God’s dietary laws were put in place to keep His people healthy. He needed them to be healthy and to stay alive in order to bring forth His Messiah. But to keep Kosher is a modern ritual that is not in Scripture.
Today, they are in force still because God still wants us to stay healthy and alive. First He tells Moshe all the beasts that God’s people are allowed to eat, because all the others are considered unclean in God’s eyes. They are unclean because they are scavengers, or bottom-dwellers, and will eat anything - not good for the bodies God created.
Leviticus Chapter Eleven gets into the dietary laws, which today are called Kosher by the Jews. Many of the Kosher laws are not from God - this has turned into a multi-billion dollar industry that was never ordained by God, and so I will indeed list what God tells us to do.
The following list consists of those things we are allowed to eat. We count these as one Commandment, but the Jews have divided these into 20 things we should not eat which are considered to be in the Negative Commandments, and those that we should eat are not even mentioned in the Positive Commandments.
Those beasts that we are able to eat are: whatever divides the hoof (cloven hooves) and they also chew the cud, are those we can eat. In other words, Cows, bulls, steer, goats and sheep. These are animals with a ruminant stomach (four stomaches). Those who have one or the other of cloven hooves or chew the cud, are unclean. They must have both. God goes into much more detail about these than He does the clean animals. In fact, He goes into much more detail on what not to eat, rather than what we should eat. If we stick to only what He has said is clean, then we will be in obedience to His word. The Rabbis have taken all the don’ts and turned each one into a separate Commandment. If it doesn’t fall into the unclean category, it is safe to say it is within the dos - no need to memorize all the don’ts.
Next, beginning in verse 9, God tells us the kind of animals in the waters we may eat. Any fish that has scales and fins. Anything that does not have both of these, is unclean to God. Remember, unclean to God means an abomination to Him and us.
The kinds of poultry, as we can find in verses 13-17, God actually lists those we cannot eat and doesn’t go into what we can eat at all. That pretty much leaves only chicken, turkey, quail and doves. Not sure about the doves, but they are not listed as being unclean.
Verses 20-23 God tells us what insects we may eat. He first tells us what we cannot eat, such as those that creep on all four legs. Those we can eat are in verse 22: locusts, crickets and grasshoppers. All other insects we are not supposed to eat.
In verses 24-31 we can find what of the creeping things are unclean, such as mice, squirrels, lizards, etc. There is nothing mentioned about what we can eat of these creatures, so suffice it to mean there isn’t anything in the family of any of these mentioned in these verses that we can to eat.
There are a few other Commandments such as we are not to eat the blood or the fat of an animal, for those belong to God. The blood is the life of the animal, and we are not supposed to eat (or drink) it (see Leviticus chapter seventeen). Another Commandment concerning animals is to refrain from eating an animal that has been killed by another animal. Nor are we to touch a dead animal. And there are a few other things to avoid (which are really self-explanatory) in verses 32-47: snakes, lions, tigers (anything with paws), etc.
Other laws concerning the harvests of our fields, can be found in Leviticus 19:8-10 & 23-25. The majority of the don’ts that God lists, are those things that were the practices of the heathens. He was trying to make it very clear to His people, that He didn’t want them to do anything that the heathens did on a regular basis. He was trying to separate them from the heathens, to keep them protected, healthy and alive. God was causing the Israelites to become a unique people, separated unto God. Today, all believers are a part of these unique people.
A Peculiar Puzzle
The Kosher laws have much to do with keeping meat and milk separate, all based on one verse, that can be found three times in Scripture. There are three different portions of Scripture where these times are mentioned, and in each of these there is an additional verse that makes absolutely no sense as translated in our English Bibles.
The three places of this verse I am referring to are: Shemot 23:19, Shemot 34:26. The verse presently reads, “You will not boil (seethe or cook) a kid in its mother’s milk.”
One problem is, our Christian translators did not translate the Hebrew Scriptures. They simply copied what the Jews had already translated and so all Christian Bibles have these same verses that do not make sense.
This verse has absolutely nothing to do with the previous verses it accompanies, translated as it is, so we must look at it just as we have those verses in the New Testament that are thrown in there willy nilly and have nothing to do with the subject of the paragraph nor the chapter.
But this case is a little different, because it has been a matter of translating the verse incorrectly. If you take the time to look up what the individual words mean, you soon find that they do in fact have something to do with the Firstfruits offering of Shavuot (the Jews believe this verse about Firstfruits has something to do with seven species of Firstfruits: barley, wheat, figs, grapes, pomegranates, olives and dates - perhaps there is a hint in that) - and absolutely nothing to do with eating milk and meat together.
Devarim 14:21 states the same sentence at the end of a verse where God it speaking with Moshe about clean and unclean animals so he can pass the info on to the children of Israel. But the rest of the verse, just before this sentence, is completely different that the other two - it has nothing to do with the mandatory Feasts. The Hebrew words for this mysterious sentence are: Lo bashal gidiy b’chalav emi.
Below is my breakdown of what the words can also mean (depending on the vowels, which are not in the original manuscripts):
lo: (not) nothing, not before, would that, if, except
bashal: (cook) ripen, bring forth, cut off
gidiy: (kid) fortunate, blessed, distribute (this word is associated with the highest foliage of trees or bushes, as in goats browsing for food in them)
b’: (in) inside, into
chalav: (milk) choicest, richest, fat
emi: (mother) nevertheless, first blood, origin
Keeping in mind that this verse really has something to do with what was mentioned just before it:
“You will not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, neither will the fat of My sacrifice remain until the morning. The first of the Firstfruits of your land you will bring into the House of Yahweh your God. You will not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”
While this verse is still a mystery, without a doubt, it has nothing to do with not eating milk with meat. I am hoping to figure out what this means by the time my next book is published. But if not, I will have all of you readers out there to help me figure out this puzzle. I am sure it is hidden in another verse somewhere in Scripture. Just as I found what the bitter herb of Passover is, I hope to find the meaning of this verse (the bitter herb was found in a Psalm).
If we cannot find the answer to this puzzle, we hope one of you can. It has bothered us for a long time, and God has not chosen to reveal it to us yet. It is either an idiom, or the English translation is completely wrong. We would love to hear from you about this if you can find the answer. It is very possible that this particular sentence holds the key to the true meaning of the three mandatory Appointments with God.
Updated August 24, 2018
August 24, 2018 Still working on this page, but it should be done soon!
