You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud. – Leviticus 11:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 26, 2015): Leviticus 11

I recently read an online article entitled “8 Things that Happen When You Finally Stop Drinking Caffeine” (from Women’s Health). What I was expecting was an article on the eight great ways that my life would change once I got rid of caffeine out of my diet. But the article was actually a little mixed in its opinion about the substance. And, to be honest, the article was speaking almost directly to coffee drinkers, so my daily habit of Diet Coke simply did not apply. Still, there were some interesting arguments about the negative and the positive effects that the drug has on our lives.

On the positive side, if you cut out caffeine you may just lose weight, although admittedly that weight loss effect only applies to those among us who drink our caffeine with lots of added sugar - a Tim Horton’s double-double is not an effective weight loss strategy. A second positive was that you will sleep better and have more energy – probably one of the more obvious effects of removing a stimulant from your diet. Third, you will feel calmer – once again this is due to the removal of the stimulant from your diet. The fourth positive was that your tummy will be happier. Caffeine is acidic and it speeds up your digestive system (this I did not know). Therefore, eliminating caffeine will also most likely eliminate your emergency trips to the bathroom.

But not all of the effects were positive - some were negative. To start with, you are going to feel horrible, at least for a while. Caffeine is highly addictive and it will actively fight its removal from your life. While you might lose weight, especially if you add a lot of sugar to your coffee, you might also gain weight because caffeine is a very powerful temporary appetite suppressant. As well, if you drink your coffee black, it might be burning more calories to process the drink than the drink actually provides. Another negative effect is that your workouts will suffer. Again this is tied to the stimulating properties of caffeine - it gives you the energy you need for workout that lies ahead of you. But maybe one of the most surprising negatives for me was that to stop drinking coffee will remove the number one source in North America for those precious antioxidants (hmm, maybe I need to start drinking coffee.)

The problem with Israel’s dietary laws is that they are also a bit of a mixed bag. The eating of animals that chew their cud actually makes some sense. Animals that chew their cud have multiple stomachs and digest their food more completely. The result is that the meat of these animals has more nutrients and less poisons then the meat does in animals that do not chew their cud. But arguments for the eating of only animals that have a divided hoof somehow seem contrived and silly (at least to me personally.)

So some scholars have wondered if rather than a strictly health principle at work with the dietary laws (which is definitely there – we could probably all use less bacon in our diet) there just might be a spiritual principle. Their argument goes something like this. When an animal chews his cud, they stop actively grazing, often they lie down and concentrate on the contents that are being brought up from the first stomach into the mouth to be chewed and then sent back down to the second stomach. Is it possible that the spiritual lesson that we are to learn is that this law which God is giving to us is not to be simply followed, we are to meditate on it and understand the reasons behind it. Only then will we be able to make informed choices as we apply the law to our lives. The spiritual lesson from the divided hoof (and Moses makes it clear that the hoof is to be fully, not just partially, divided) is that Israel was to exist as a people that were separate from the nations around them. They were to provide the example for the world and not conform to it. The goal was always that the world would be transformed by the power of God – and through the example set by Israel.

And the goal has never changed. The Christian church exists as an extension of, and never a replacement of, Israel. We are to meditate and understand how Jesus law of love is supposed to shape our decision making. We still exist as a separate and holy people whose goal is nothing less than the transformation of the world from a secular worldview based often on hate and greed to one that functions on love and acceptance. And on this we must never waver.

In the end God would stress to Peter that nothing that he has created is unclean. And in this conversation he makes it very clear that we are to love all people – not withstanding all of those things that we sometimes mistakenly believe that separate us.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 12