Dt 12:15 Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart. 16 Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water. 17 Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offering of thine hand: 18 But thou must eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto. 19 Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth. 20 When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. 21 If the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. 22 Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike. 23 Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh. 24 Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water. 25 Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD. 26 Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the LORD shall choose: 27 And thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the LORD thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh. K so this section starts off with the line that i forgot about during that convo i mentioned when i said Part of the duties of the priest back then was to be a butcher so if he was not the one making the killing of the animal & cooking it then it was not kosher - so it says anyone is allowed to kill an (as it were clean according to the dietary laws detailed in Lev 11 & Dt 14 back then as we went over before most likely these laws are under suspension in the NT age) animal that is not a sacrifice to God or a devil & eat it, just dont eat the blood, making sure to pour it out onto the ground. So my human reasoning went that because the priests are the ones trained by God in the proper techniques of draining the blood, they should be the butchers; however it is possible that they would train the heads of households in the proper techniques & werent around to supervise every killing. All i know is seeing as how i never killed an animal i was going to eat before, unless i am suddenly thrust into that type of situation due to a strange set of circumstances; i would like to get some training or advice from someone who knew how to do it the right way first, b4 i try it & wind up sinning against God because i did not drain the blood the proper way. The 17 verse starts in with the dont eat your tithes & offerings in your home town though, make sure to take them to the temple & offer them the proper way & there at the temple is the place that you can eat those animals; so again most likely is the thought that after they give their tithes & offerings to the priests whatever portion that the priest is supposed to give back to the person who is doing the offering gets it after it has been sanctified by said priests, & then they are to eat & rejoice, them their families & employees & the levites that are sprinkled throughout. So when we get to that passage in the latter part of chapter 14 saying take your tithes every 3 years if you live far away from the temple & feed the levites & the poor who live close to you with it (when you are doing this you are not eating any of your own tithe, cp. Dt 26:12-14); the other offerings are not included in the section so people are still expected to go to the temple during the appointed 3 times a year with the rest of their offerings even if they gave their tithes to the poor at home, whereas when they take their tithes in & if there is a surplus they may get some back to be able to eat. The 19th verse says dont treat the levite bad - back in the 12 verse of this chapter was the bit about how they have no inheritance; so that means that many of them who are wandering around the tribes have no land or place to stay - cp. Judg 17:7 And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. 8 And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. 9 And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehemjudah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place. - there will be many times that they are vagabonds looking for a place to stay. So i guess the message to us is when we meet a homeless Christian that we be nice to them & give them a job & place to stay if we have room or some food if we have extra or at least let them use our hot shower so they dont stink while they go look for a job so that they can get their own place - it is easy to tell some stink homeless person to Get a bath!, but it is hard for that homeless person who has to stay outside in the cold all night to take a cold shower at a public facility. The 20-27th verses pretty much repeat what we just seen - if you live far away from the temple you dont have to go to the priest & require his butcher services, you can kill & eat all the clean animals you want as long as you are not eating the blood. Both people who are ceremonially clean & unclean can eat - so there is nothing stopping a leper or anyone else who cant go to church from eating meat if the animal used to produce the meat was not a sacrifice to YHVH or a devil (this thought was in verse 15 but i forgot to mention it until now). Of course in the NT there is a passage about how it is ok for Christians to eat food that was sacrificed to a devil if they are mature enough (on a high enough spiritual plane) to know that the devil has no power & its curses cant affect you & that by doing it you are not twisting the mind of any babyhead Christians (1 Cor 8). The 23rd verse points us back to Gen 9:4 saying that the blood is the life so dont eat it & Lev 17:11 that says that blood is involved with atonement - & so we learn later on that because Jesus lived a sinless life here on earth His blood is the final atonement; but all blood is a symbol for His & that is why we are not to be eating any except in a symbolic fashion when we drink the wine during communion. Jn 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. 1 Cor 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. The 25th verse says that not eating blood will help to ensure things go your way as that is part of doing what is right in the sight of YHVH. - just make sure to take all your offerings to God to the place He put His name & dont do them any old place & after you give them to the priest, he will share with you whatever you are supposed to be eating out of them. So because not eating blood was repeated so many times in the OT & also found its way into the NT as a command (Acts 15:20,29) - that is why i preach that we shouldnt be doing it now in the NT age. As a result i am a bit concerned for all the Filipino Christians (guessing most of them are catholic) who eat blood sausage & other items on their menu that are made with blood in fact i heard there are many places in the world where blood is an ingredient in many items on their popular menus & so for a Christian to please God in one of those places they might have to appear to be a vegetarian. So i should be able to finish the chapter next time & until then let us pray that God gives us a heart that has mercy towards all the people who need our help (Christians taking the priority as the levites were mentioned first before the widows cp. Dt 14:29, 16:11) & that we dont just expect themselves to help themselves when it is so hard to get a job if you dont have an address or phone or hot shower; not to mention that when the police raid your homeless campsite & throw away your identification, it is close to impossible to get a new one as you now have no paperwork to prove who you are & ever since 9/11 you cant go into the federal building to get a new social security card which you need to get a new identification card if you dont have any identification & without an address to receive mail, you cant mail away for one either & it is close to impossible to get any decent (or even most junk) type of job in my country without any identification - so another way you can be a blessing to a homeless person is letting them use your address to receive mail.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 19:55:08 +0000