Lev 11:2, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'These are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth. 
    	This morning we read the stipulations regarding the types of animals that could be eaten or handled. These were regulations that God put into place with respect to the protection of His people from the plagues and the diseases of the nations surrounding them. A study of the time and the environmental effects of the eating habits of the region reveal that disease and parasitic infestation decimated the communities of peoples surrounding the Israelites. Because God knew what would happen to His people, He gave them the guidelines necessary to avoid what plagued the rest of the region’s population. 
	This was specifically promised in Deut 7:12-15, if they would but obey the guidelines of the Lord. Deut 7:12-15, "Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you His covenant and His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle. And the Lord will remove from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will lay them on all who hate you. 
	When one deals with this list, it will be evident that the eating of certain animals in that day would result in parasitic influx such as was so common in the eating of the pigs or the rabbits or the fish that didn’t have scales. Unlike the fish with scales that freely swam in the water, these scaleless ones were bottom feeders and prone to being sources of parasitic infestation. 
	The other stipulations concerning the rodents and the insects were because of the disease that they rampantly spread throughout dense populations. They were forbidden to be touched and had to be removed from homes and food supplies and cooking vessels because of the disease that they spread. In all of this, the love of God for the safety and the welfare of His people was fully in evidence. 
	These stipulations became an aspect of that which set the Children of Israel apart from the other nations surrounding them. In the proper context, they were considered, as by Daniel when he was taken into captivity, as the measure by which God could be honored as the Only Holy and Just and Living Lord God Almighty. As detailed in Dan 1:8, by following the guidelines that God had established, Daniel was honoring God above all else. 
Dan 1:8, But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Daniel chose to order his conduct and his behavior, including that which he ate or drank, in accordance with what would please God, Whom he served above all else. 
	However, these guidelines and stipulations for the benefit of the health of the Israelite nation were soon made into measures of distinction by which the Jews set themselves above all other people. Even within the Jewish communities, these were no longer cherished as the Lord’s manifested love, but rather as the means of elevating one person above another. They became the perceived measure of spiritual development and hierarchy, thus allowing the religious leaders a means of self-promotion and self-exaltation. They were used as the excuse for the judgment and punishment of those who did not live up to the human enforcement of the described ordinances. 
Rather than being regarded as the love and the safeguard of God for the nation, they were perverted into the means to subjugate and to build some up and to put others down as inadequate and defiled and not worthy of any consideration. It was no longer a matter of pleasing God, but of pleasing the self-interests of the religious order. This was a dragging down of the manifested love of God into the muck and mire of humanity’s vile estimation of self-worth and manipulation for personal fame and justification. 
Our Lord faced the wrath of the religious leaders when He addressed what man had made of God’s guidelines in Matt 15:11+12. Rather than seeing the stipulations of what to eat as a means of determining mankind’s spiritual defilement, Christ detailed exactly that which defiled man in the light of God’s so manifested love. Matt 15:11+12, "Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man." Then the disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?" 
Christ obviously knew the religious leaders were offended since He was very forceful and observant to that which truly honored God. He taught in direct opposition to that which was being perverted by man from honoring God into something that would serve only to honor man. 
	This is dealt with in more precise detail in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 7, verses 14-23, where Jesus set aside the stipulations of food for all of us because of what man had made of it. Jesus went right to the heart of what truly is the defilement of men. Mark 7:14-23, And after He called the multitude to Him again, He began saying to them, "Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. ["If any man has ears to hear, let him hear."] And when leaving the multitude, He had entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable. And He said to them, "Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him; because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated? "(Thus He declared all foods clean.) And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. "All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man." 
	The stipulations concerning food had been so twisted and were so enrooted into the thoughts and minds of the Jews that God used it to get through to the Apostle Peter in terms of God’s having opened up salvation to all through the giving of His Only Begotten Son. Peter was so set in his belief that salvation was for the Jew alone, that he had to be shaken to his core by God. This was done through the use of the vision of that which was elemental to the Jewish psyche, the prohibitions on food.
	Please turn in your Bibles to Acts 10:9-16. Here, we have the account of how God shook apart the earnest, yet misguided beliefs of the Apostle Peter in order to make known to him that what Jesus Christ had done was for all men, not just a select few. 
Acts 10:9-16, And on the next day, as they were on their way, and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry, and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he beheld the sky opened up, and a certain object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, "Arise, Peter, kill and eat!" But Peter said, "By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean." And again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." And this happened three times; and immediately the object was taken up into the sky. 
	What followed this vision was the entry of the servants from Cornelius, a Roman centurion, who wanted to know about the gospel of Jesus Christ. While Peter shared, the whole Gentile household rejoiced in the good news, received the Holy Spirit and was baptized. This was earth shaking to Peter and to the church as a whole because it meant that, just as the restrictions were no longer in place concerning the food that they had considered as defiling, so also the salvation that they had hoarded unto themselves was now open and freely offered to any and to all who would but call upon the glorious name of Jesus Christ.   
	The Apostle Paul, as well, had to deal with the religious stigma and the resulting problems placed on the consumption of various foods within the churches as in Rom 14:2+3. Rom 14:2+3, One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. 
Taking the revelation of the gospel being open to all in Christ, the issues that man had made of the eating of certain types of food and judging vilely those who did partake of them made it necessary to encourage both groups of Christians as to how to deal with each other. The over riding principle was that God had accepted and had made holy any who was a believer. Therefore it was necessary to encourage all to accept one another in the same grace and mercy as God bestowed.
	At the same time, there needed to be sensitivity within the body as to the manner in which each was to regard and to guard the unity and the fellowship of the church. Therefore, when a brother might be offended or led astray because of the food issues, the Apostle Paul urged restraint and understanding and peace within the church. 
Please open to Rom 14:10-21 and read and understand the gentleness and the patience urged upon all within the Body of Christ. Rom 14:10-21, But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God." So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this — not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. 
	The Apostle then encouraged Timothy, in 1 Tim 4:4-6, about how to instruct those under his care and keeping concerning the giving of thanks to God for all things, which then sanctified them for proper use. 1 Tim 4:4-6, For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. As we learn to thank God for all that we have and eat, we are learning that the grace of God extends far beyond merely earthly provisions, but into the full realm of our spiritual life. As we honor Him with our sincerest gratitude, there will be that nourishing understanding of the grace and the mercy of God that is ours in Jesus Christ, Our Everything. 
	Our final passage on this subject of food and what man had made of the ordinances of God for the protection of those whom He so loved is from the Writer to the Hebrews, Chapter 13, verses 5-9. Heb 13:5-9, Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you," so that we confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?" Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were thus occupied were not benefited. 
	The religious leaders had made such an occupation of judging those who partook of anything that they considered taboo, that they had lost their way, and were leading the people astray. Rather than the focus on the aspects and the details of God and what He had provided, these influential and self-empowered guardians of custom and rites and the rituals and the human defined laws had put yokes on the necks of the people. They had made them tread the paths of judgment and disorder and perverse estimation of any who did not perfectly subscribe to their ordinances. It was this group of whom the disciples of Christ had warned Him that they were offended by His teachings,  And it was this group who were the instigators of the crucifixion of the Son of God. They did so because He did offend them with His perfect expression of, not judgment, but of the love of God, as was at the very heart of these instructions to Moses and Aaron. So be it!    
	"Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'These are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is 1 Cor 1:4-8. I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.