Deuteronomy 14:1-18 NKJV
14 “You are the children of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. 2 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
3 “You shall not eat any detestable thing. 4 These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. 7 Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you. 8 Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses.
9 “These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales. 10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.
11 “All clean birds you may eat. 12 But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, 13 the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds; 14 every raven after its kind; 15 the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds; 16 the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, 17 the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, 18 the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.
A prominent theme running through the Law of Moses is that God had separated the Israelites from the rest of the nations, had chosen them to be a special, holy people for Himself. And since God had separated or “sanctified” them, they were to lead lives that were also different from the lives led by pagans.
Moses mentions two of those differences in today’s reading. The first had to do with how they treated their bodies. The Gentiles had rituals they would perform as they mourned for the dead. They would cut themselves or shave their heads in a certain way. These were practices based on ignorance of God, a misunderstanding of death, and superstition. God’s treasured people were not to imitate the unbelievers in any of these practices, even in the way they cut their hair, because to imitate the world is to give the impression that one believes the same things as the world. God’s people were to be different.
Another difference had to do with their diet, as we’ve seen in previous readings. God’s people were to eat differently than the Gentiles did. In this case, it wasn’t because of anything inherently good or bad about certain kinds of food. It was simply an extra layer of separation that God chose to put between His holy people and the unholy Gentiles, to exercise them in practicing holiness (that is, “separateness”), to test the people’s obedience, and to keep the religion of Israel distinct from that of the nations until the Christ should come to them.
The dietary restrictions have been removed from the New Testament. But the importance of the Christian’s separateness from the world lingers. God would have His special people, the Church of Christ, avoid being unequally yoked with unbelievers (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14). He commands us not to participate in any rituals, practices, or behaviors that might give the impression that we are not, in fact, separate from the world. The truth is, Christians are a chosen “nation,” with distinct beliefs, distinct worship practices, behaviors, and goals, and having a unique hope. Let us be light and salt in the world, as the Lord has called us to be, remembering that, the brighter the light, the stronger the contrast with darkness will be. Let us pray: O Lord, we thank You for graciously choosing us out of the world. Guide and strengthen us by Your Spirit to lead holy lives, that men may be drawn to Your light. Amen.