The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301-C, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 5." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1976. All Rights Reserved.
Question
Is there a blessing if we adhere to Old Testament dietary and medical laws or were they only for Israel?
Answer
Now, that’s a much-asked question. First of all, that which was given to Israel in the Old Testament was for Israel. So, they definitely were for Israel. Some of the things given to Israel were definitely medically beneficial. There were certain things that they were to do in terms of preparation of food, living in the age in which they lived, in the society in which they lived—those things became, medically, very, very beneficial. There’s an excellent paperback book called None of These Diseases, a little paperback by Dr. S. I. McMillen. Some of you may have read it. It’s very helpful in telling you why God gave Israel many of their laws regarding communicable diseases and dietary laws and what they could eat and so forth and so on.
Now, some of those laws had that kind of medical significance. Others of them were purely to isolate Israel from other nations. God wanted them to dress funny, maintain a funny diet and a strange calendar in order that it would make it very difficult for them to mingle with other nations, because God wanted a separated people, didn’t He? God wanted Israel as a light to the rest of the world and He wanted to be sure they couldn’t mingle so He gave them very, very difficult things, setting them apart. The process of cooking, the process of eating, the kinds of feasts and the kinds of things they had to eat seasonally, and that’s of course where we get what today is called “kosher food.” The orthodox Jews still will only eat that which is kosher, that which is accommodating to the Old Testament.
But, when you come to the New Testament age, those things that were dietary laws designed to separate Israel from other peoples are abolished because, in the church, the Lord wants to make the gentile and the Jew—what? One! And so those dietary laws are abolished. They are no longer binding. Some of them might be medically practical today; others of them aren’t because we have purer type food in our country. I imagine if you were living in a pagan country, if you travel at all you’re very careful what you eat. When we were in Egypt, we avoided those camel burgers and all that, and only Lenny ate goat steak and paid for it all the way to Rome, I understand.
There are certain things that you avoid in a cultural setting that wouldn’t be medically beneficial to or healthy for you. But in terms of any prescribed thing, you have to understand that as of the making of the church, Paul wrote to Timothy, in I Timothy 4, and said this: “In the last days, some will come forbidding marriage and abstaining from foods.” But Paul said, “I’m telling you, all things are to be received with thanksgiving." No longer are we under the dietary laws of Israel.
Now this was—in Acts 10—if you’ll turn to it for a minute, I’m show you what happened. Now, Peter had a vision up there on the roof in Joppa (he was sleeping there, getting a suntan) and he started out praying, but fell asleep. Not uncommon. And he fell into a trance. The Lord spoke to him and he saw this sheet come down from heaven and on this sheet, in verse 11, it says, “There was a great sheet and on it,” verse 12 says, “four-footed beasts of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and fowls of the air.” Well, here were a whole lot of things that Jews weren’t allowed to eat. Here he sees all these things coming down from heaven that he’s not allowed to eat and a voice says to him, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat!”
Oh...ho. That’s tough. In his vision, Peter hears this. And Peter says, “Not so, Lord; no way. I have never eaten anything common or unclean! I can’t eat those things! Jewish law forbids.”
“The voice spoke unto him a second time: ‘What God hath cleansed, that call thou not common!’” Three times He had to do it to get the message across. What Peter was really doing was being prepared to witness to Cornelius who was a gentile. The Lord was saying to him, “No longer are you separate from the gentiles. Everything’s clean; the gentiles are accepted into our economy; no longer any dietary laws; you can move right over there and you can witness to Cornelius.
Now, man, this was not easy for a Jew. Oh, this was really tough. Do you realize that a strict Jew would have absolutely nothing to do with a gentile? He would never go into his house, he would never be a guest in his house… In fact, the Rabbinic law said, “The dwelling place of a gentile is unclean.” Ceremonial unclean: you contact a defilement when you enter it.
I jotted down some interesting things about that: the very dust of a gentile country was unclean and it defiled when you got it on your feet. Have you ever heard of “shaking the dust off your feet”? When an Israelite came back into Israel, he always shook the dust off of his feet because he didn’t want to bring gentile dirt back into Israel. And it was like the grave; it was like the essence of death. If any Jew came back and mingled gentile dirt with Jewish dirt, he would defile everything that that dirt touched.
I’ll tell you an interesting thing that I learned in Jerusalem: do you know that every single building that is built in Jerusalem must be built with all materials from Israel? Nothing is allowed to be imported for construction in Israel.
This is what our Lord was saying. They went so far that milk that was drawn from a cow by gentile hands couldn’t be consumed by a Jew. Bread and oil made by a gentile couldn’t be eaten by a Jew. No Jew would have dinner or any meal with a gentile. If a gentile happened to be invited to a Jewish house, he could never be left alone in the room or every single thing in that room would be defiled; there had to be a Jew in there all the time with him. If they bought cooking utensils at the market and a gentile happened to sell them, they had to be purified by fire. If a weaving shuttle was made of wood grown in a gentile country or a grove devoted to gentile idols, every piece of cloth made on it was to be burned.
Now, folks, that’s pretty strict stuff. Now the Lord says to Peter, “Go on over to that gentile, Cornelius, and straighten him out and eat anything you want,” and Peter goes, “Whoaaaaaaaaaa. I can’t handle that, Lord.” But what the Lord was saying was, “No longer am I separating you from gentiles; I’m going to make of both of you one new man,” Ephesians tells us, “one church.”
No, I don’t believe that the dietary laws of Israel are any longer binding on the church…Not at all. In fact, I think God has made of us one, and in that oneness, those things have been erased. And I praise God, you know, for the beautiful unity of the church, that there not any separating things, but that everything is unified in Christ.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
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