All nations, governments and even organizations have laws and rules. Such laws and rules are essential for the smooth running of any organization or society. The government of the Kingdom of God is no exception and has its own constitution which is the whole Word of God contained in Holy Scripture.
- The Ten Commandments are the basic constitution of God’s Kingdom distilled down to the basic principles for godly living.
- The term “law” is a general reference to the entire five books of Moses and all of the instructions therein. There are really very few laws, with the Ten Commandments and the Sabbath and Festivals, the law of the unclean, the law of marriage, and a few other various laws.
- The Statutes are those ordinances [laws] which expand upon the basic Ten Commandments and further reveal how those commandments are to be kept. The word ordinance is actually a synonym of statutes.
- Judgments refers to precedents set by making a judgment based on the Commandments or the Law.
- The word “precept” means instruction or wisdom and refers to the wise instructions of God. A precept would be: Deuteronomy 11:18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
This article on the law of clean and unclean is an introduction to our series on the Law of God, because even before we speak of the ten basic commandments and other laws we must understand that it is necessary to learn to discern between good and evil and between right and wrong, and to chose to do what is right by the Word of God.
The commandments and law of God were taught to Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, for they knew and understood a basic law of sacrifice. Later Noah saved seven pairs of every clean animal and one pair of every unclean animal showing that he understood the law of clean and unclean.
Noah also offered sacrifices as did Abraham and others, while Pharaoh knew better than to take Abram’s wife and Joseph respected his master and refused to take his master’s wife.
Indeed God destroyed all flesh except for those on the ark for their sins and also destroyed Sodom. All of these things show that the Commandments and law of God were in effect since creation, since if there had not been a law there would have been no breaking of a non existent law and therefore no sin.
Yet if anyone chooses to argue with these facts let them read the very words of God himself.
Speaking to Isaac God said Genesis 26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
God’s basic laws were in effect since creation and the sacrificial law came into effect as soon as humanity sinned and needed a sacrifice. Then when Israel was delivered from bondage in Egypt she entered into a marriage covenant with her Maker at Sinai.
Isaiah 54:5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
At Sinai God commanded Israel to “remember’ his Sabbath” and proclaimed his commandments anew.
At that time God also added the Aaronic priesthood to teach the people and expanded the Sacrificial System into various different parts; both of these things as an instructional allegory to teach us God’s plan of salvation. Annual Festivals were also added for the same reason, to teach us about God’s plan of salvation, but the basic core of God’s law including the moral laws, the laws of clean and unclean and the law of sacrifice have existed since man has existed.
The Law of the Clean and the Unclean
The law of the Clean and the Unclean is to teach us the difference between the holy and the profane, and to teach us that God will NOT tolerate any breaking or compromise with his commandments. Anyone who claims that the law of clean and unclean is merely a health matter is very much mistaken, in fact this law has nothing to do with health issues.
God commands us not to consume or even to touch the unclean thing. This is an object lesson and a TEST. Will we obey God, or will we do what we or some man decides is right?
We may consume or use ONLY the dead bodies of creatures that have been sanctified by the word of God.
1 Timothy 4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 4:5 For [if] it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.
Many spend a lot of time avoiding pork, other unclean creatures, furs, and the skins of unclean creatures, and that is good; yet we have failed to learn the spiritual lesson of this law. The law of the clean and the unclean is a spiritual law as well as a physical law, meaning in its spiritual context that we are to avoid all sin.
2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
The New Covenant is a spiritual Covenant involving the presence of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. The major lesson of the clean and the unclean law is that God will not tolerate even the slightest presence of sin.
It is the physical unclean thing which defiles the physical body, which is a lesson that any sin will defile us spiritually.
We are commanded in the New Testament to avoid defiling our bodies with any unclean thing, because through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we are the Temple of God and God will NOT coexist with any physical or spiritual defilement.
1 Corinthians 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
We are commanded to become holy as God is holy and that holiness means that we are to be pure from the defilement of sin as God is pure from sin.
1 Peter 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation [conduct; in thought, words and deeds]; 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
The laws of clean and unclean are about far more than mere physical health as those who lack spiritual understanding teach.
We MUST keep BOTH the physical law and its spiritual purpose and intent, in order to learn fully the intended lessons. Those who compromise with the physical law will never learn its spiritual lessons.
By compromising with many laws on the physical plane; many have cut themselves off from learning the spiritual intent of those laws and quenched God’s spirit, driving it out of the Temple of their hearts. For God will NOT co-dwell with willful unrepentant sin!
The basics are
1) That whatever a man eats [internalizes] either physically or spiritually he becomes; either turning to godliness by spiritually internalizing Christ as the Bread of Life; or internalizing wickedness.
2) That what is touched physically corresponds to what we tolerate in our midst spiritually. Do we tolerate and allow the presence of unrepentant sin, compromise with God’s commandments and do we make excuses for and justify sin; instead of strongly condemning sin and correcting the breaking of God’s Word?
Do we reject the repeated and willful sinner from our midst, or do we tolerate his example infecting the whole body?
Titus 3:10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; 3:11 Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.
Knowing that a little leaven [sin in the assemblies], leavens the whole body of believers.
1 Corinthians 5:6 Your glorying [in tolerating sin, mistakenly thinking that you are loving the sinner by tolerating his sin] is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
Let me interject here that this is talking about the commandments of God; and it is not about man-made traditions.
The law of clean and unclean is also far more than just what you eat, or touch, however I will begin with the law of clean and unclean meats.
This law is found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 where God clearly defines what is clean and unclean in the nature of dead animals. Anyone who even as much as touches the dead unclean animal must wash and be unclean until the evening [the sun has set].
Leviticus 11:24 And for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the even.
We are not to consume or even to touch the dead body of any unclean creature. That includes skins and furs.
The hair or wool sheared from LIVING animals may be used, as the operative concept is DEATH, with the dead unclean creature picturing the person who dies in wickedness remaining polluted by sin.
The dead clean creature pictures the righteous godly person, and the dead unclean creature pictures the person who is spiritually unclean before God and therefore consigned to eternal death.
The dead bodies of the clean animals picture those persons clean from sin, through their faithfulness to God and awaiting their resurrection to eternal life as Christ the Lamb of God was resurrected to eternal life; the dead bodies of the unclean creatures picture persons who are polluted by sin and condemned to destruction.
The purpose of the law of the clean and the unclean is NOT health and this is not “just physical.” Like all the other laws it is a physical law intended to teach us spiritual principles.
The purpose of the law of the clean and unclean is to teach us to discern between the holy and the profane.
The priesthood is to teach the people the difference between the holy and the profane, the clean and the unclean.
Ezekiel 44:23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
Speaking of today’s apostate Ekklesia and its leaders, who have led the brethren astray from God to follow themselves, God says:
Ezekiel 22:25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
22:26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
What does this mean?
The law of the clean and unclean is an analogy of spiritual cleanness; or the spiritual uncleanness of exposure to sin and compromising with God’s Word.
To eat the unclean thing is the same as internalizing wickedness, instead of internalizing the nature of God the Father and Jesus Christ; and to touch the unclean thing is to tolerate and consort with sin, to permit sin to remain uncorrected within the collective body.
Like all good housekeepers my mother would roar if we tracked dirt into her home; yet in a spiritual sense we think nothing of tracking the filth of sin into the very Temple of Almighty God; our minds.
To tolerate sin without rebuking it is to tolerate spiritual uncleanness among us! To compromise with the Sabbath and pay others to work for us in restaurants is to not only tolerate sin, it encourages the sin of polluting the Sabbath and it is active participation in other men’s sins.
1 Timothy 5:22 Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure [from sin and all spiritual and physical uncleanness].
When we eat, we internalize what we eat and it becomes a part of us, and when we touch filth we become polluted with that filth.
If you put your hand in sewage; would you not then wash it to cleanse it?
The lesson is the same, and God uses certain animals to teach us about eating and internalizing evil. He uses the very touching of the unclean dead body to teach us that dipping our hand in the wickedness of spiritual sewage will make us unclean and detestable to God.
If we have been exposed and touched evil, we are contaminated with that evil and need to be cleansed; just like a person handling sewage begins to stink of that sewage. And if we actually eat the physical unclean thing which is representative of internalizing spiritual sewage; how much more do we stink of sin before our God?
Brethren, the idea of the clean and the unclean is to teach us to put a difference between the spiritually holy and the profane things [sin]!
This is an analogy, just like circumcision is an analogy of true repentance and the removing of the covering veil of our sins.
Let me be very clear: AS God would tolerate NO unclean thing in his physical temple and commanded all Israel to avoid uncleanness: he will remove all spiritual uncleanness OUT of his spiritual Temple.
Why do you think that Jesus cast the sinners out of the Temple? To correct them and that sin YES! but also as an example for us that if we willfully sin or even tolerate sin in our assemblies we will also be rejected and cast out of the presence of God! See the message to Laodicea.
Almighty God will NOT TOLERATE any hint of sin in his Temple; which is his PEOPLE!
Lets get this clear: Almighty God will NOT tolerate anyone who compromises with HIS commandments or who breaks his laws; they will be rejected from being his Spiritual Temple!
Let’s make this even clearer: Almighty God will NOT dwell in a filthy sinful environment!
God’s spirit will NOT remain in a willfully sinful person! And we become willfully sinful the minute we begin to make excuses for sin; when we say that we are only weak flesh and that he will forgive, and then use that as an excuse to avoid any serious effort to overcome.
If we justify working on Sabbath [sunset Friday to sunset Saturday] by saying that God is love and he would not want us to lose our jobs: WE ARE SINNERS and God’s spirit will leave us if we do not quickly and sincerely REPENT!
Today apostate religion is FULL of tolerance and compromise; full of reasoning and excuses to not obey God and to do what we want regardless of what God has commanded; full of sin! We are carnal and worldly and we cannot distinguish between the holy and the profane, between spiritual cleanness and spiritual uncleanness.
We have quenched God’s Spirit and have become filled with faith in our own righteousness; which is spiritual FILTH and UNCLEANNESS in the eyes or our God.
1 Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
It is past time to repent and regain our lost passionate love and zeal for our Father and his commandments.
We have fallen away from our God and we know it not, because we cannot discern between what is holy and what is profane, between the spiritual cleanness of keeping all of God’s commandments with uncompromising zeal; and the sin of a shoddy, lukewarm, spiritually lazy form of love for God, fearing and loving the things of this wicked world more than the things of Almighty God.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands [purify your thoughts and actions], ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Other Forms of Uncleanness
Bodily discharges involve a loss of strength and are representative of the wages of sin [death], most especially blood is representative of death, for no higher life form can live without its blood, and sin requires the shedding of blood and the death of the sinner.
Menstruation is a continual reminder that by woman, sin and death came into the world and by a woman’s bearing of the Son of God to die for the sins of the world, sins are removed and humanity is reconciled to God.
1 Timothy 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. 2:15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
Blood is about death which is the result of sin.
To tolerate sin without serious condemnation of that sin and serious correction, is to lead those sinners to their death. Presented as love, this attitude is the exact opposite of love!
The other forms of uncleanness involve disfigurement, and disease; which is physical imperfection and is analogous to spiritual imperfection.
Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
This is also a part of the sacrificial law, in that a sacrificial animal must be perfect because it represents the perfection of Jesus Christ.
Paul speaking to the vegetarians about eating meat, tell us that these creatures which are sanctified by the Word of God may be eaten.
1 Timothy 4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 4:5 For it is sanctified by the word of God [sanctified in in Lev 11 and Deu 14] and prayer.
The lesson about Peter’s vision of the sheet of unclean things in Acts, was as Peter himself said; a lesson that the Gentiles could be called to God like the Jews.
Acts 10:28 And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
Therefore brethren, do not believe those who say that the unclean law was only an ancient health law.
The law of the clean and the unclean is about holiness, and it is a law from God to keep our physical bodies pure from the unclean thing, and to keep our minds, thoughts and deeds clean from all sin and impurity.
Consider how many brethren are full of vicarious sin! How many of us imagine some sin which we would very much like to do themselves but dare not, so we fill our minds with wicked thoughts or seek to live out our sinful fantasies vicariously by watching others do what we would like to do but dare not do!
Brethren, this is the sin of tempting ourselves, it is the sin of defiling our minds with sin even if we do not actually do the deeds, and it is the sin of lust and coveting to do the unlawful thing!
God will not hold us guiltless if we defile our minds, His House; with sinful imaginations and secret desires to sin!
Warning: Kosher certifying agencies go by their sect’s traditions and not by the scriptures. For instance many will permit the use of unclean bones and skins in the making of gelatin, and nearly all permit the use of unclean skins and furs for wearing, even though we are commanded not to even touch the dead bodies of unclean creatures. It is absolutely forbidden by God to use unclean skins and furs even as clothing.
Islam [Halal] also relies on the traditions of its various branches, allowing the eating of the camel for instance.
If you want gelatin the simplest way to get a clean product is to buy from a vegetarian outlet, which would sell Agar made from sea weed.