To Make a Difference

“To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.” Leviticus 11:47

Have you ever wondered why God gave the Israelites the dietary laws found in Leviticus 11? God allowed Adam and Eve to eat every kind of fruit except one. God told Noah, “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things” (Genesis 9:3). Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all of their descendants undoubtedly enjoyed this same broad freedom until God commanded Moses to institute these strict guidelines for His people. If it was permissible for Noah and the whole human race to eat any kind of animal, why were these restrictions made for the Israelites? If it was acceptable for Abraham (the father of the Hebrew nation), Isaac, Jacob, and all of their descendants to eat pork for hundreds of years, why was it suddenly a bad thing for Moses and the Israelites on their way to the Promised Land? The reason is found in the passage above: “to make a difference.” It is all about a process of thinking. God wanted them to have the opportunity to choose to please Him every time they ate a meal. As New Testament Christians who have been freed from the ordinances of the Old Testament by the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, we have a similar mandate. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31). God wants us to choose to honor Him in all that we do.