest of the chapter.
• 8:50
  Just like they were to set themselves apart in their mourning,
• 8:53
  the Israelites were to set themselves apart in what meat they consumed.
• 8:57
  Here, in verse 3, Moses is reminding them of the law given in Leviticus concerning
• 9:03
  the meat that they could eat.
• 9:04
  Many of the nations around the Israelites ate some of the meat that's on the do not eat list.
• 9:11
  They were instructed to abstain from that meat for religious purposes because
• 9:16
  in doing so, it set them apart.
• 9:18
  God's whole purpose here is to demonstrate that the Israelites were different.
• 9:23
  We know that God's whole purpose was to set the Israelites apart because many
• 9:27
  of the animals listed here were eaten by those around them.
• 9:30
  So this commandment will cause the Israelites to just look different in a crowd.
• 9:35
  We're not going to exhaust the list of beasts, fish, and birds that the Israelites were able to eat.
• 9:41
  We read about those in verses 4 through 20 because it's a really long list.
• 9:45
  And also because those of us that live on this side of the cross are not subject
• 9:49
  to the same meat restrictions.
• 9:51
  We live under the grace that's shared in the New Testament. Take a look at 1
• 9:56
  Timothy 4.4 and Acts 10.15.
• 9:59
  Just like the Israelites were referred to as a peculiar people chosen unto himself, we are also.
• 10:06
  1 Peter 2.9 says, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
• 10:12
  and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of
• 10:17
  Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
• 10:21
  We may not be called to abstain from specific meets, but we are certainly called
• 10:26
  to look different in a crowd.
• 10:29
  As we move to the close of this chapter, we're given another hint as to the
• 10:33
  intent of God's prohibition of certain meats.
• 10:37
  Verse 21 speaks to the fact that if an animal died on its own,
• 10:41
  the Israelites weren't to eat it, but that they could give it or sell it to
• 10:44
  a stranger or an alien, meaning someone who wasn't an Israelite.
• 10:47
  The meat was safe to eat, but the Israelites had specific requirements to not
• 10:52
  eat the blood of any animal.
• 10:54
  This, again, marked the Israelites as set apart, because their neighbors did
• 10:59
  eat the blood of animals.
• 11:01
  Verse 21 also talks about seething a kid, a young goat, in its mother's milk.
• 11:07
  Since cooking meat with milk isn't dangerous, this must refer to a practice
• 11:12
  of those around the Israelites, and it was some sort of superstitious practice
• 11:17
  that the Israelites just shouldn't partake in.
• 11:20
  Again, it's all about looking different.
• 11:24
  Chapter 14 closes with a passage on tithing. Remember that Deuteronomy is a book of reminders.
• 11:31
  The Israelites needed to be reminded about how tithing was supposed to work.
• 11:36
  Tithing was a regular practice off the increase of the field year by year.
• 11:40
  Tithes were to be offered in the holy places chosen by God. If someone lived
• 11:45
  too far from the holy place, they were to turn the offering into money and bring that.
• 11:49
  Tithes were also for the support of the Levites, the priests.
• 11:53
  The Levites didn't have an inheritance of their own, and God literally declared
• 11:56
  that their inheritance was off of the increase or the tithes of the other tribes.
• 12:01
  The tithe was also to support those who needed it most, the stranger,
• 12:06
  the fatherless, the widow, and all those that are within thy gate.
• 12:11
  Those around the Israelites who needed support were the responsibility of the
• 12:17
  Israelites themselves.
• 12:19
  There are so many lessons that we can glean from Deuteronomy 14.
• 12:24
  Let's just start with our need for a Savior. We may not have 613 laws to follow,
• 12:29
  but there are thousands of aspects to this life, and there are so many opportunities to sin.
• 12:34
  There's no way that we could live correctly enough to gain entrance into heaven. We need a Savior.
• 12:41
  Jesus said in Matthew 5, 17-18, Think not that I am come to destroy the law
• 12:46
  or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
• 12:50
  For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
• 12:55
  shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
• 12:59
  This chapter should also remind us that through adoption, we too are the children of God.
• 13:04
  Those on this side of the cross are also God's children, asked to live holy
• 13:09
  lives and lives that are set apart.
• 13:12
  We can learn a lot from the lesson of grief that's found in Deuteronomy 14.
• 13:17
  Our grief should never take us to a place of self-harm, because we have a Heavenly
• 13:22
  Father who comforts us and cares for us.
• 13:26
  As Christians, we can depend on the Holy Spirit to move us through our grief
• 13:30
  and protect us from getting to a place of harming ourselves as if we have no hope.
• 13:36
  All pain in this present world points us to the love of God,
• 13:40
  which provides the solace and the comfort we need.
• 13:45
  Concerning all the meats that are in this chapter, the lesson for us is to live set apart.
• 13:51
  Just like the Israelites were called to live differently, we are called to live holy.
• 13:55
  This may mean that we are holding a can of soda at a party instead of a beer.
• 14:00
  This may mean that we are not using foul language when those around us are.
• 14:04
  This may mean we are dressing more modestly than those around us.
• 14:07
  What it means is that our actions are filtered through our knowledge of God's
• 14:12
  Word, the relationship that we have in Him, and the sanctifying power of the
• 14:16
  Holy Spirit in our lives.
• 14:18
  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6.12, All things are lawful unto me,
• 14:23
  but not all things are expedient.
• 14:25
  All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
• 14:30
  He's saying that he's no longer under that Old Testament law for salvation,
• 14:34
  but just because something is not against the law, it doesn't mean it's best for us.
• 14:38
  We need to seek God's best in our lives so that our lives may be the holy lives he is seeking for us.
• 14:46
  Lastly, this chapter reminds us to tithe. It's simple.
• 14:50
  The tithe is 10%. The tithe is to support the work of the church,
• 14:54
  and the tithe is to support those in our community that God has called us to
• 14:58
  love. The tithe really isn't an option.
• 15:01
  And more importantly, living lives that reflect God's love isn't an option either.
• 15:07
  We live on this side of the cross. Every blessing is ours because of Jesus'
• 15:11
  death on the cross, His salvation imparted to us, to our very lives,
• 15:16
  and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
• 15:19
  Jesus is the fulfillment of the law, and you've fulfilled every promise given to us.
• 15:25
  I pray that your lives reflect Jesus' presence and that those around you can
• 15:30
  see that you are his peculiar person.
• 15:33
  Remember that you are loved. Jesus loves you.
• 15:37
  Music.
• 15:45
  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
• 15:50
  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
• 15:53
  We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
• 15:57
  our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
• 16:00
  You can find our app by searching for Woman at the Well Ministries in your app
• 16:04
  store or through our website at watwm.org.
• 16:07
  We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash watwm. If you visit our website,
• 16:14
  you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits, a daily devotion written by Kim and
• 16:18
  delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
• 16:21
  Woman at the Well Ministries is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving
• 16:25
  our Heavenly Father, and it is through your loving and generous support that
• 16:29
  our ministry continues to bless others.
• 16:31
  To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
• 16:36
  Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
• 16:41
  We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
• 16:46
  Remember that God loves you.
• 16:48
  Music.