Friday, July 17, 2015

God Doesn't Hate Shrimp

I'm having a moment of allowing my emotions to be my engine rather than my caboose. People, let's get one thing straight. God don't hate shrimp, ya dig? If I read one more article that has some Biblically illiterate person compare eating shrimp or mixing fabrics with moral law, I just might seriously consider throwing myself off of the nearest bridge.

Old Testament 101: There were 5 basic divisions of Levitical law-- 1) Civil, 2) Sanitary, 3) Ceremonial, 4) Moral, 5) Religious. The purpose of these laws were to set Israel apart from the other nations. When God set Israel apart to be His own peculiar nation, there was no other nation on the face of the planet that worshiped God Almighty. None, zero, not one, they were all pagan.

Every. Single. One.

Therefore, when God set Israel apart, they were to be different from all the other nations-- literally and symbolically. Many times, the literal ordinances carried far deeper spiritual symbolism. When you actually read the New Testament, you know, the whole thing, you learn this little factoid. And since God had already purposed to send mankind a Savior since before we even needed one, He knew that Jesus would have to be born among a people that knew and worshiped God only. For Jesus to live and die sinless, sin had to be defined. God gave the Israelites laws to live by that completely separated them from all the other nations, and He expected them to live by those laws. It doesn't matter why, although there were several valid reasons I'm not going to get into them now. Regardless, no matter what the laws were, not obeying them was the sin. It was more about obedience and symbolic separation than eating the shrimp, ya dig? 

Which brings me to my first of two points.....when Christ died on the cross, He fulfilled that obedience IN FULL, TO THE LETTER. Get this please-- the purpose of Christ's LIFE was to fulfill the purpose of the nation of Israel. (Israel is still God's nation, nothing has changed in that regard.) However, when Christ died, God did a "new thing" (Isaiah 43:19). Thus, the purpose of Christ's DEATH was to fulfill the purpose of saving ALL NATIONS. 

Which brings me to my second point....the civil, sanitary, ceremonial and religious laws were particular to the nation of Israel, fulfilled by the life of Christ. However, the moral laws are universal and absolute and apply to ALL nations. The Apostle Paul reiterates exactly what those moral laws are throughout his letters which comprise the New Testament.
Okay, I'm done with my rant....

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