Daily Reminder That We are Different

Deuteronomy 14:1–3 (ESV) “You are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. 2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 3 “You shall not eat any abomination.

You are either confused about the Old Testament dietary laws, ignore them completely or use them as an excuse to ignore other parts of the Old Testament - particularly laws about sexuality that you do not like. 

The other option is that you consider what God is TEACHING His people about who they are and that He has given them 3 reminders per day about this incredible reality.

Notice how the chapter on food laws begins. God calls them sons, then God calls them a people holy to Himself. The wording is intentional to make sure Israel is fully aware that their identity is sacred and tied to the Lord God over all creation. And because He is Lord over all creation He commends them to avoid certain parts of His creation. Israel is to live with daily practices of distinction. For them, apart from all other nations, there would be certain foods "clean" and certain foods "unclean." Why? Because they were distinct from the nations. They were God's "clean" and holy people set apart to draw other nations to Himself. 


So God calls them to regard who they are in Him at least 1 time per day (at meals) although it is reasonable that they did have more than one meal a day as God's blessed people. The fact is, Israel was to live with daily awareness that they were special, chosen and God's possession.

Christians are to remember this as well. However, we do not have any restrictive diet. We do have a baseline agenda for all that we do. That we are to do what we do for God's glory at all times.
1 Corinthians 10:31 (ESV) So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Taking the admonition to regard themselves as sacred to God there is a further instruction concerning those "clean" animals that may have died naturally. These too were hands off.

Deuteronomy 14:21 (ESV) “You shall not eat anything that has died naturally. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Yet here in the command is the allowance to share such meat with anyone traveling through Israel. What a strange request of God to make. Yet in the ancient world where meat would be far more a premium item than today, a stranger passing through Israel and seeing this nation give them what they would see as good fortune from the "gods" might initiate questions. "Why would this nation be giving me this meat? Surely it was a sign of their favor from the gods!" And the explanation they received would have been the furthest thing from their minds. But you cannot help think such actions would have intrigued any who traveled through God's holy nation.

Another consideration is that anything dying naturally would not have pointing to the crucified lamb of God by which we are saved and fed in our salvation. Israel was only to feed on sacrificed animals. This would indelibly link them with the atonement concept that is fulfilled in Christ. 

We are different. We do not feed on the things this world can naturally give us. We feed off the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ for us.