Jesus Didn't Eat Pork

I wanted to write about the dietary laws found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Most of the Christians I know do not consider them binding on them because they are not Jewish. Sha'ul wrote in Eph'siym (Ephesians) 2:12: "That at that time you were without Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Yisra'el and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no expectation and without Elohim in the world." Sha'ul is instructing the Gentiles that it was through Yeshua that they became partakers in the covenant to Israel. That covenant includes limitations on what you eat. While I don't think that the dietary restrictions were related to one's physical health, I do consider a disregard of them to be dangerous to one's spiritual health.

According to Shmuel Golden's Unlocking The Torah Text, the following reasons are suggested for the Kosher laws:
1. [They] "help maintain a clear separation between the Jewish people and surrounding cultures.
2. [They] train each Jew toward a disciplined lifestyle marked by the acceptance of God's will.
3. [They] connect the ordinary act of eating to Jewish law, thereby injecting God-awareness into the daily life of each Jew.
4.[They] cultivate the people's recognition of their own powers of self-control."

Goldin further explains, "To live a sanctified life, we must always be in control of, rather than controlled by, our passions. Through continued abstinence from those foods prohibited by the Torah, the Jew learns to control his own desires by bending them to God's will." We live in an age of entitlement. People, especially in the "church," believe that they are free to pick and choose what part of YHWH's word applies to them. The far better approach is to see the world as a gift from YHWH and man is "entitled" to only which YHWH allows. As I honor the Kosher laws, I am reminded three times a day who is in charge of my life. Three meals a day remind me to be submissive to Him and obey His word. Yeshua didn't eat pork. Yeshua doesn't eat pork today. And, Yeshua will not be eating pork tomorrow. So, why do you want to? Who is the real authority in your life? Remember, do not sow mingled seed.