10 — CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS
1. Was the eating of clean and unclean meats done away at the crucifixion of Christ, or are we under that law still? 2. Does this include oysters? Are they among the unclean things? J. S. R. 1. Those laws that “stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances,” etc. (Heb. 9:10), passed away when our Lord died on the cross. But the principle upon which the clean and the unclean beasts were differentiated holds still. These beasts were not made clean or unclean by the Levitical law as recorded in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. We find that at the time of the Deluge, according to Genesis 7, 8, and 9, there were clean and unclean beasts. Only a pair of each of the unclean beasts were taken into the ark and preserved, while there were seven pairs of the clean beasts. They were not clean and unclean because of any arbitrary law, but because of the very nature of the beasts themselves. Therefore they were unfit for food, not because the Levitical law said so, but in the very nature of things. Science demonstrates the same thing. One would never think of a doctor’s prescribing pork for a fever patient. That is one of the first things that he would forbid. Why, then, was the Levitical law abolished? Here is one suggestion: The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ went far out beyond the limits of the Jewish nation. That Levitical law was for the Jewish nation alone. When the heralds of Christ carried the gospel to other nations, they carried it to peoples who in the very nature of the case could not separate themselves from the customs of the country in which they lived. Clean and unclean animals were eaten at all times. It would be impossible for them to live at all without transgressing Jewish ceremonial law, consequently the Lord did not impose that upon them. Certain restrictions were placed upon the Gentile converts, according to Acts 15; but the old Levitical laws themselves could not be bound upon the converted from the other nations. The Lord, however, gave them the principles in His laws to Israel and in the gospel, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” It certainly can not be to the glory of God for us, if we can avoid it, to eat and drink those things that the Lord forbade His ancient people to eat and drink. If it was better for them to refrain from those things, it is better for us. We may not always be able to do it. There are circumstances where it is impossible. But just as far as is consistent, we should refrain from eating unclean and unwholesome food. We should study not our particular appetites, our likes or dislikes, but what shall be to the glory of God and to our own best good. How can we render to Him the best service? 2. It would seem from Lev. 11:10-12 that oysters are among the unclean things condemned. Of the things that live in the waters, having neither fins nor scales, it is said four times that they are an “abomination.”