SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 14
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. [John 15:16]
Chosen for a purpose, blessed to be a blessing.
“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession.” [Deuteronomy 14:2]
The underlying assumption behind all of Moses’ Law is that Israel was God’s specially chosen, specially loved, specially blessed people – with a very important calling.
They were set aside by God to convey His blessings to the world.
The word holy means ‘set apart’: they were set apart from sin, for God, for the world!
The Law then designates specific practices and rituals to highlight that special status and calling – eating only clean meat, and tithing.
The question is, are these eternal laws or specific practices tied to the status and calling of Israel?
In terms of the clean and unclean distinction, we know with certainty that these are not eternal, but for Israel.
Mark makes an interesting observation based on Jesus teaching: “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) [Mark 7:19-20]
As for tithing, it is nowhere reaffirmed by Jesus or the apostles as an enduring practice.
Jesus’ reference to tithing [Luke 11:42] is not a declaration that all must tithe, but a specific reminder to the Pharisees (who lived under the Law) that they should have practiced followed the true intent of Moses’ Law.
The point behind these specific practices and rituals in Moses’ Law was to make a point: ‘You are to live differently, You are to think and act like my specially loved, specially chosen, specially called people.
Don’t live like everyone else, live like Me, live for Me!’
It’s not that some meat is eternally unclean, or that only 10% belongs to God and the rest is ours to keep.
Everything created by God is good; everything belongs to God!
I need to drill into my head and heart that I am God’s treasured possession, His much-loved child, chosen for the specific purpose of bearing fruit for Him.
I need to think and choose and love and speak in a way that reflects this.
This is my special identity.
Although I do not have to follow the specific practices or rituals of Moses’ Law, I do need to behave in a way that demonstrates my special status and calling.
It will affect how I eat, it will affect how I handle money.
It will affect much more…
PRAYER:
Lord, I forget so quickly who I am, and why You loved and saved me. Impress on me again my identity and purpose, and enable me to live accordingly.
‘You are children of the Lord Your God.’
We are kids of the kingdom and how does that come to expression that we are His? By what we eat. God’s people had this distinguishing mark that their diet was different than their neighbours because of what the neighbours did with their foods – offer sacrifices to their gods. Part of the reason could also have been for their own personal health. But God’s people were separate from the rest by this feature.
The second difference of God’s people was tithing – setting apart a tenth for the Lord and for His servants the Levites. Once again, a distinguishing feature of His people. Why?
God chose His people and set them apart. Serve Me He says and show your separateness by how you live. Your separateness is in all things – from what you eat to your finances. As my children, how do you live for Me. How do I live for Jesus a Life that is True? How do I strive to please Him in all that I do?
I am set apart. I am His. In my life style this day can other see that I am a child of the King? Belonging to Jesus affects my all in all. All I am and be needs to be for Him.
And so this day I need to remind myself that I am alive for His purpose. How am I serving Him this day in all I do and say? After all, I am Christian – just by name or by what I say and do?
Help me this day Lord to be our champion.
To God be the glory, great things He has done;
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,
And opened the life gate that all may go in.
Refrain
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things He has done.
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
To every believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Refrain
Great things He has taught us, great things He has done,
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
But purer, and higher, and greater will be
Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.