Deuteronomy 14 Improper Mourning
“You are the children of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. 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.”
Why is God giving all these restrictions? The Israelites have just escaped Egypt, where cults honoring the dead are part of the national religion. God wants His people to worship Him and not the dead. Other tribes also engage in many rituals when someone dies: “Ancient cultures often practiced self-cutting or bloodletting as a form of mourning or honoring the dead. This ritual served various purposes, including expressing grief, demonstrating loyalty, or seeking favor from the deceased.
Cultural Practices:
- Mourning Rituals: Many societies, such as the ancient Greeks and Romans, engaged in self-inflicted wounds during funerals to show deep sorrow.
- Blood Sacrifice: Some cultures believed that shedding blood could appease spirits or gods, ensuring safe passage for the deceased in the afterlife.
Methods:
- Cutting or Scratching: Individuals might use sharp objects to make small cuts on their arms or faces.
- Piercing: In some traditions, piercing the skin with needles or other instruments was common.” (AI compilation from Google.)
Clean and Unclean Meat
3-21 “You shall not eat any detestable thing. These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. 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. 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.”
Why does God proscribe these animals? Although the Israelites don’t realize it, God is trying to protect them from any meat that might carry diseases or parasites. The same thing is true for sea food.
“These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales. And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.
“All clean birds you may eat. But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds; every raven after its kind; 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, the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.” The unclean birds are scavengers who might also carry diseases.
19 “Also every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.
20 “You may eat all clean birds.
21 “You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the Lord your God.”
God wants His people to be careful and to honor Him in everything they do, including their food. You have to feel a bit sorry for the aliens within the gates and the foreigners to whom the Israelites may sell anything that dies of itself!
When I was growing up, I was a typical kid, trying to get Mom to agree to let me do things “because everyone else is doing it.” Mom’s standard answer was simple and direct: “I don’t care if everyone else is doing it; you are my kid, and I say no!”
God is a good parent who wants His children to be healthy and happy. Proper food is important, and God wants the Israelites to realize that He is going to supply enough proper food that they will not need to resort to eating unclean birds, insects, and animals that die by themselves. (People who eat an animal that has died with anthrax may contract anthrax.)
Do we need to observe Jewish dietary laws? That is a question each of us must answer for ourselves. Some people feel they should follow vegan diets while others are strict vegetarians or lacto-ovo vegetarians, eating eggs and milk products. Others eat some kinds of meat or limit themselves to fish. The most important thing is to honor God in everything we do. 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” May each of us bend all our efforts to honor God in all aspects of our lives!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving and caring for us. Lord, help us to make sure we are honoring You in all that we do. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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