Episode #141: What Does the Bible Really Say About Food? Part 2

In this second episode of a three-part series, pastors Derek and Cliff discuss the Old Covenant dietary restrictions and their relevance for today. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to the With All Wisdom Podcast, where we are applying biblical truth to everyday life. My name is Derek Brown, and I'm here today with Cliff McManus. We are both pastors and elders at Creekside Bible Church in Cupertino, California, and professors of theology at the Cornerstone Bible College and Seminary in Vallejo, California. And we are continuing our conversation about food. So we're excited to pick that back up. But before we do, we just encourage you to check out withallwisdom.org where you will find a large and growing collection of resources all rooted in God's Word and all aimed at helping you grow in your walk with the Lord Jesus. And we mentioned this last time. A few new books now available. We encourage you to check that out. You can find those on the main homepage, and you can also click on the tab up top where it says our books. And we encourage you to check those out if you have not. And we provide free PDFs for all of those, so you don't have to buy a physical copy if you don't want to. You can get all that spiritual nourishment and food free of charge. Just click and download the PDF. But if you do want a physical copy, you can click on the Amazon link and purchase one. And uh oh, I do want to say this. We do aim to keep all of our prices low on those physical copies in order to make them more accessible to you. And we appreciate you listening and reading. So let's get back to our topic. It is food. Last time me and Cliff made our way from Genesis 1 to Genesis 9, and from Genesis 1 to Genesis 9, we have a significant expansion of our diet. We went from being vegetarians to now having meat accessible to us. God gives one restriction, and he says, You can't eat the blood. You can't have the blood of the animal. You have to uh only eat the meat and so on. So you come into or you you you come out of that then, and that's that's the diet for mankind, for all people, uh, from Genesis 9 onward. But then God does do something with with diets again, and this time it's with Israel. So he gathers his people Israel, redeems them out of Egypt, out of slavery, he walks them through the wilderness. They have some trials there, trials actually related to food, as it turns out. But God provides for them, uh provides them manna, provides them quail, provides them what they need, and eventually they uh make it to a place where God can now establish his covenant with them. And part of this covenant had to do with food laws. God was going to restrict their diet in very specific ways. And the reason he did this, it was uh for a specific reason. And we have to really be clear about this reason because it might be tempting to speculate about why God did what he did, but we we we can't speculate. We have to be very precise at this point. The reason why God gave them these food restrictions was the same reason he gave them every other law. It was to make them a holy people, a separate people, a distinct distinct people, a unique people. Uh they were surrounded by all various kinds of nations with all various kinds of religions, pagan religions, idolatrous religions, and they were to be God's chosen holy people, and so he gave them various kinds of laws for that very reason.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yeah. To be holy, be holy. And you already said it, Derek, that from the Old Testament, New Testament, holy first and foremost means to be separate, distinct, separated from.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

A distinction needs to be made. God didn't want Israel to go in the land of Canaan and assimilate with the pagan people. Become the melting pot. America's a melting pot. He didn't want the Jews to be a melting pot among the Canaanites, but to remain distinct in every way, not just spiritually, but also to be marked out externally so they could see it and observe it in very practical ways.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yeah. And the reason that's important to highlight is because as we'll see in a little bit, there are some today who would suggest that the reason why God gave these food restrictions was were for health reasons. And that's never stated. Nope. It's made clear that this is for holiness. Uh as you said, the the separateness. And you know, as I've been listening to this conversation back and forth on online, listening, reading various authors, one author made a r or one gentleman made a uh a great point. He said, you know, if this was health related, uh then Israel wouldn't have really been different from any other nation because those nations would have figured out what were more healthy and what promoted disease and what killed off their people and what didn't, and they would have uh restricted those foods in their cultures, and in that sense, then Israel would not have been different from them. But what made them different is the fact that the living God, Yahweh, had commanded these uh instructions, and why were they to keep them? Because God commanded them. Yep. So actually, the arbitrariness, if we want to say it that way, because you can kind of look at this like these are a little arbitrary. Well, that actually helps with the whole question of why it was done in the first place. It was done for the sake of holiness, it was done for the sake of obedience to make them separate and and and not done for health reasons. Yeah, that bears repeating.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Um, because in well, Leviticus 11 is the probably the longest chapter in the Mosaic law that gives all these food restrictions. And you're saying, and I agree with you, God didn't give these food restrictions for health reasons. In other words, um, don't eat eagles because they're not good for you. Abstain from pork because it's not good for you. That is not what God said, and that isn't why he did it. Right. And you're right, it's right there in the text. Leviticus 11. If our listeners want to read that chapter on their own, it's a long one, but it gives all the categories of food restrictions. But at the very end of the chapter, point blank, God said, I want you to do this because you are to verse 44, be holy, be separate for I am holy and separate. Verse 45, you shall be holy, you should be separated, you shall be distinct and different from these other nations. Not to be healthy, but to be holy. Right. And then um verse 47, to make a distinction. And it's kind of like I mean, you read a lot of the laws in the Mosaic Code, there's you know, over 600 of them, and some of them it doesn't explain why God actually a lot of times God doesn't explain why exactly He's giving this law. He's just saying do it. When a when a mother gives birth to a male child, mom is unclean for a week. When mom gives birth to a female child, then mom is unclean for two weeks. And it doesn't even explain why. And you're thinking, well, that doesn't sound fair. God likes males more than he likes females. No. It's it's again, he's just God is making a distinction because he sovereignly declared it to be so. Yeah. Um and that's true with the food.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Yeah. And just in and w this will again, we'll this this point will come up. We just want to really highlight it here so that we can see in the actual covenant itself why God is doing this. And so so he he does do this for uh Israel. They are to distinguish themselves on this restricted diet. And that goes on for as as long as Israel uh was uh consisting uh or existing rather in uh the promised land, it continues as they are uh expelled out of the promised land as they come back to it. And uh after they finally come back to the promised land after being exiled, and uh I should say that the southern kingdom Judah uh it makes their way back to the promised land, then you fast forward several hundred years, and now the Messiah has come. And this is an important thing, too. One of the one of the reasons that God was making Israel holy is in order to bring about the the Messiah. Israel had to be protected and isolated from pagan religion and all those influences so that he can maintain a holy people so that eventually the the Davidic king, the Messiah, could come through them, the savior of the world could come from through them. And he does. And um when he comes, he starts to say some things that are quite interesting in relation to the food laws. And uh I think we can we can start in Mark 7 and then jump over to Acts 10. They it it's hard to know exactly how to do this because um in terms of what Mark is recording, it happens first uh before Acts 10, but Mark is Mark is also right with the time Mark is writing, it's also corresponding with what with what's happening uh in in the book of Acts and so on. So it's or I should say after what's happened in the book of Acts. So it's but we'll start with Mark 7, just just for the sake of simplicity. So in Mark 7, this is an interesting passage because there, uh Mark 7, 14 and following, uh, Jesus is addressing an issue uh that had to do with what he had just engaged the Pharisees over, namely the washing of hands in a uh prior to a meal. And the the rulers of the Jews, the the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they had these extra traditions that they they added to the old covenant laws. That old covenant laws were already abundant, and so but they added more to them, and one of them was to to wash a certain way before they ate. And um the Pharisees actually confronted Jesus and said, Why do you why do you not do that? Why do you uh why do you not wash your hands and your disciples not wash your hands when uh you before you eat? Because, and then Mark adds this parenthetical point for the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders. And when they come from any marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. Uh, and uh there are many other traditions they observed, such as washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches. So that's an a parenthetical statement that Mark made, just explaining what's going on here in this situation. And the Pharisees and scribes ask him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? And then Jesus launches into this uh rebuke and saying, Listen, you are keeping to a tradition that's not commanded, and yet you are actually rejecting and or failing to observe commandments that have been given. And he says, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites? It is written, these people honor to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God to hold to the tradition of men. And then uh he goes on to rebuke them for doing this, having this tradition of hand washing, and yet not fulfilling their obligation to honor their father and mother, which is a clear commandment from God. So that's the context. So then in verse 14, uh it says that he called the people to him again and said, Hear me, all of you, and understand, because what had just transpired was an ind was a was an example of how the religious leaders had really lost sight of what was most important in the worship of God. They had become so consumed with the externals that they had forgotten the heart. And uh so Jesus wants to really bring this home. He says, Hear all of you and understand, there's nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him. And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable, and he said to them, Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile him? Since it enters into his heart, but not uh but it enters not his heart, but his stomach and is expelled. And then you have this parenthetical uh statement. It's parenthetical in your Bibles. There are parentheses as such aren't in the original Greek text, but this is a this is a legitimate trans uh translational decision to show us that this is a parenthetical statement. What it's doing is it's showing us that this is what Mark is saying. Mark is making a commentary on what Jesus did just said. Jesus just said, Since it enters not into the heart but his stomach and is expelled, and so Mark now comments on that. He says, Thus he declared all foods clean. And it literally says in the original, cleansing all foods, but you the most uh Bible translations say, thus he declared all foods clean to make it clear what's happening here. And I think it's perfectly legitimate what the translators are doing here. Um and then verse 20, and he said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. And so this whole uh concern over external ritual completely missed the point. What you wash, how you wash your hands and what foods you eat have zero to do with inward purity of heart. Uh they do not make you more or less pure. What really matters are the evil thoughts of sexual immorality and so on. These come from the heart and they defile you. And so, uh, but Mark's comment here, thus he declared all foods clean. You know, why does he do that? Well, we have to remember Mark is is written after this time. He's he's writing at a time when the church is already, you know, Jesus has died, he's risen, he's ascendant, and Mark is now writing uh to a church where these things are already there are already food issues, and we know there are already food issues because you see it all over the rest of the New Testament. Paul was dealing with food issues. Um there are food issues in in Acts chapter uh uh 10, we'll we'll talk about in a minute. Uh, there are food issues in Colossians chapter 2. Just so Mark is writing to a church that's already experiencing these things, and so he's commenting on Jesus' statement here, and he's applying it to the present situation. And so what he's doing here is he's indicating that by saying this, by making the statement about what true inward purity is really all about, he declared all foods clean by the by the way he he set up this whole this whole explanation, by explaining that it's not what goes into you that defiles you, but rather what comes out of not what goes into your stomach, what comes out of your heart. That's what truly defiles you. So now he did he declares all food foods clean. And this Mark would have been saying in a church context that now understood we are under the the new covenant. Things have changed. There is a there's no longer an obligation to follow the old covenant law, and they would have been learning these things from the apostles and and so on. And likely Mark is learning these things from Peter himself, and as as we'll see in a minute. But uh Cliff, do you have any comments on this particular passage and how it relates to our discussion of expanding the diet?

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Yeah, Jesus is um preparing the church for the change in menu. Yeah. Peter was a practicing Jew up to this point for 25 years. So he never violated the dietary laws, according to his own testimony in the book of Acts. So he so here maybe Peter's twenty years old when Jesus is saying this, or Peter's twenty-five, he's a Jew, he's a practicing Jew, he's a kosher Jew. He's never had bacon in his life. Oh man. And then Jesus is saying, well, uh food doesn't defile the heart or what really the the spiritual side of man. Um what you put into your food doesn't cause or take away from true spirituality. It's what God's more concerned about what comes out of your heart, which is sin. So the sin in your heart is worse than any food that you could possibly eat. Um is what he's getting at there. Uh that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. And then he goes on to the it's really God's looking at the heart, and you were born with sin, that's what defiles you. Um so this is rebuke to legalists, particularly the Pharisees who put uh too much stock in physical things, yeah. Uh turn physical things into spiritual and religious things and mystical things. So they put an overemphasis on on the physical. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um which is the opposite of what some other Christians so you got there's a spectrum of Christians with wrong views about stuff. That there are Christians who to put too much emphasis on the physical, like today we have that with Christians who say that there are certain kinds of foods that are biblical and that are even spiritually better for you that God is actually pleased with the way you eat uh and your menu. Right. That's putting the wrong emphasis on food, right? A physical side. But then there's a spectrum uh of Christians throughout church history for the last 2,000 years where they put too much of a spiritual emphasis on things and de-emphasize the physical. Like um John Calvin would be an example of the fact that he used to make fun of people who believed in the millennium, a literal millennium on earth in his institutes. And the examples he would use is and they talk about feasts and food and enjoying food and new wine and the physical millennium, and they're carnal and fools and earthy and putting an emphasis on physical because you just want to spiritualize everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like when you go up to heaven, you don't have a resurrection body, you're not enjoying things physically, you're just kind of a a a ghost or a phantom, not enjoying the physical things of life. So you've got these two spectrums, and there's a balance, there's a biblical view. Yeah. Jesus is countering the overly physical view here. Yeah. That's a really good, really good point.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Um well, and so so an important text here in terms of understanding this this new change, but then it it really is highlighted in Acts chapter 10, this change, uh, very deliberately. And here's a situation. Uh Acts chapter 10 starts with Luke saying in in Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion, so a Gentile, uh devout man, nevertheless, who feared God with all his household, and who gave alms generously to the people, and he prayed continually to God, and he's visited by an angel who said, Uh Cornelius, and your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God, and now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter, and he tells them where he's he's staying, and so he does. But uh prior to him finding Peter, we get a little story about Peter, and he's uh he goes to the house, he's uh let's see, in verse 9 it says, um, he went up to the housetop at the sixth hour to pray, and he wants to talk to Jesus, you know, and uh he becomes hungry and because prayer can make you hungry, even though you're so spiritual to pray, you still can get hungry. Important to remember. Um and so he gets hungry and he wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens open and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. Now we've heard this language before. Um in both Acts, or I'm sorry, Genesis 9 and throughout the uh Old Covenant. We animals and reptiles and birds of the air, distinctions being made in the Old Covenant, um, the expansion of the diet in in Genesis 9. So this is all connected to what we've seen previously in the Old Testament. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. And Peter said, By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And he's speaking specifically of the those food laws that he lived under for his whole life. And you could imagine, I mean, if if God told you for years not to eat something, and your conscience is dialed in on that, and then he says, now it's time to kill and eat, you buy me. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Yeah, and what uh Peter should have heard from his parents, or the rabbis, which they probably weren't saying during those twenty-five years, where he's under the Mosaic Law. Yeah. Peter, don't eat pork because God wants you to be holy and separate and distinct. Peter, don't eat pork because God wants you to be separate and distinct. Instead of Peter, don't eat pork because it's unhealthy. Yeah. Peter, don't eat pork because it's unhealthy. Those are two totally different things. Peter may have been confused though. Sure. Okay. He maybe he didn't get the message. Sure. Maybe he thought it was unhealthy inherently.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Sure. And uh in the voice came to him a second time. What God has made clean, do not call common. This happened three times. And why do you think we happened three times? Well, I think it's because that was hard to accept. And God had to recalibrate his conscience. And he's gonna use uh this situation to show him what was really underlying this command. Uh both things are true, but there's a primary importance to to it and the the primary importance is that that god that Peter's not to call these Gentiles unclean anymore. There's this wall of separation is now broken down and he needs to go to this Gentile and offer the salvation of of Yahweh to him. And now they are to be welcomed to the kingdom just as much as Jews are. And so this is a big deal and that's what he was uh God was teaching him through this but that was not only what he was teaching. See some will say that see this isn't about food loss. And it's clear because it's about Cornelius and being a gentile. But both things are true at once and I think it's it's it's quite clear because God is telling him in that vision rise Peter kill and eat. Yep. So you can't just brush that out did God mean that or not right now when it Peter goes and he goes and he uh finally he meets up with Cornelius and and he's able to to share the gospel with him and um let's see let me find it here Peter so he finally gets to Cornelius and Peter preaches the gospel to him and he says um and they the spirit falls so he's preaching the gospel to Cornelius and his household and the the Holy Spirit falls upon them and they were immediately baptized and I want to just pick up where Peter says this I didn't mark this I should have where he says I now know that God does not make distinctions let's see God has no respect for his yeah here we go verse 28 he says verse 26 but uh uh verse 25 when Peter entered Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worship him but Peter lifted him up saying stand up I too am a man and he talked with him and he went in and found many persons that had gathered and he said to them you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So he got the main point that doesn't undermine the secondary point which is also true namely that these food laws have been established precisely because they were connected with this distinguishing between Jew and Gentile. So both things have to be true at the same time namely the food restrictions are abolished and you no longer call the Gentile common or unclean but if you keep these food laws then you do actually maintain a distinction between you and the Gentile and that can't happen. So both have to be true at once. So when people say that that this is not about the food laws it it exact it it it absolutely is. The primary issue is is the Gentiles but both things are true at once. And so my point is simply that what you have here is this expansion of the the the diet again we went from the Genesis one where it was plants to Genesis nine where it's expanded to to to all animals it's restricted in the old covenant and now it's expanded back again to um to uh the to do include all animals and now because of that Simon Peter and all believers can now freely engage with Gentiles and not feel this restriction due to food.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Peter got that message at least for a little bit because in Galatians 2 Paul said that uh 211 that Peter used to hang out with Gentiles Gentile Christians in verse 12 and he would eat with them. So he wasn't he uh he understood actant except occasionally he would stumble. Yeah and so he would uh have fellowship with the Gentiles and even their crazy foods and I don't even know maybe he even partook of some of that food. But when the Judaizers came and influenced Peter he began to withdraw from the Gentiles and hold himself aloof during the party of the circumcision. Uh falling back into that wrong Judaism mindset.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Yeah. Yeah it's a great point bringing up Galatians chapter two because again food was the issue there. Yep. And eating. And so this being the background then to the the change that happens in uh Israel in in Jerusalem and now with the new covenant we we come now to uh Paul's epistles and he he has to deal with this issue of differences between uh foods and food restrictions and these kinds of things. He has to deal with it in in in multiple places he deals with it in c in Colossians 2 and he says there don't let anyone act as your judge as as it regards food just flat out. Those who are bound to those restrictions are demonstrating that they haven't really they don't really understand that the substance belongs to Christ. You can see this in Colossians 2 16 and following the issue there apparently was that there are there are people who are promoting food restrictions and attaching religious significance to them and making it sound like this is how you reach spiritual fullness one of the ways this is and Paul in so many words is saying this is pseudo religion this is pseudo spirituality and you're demonstrating that you don't really understand that this is all that was all shadow.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

The substance is Christ and so don't let anyone stand is your judge and and then in uh let no one judge you according to any food or drink and you just said that you don't attain any true spirituality by eating or refraining from food. Yeah that's right right which reminds me of a lot of Christians who think if you're fasting refraining from food that makes you more spiritual ones nope when you're fasting it it makes you hungry. That's what it does. Yeah and then it just you gotta trust God and make it through there's no command for fasting in the New Testament for a Christian at all.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Yeah that's an important reminder so uh so then when you come to first Timothy four one through five and Paul is again addressing this issue he now I mean he's saying similar things in Colossians 2. I mean if you follow the the argument in Colossians 2 and how he's talking about about those who are promoting such things you it's he's saying the same things. These are this is false religion. It's in 1 Timothy 4 though that he calls it specifically the doctrine of demons which is just a really strong way of saying it. And so it highlights how important it is now that we're under the new covenant to not attach any kind of religious or spiritual significance to any kind of diet or food restriction or to think that the substance of Christianity or of holiness has to do with keeping a particular diet. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

Jesus called it man-made religion man-made that was his point in Mark 7. This is the tradition of men conjured up by men.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

Man-made religion and then Paul says and behind the man-made religions it's actually demonic well let's take that then let's actually use that as a springboard then and come back and talk specifically about false religion as it relates to this issue of food restrictions because you actually I think have some helpful insights at this point. So let's come back for part three uh we thank you for listening in on this uh section of our series on food and we encourage you to check out withallwisdom.org if you haven't been there check that out there's all of we have all of our podcasts there I forgot to mention that uh we this is podcast number 141 that we are recording today and we have uh 139 or 140 prior to this one and so we encourage you to check those out as well if you haven't until next time keep seeking the Lord and his words