What God Has Cleansed - 2/9/09pm

Leviticus 11:1-8 -Land animals must chew the cud AND have cloven hooves
Leviticus 11:9-12 -Fish must have fins AND scales
Notice the concern with detail. More instruction was given than just generalities, specific examples have been named, illustrating what the Israelites could and could not eat. We too must be concerned with the details of what
Leviticus 11:13-19 -Restrictions on birds
Leviticus 11:20-23 -Restrictions on insects
Leviticus 11:24-30 -Further unclean animals
Leviticus 11:31-38 -If an animal carcass contacts is, is it unclean?
Imagine the care that a person must have taken to ensure that their produce, their water, and all their food remained clean. It would require dedication to keeping the commandments of God. Are we so determined to keep God’s commandments? Or are we somewhat more relaxed about the Lord’s will?

Keeping in mind the stringent detail of God’s instruction, and how much effort would be put into keeping it, it makes what occurs later a much bigger deal than what we usually think.

Acts 10:1-8 -Cornelius the centurion sends men to Peter
Acts 10:9-16 -Peter’s vision of unclean animals on a sheet
Acts 10:17-23 -The men reach Peter, Peter travels with them
Acts 10:24-29 -Peter understands the vision
Acts 10:30-33 -Cornelius tells of the voice he heard
Acts 10:34-48 -Peter preaches, the household of Cornelius believes and is baptized
Peter understood what has been told to him: that no man is unable to come to Christ or set apart from the word. And while we usually look at this passage and are glad, as the majority of us are of gentile heritage, there is another application for us. We must teach all men, not just the ones we view as being more “clean.” No matter how “common” or “unclean” a person seems, we must bring them the word, as Peter did here.
Acts 11:1-3 -Other Christians contend with Peter for eating with gentiles
Acts 11:4-17 -Peter explains the vision and the meaning of the vision
Acts 11:18 -The gentiles are granted repentance to life
What God has cleansed, let us not call unclean. Of course, it’s entirely possible to give up being clean, isn’t it? Just as in the Old Testament, the Israelites could, through their actions, make themselves unclean, we do the same when we choose to disobey the Lord. If you have never obeyed the gospel, you must do as these first gentile converts did: believe, and obey through baptism. If you have obeyed and come to God, yet turned away and made yourself unclean, you must “repent unto life” again.