Cool to be Kosher

What does it mean to be kosher? And truthfully, does it really even matter? If we love Jesus, we don’t have to follow those Old Testament laws, right? Isn’t that legalistic? The answer is yes and no, and it can get complicated, so let’s try to make it simple…

Ultimately, Jesus is the trump card, and His blood covers us. Technically, we can love Jesus and have a great relationship with Him without following Old Testament laws.

However, ignoring the Old Testament is a huge mistake made by many Christians. For one, everything in the Old Testament is about Jesus and points to Jesus. And two, the ENTIRE Bible is God’s instruction manual for how to live a righteous, pure, clean and holy life connected to God.

Kosher comes from the Hebrew word meaning “fit, proper, suitable or pure.” In other word, this was God’s instruction for how we should eat for ultimate health, purity and longevity. Is it legalistic to wash your hands, separate sick people with infectious disease from others, remove human waste far away from your living area or to eat chicken instead of vulture for dinner?

Ok, I might be trying to be funny on the last one, but the point is that God created all things, He is our Father, and He knows what is best for us based on His design and creation.

These are all basic Biblical principles given as instructions for healthy living. God says not to eat vultures and pigs because they were designed to cleanse the earth and they eat dead flesh, therefore making them “unclean,” and therefore unhealthy for anyone.

Did you know that when the bubonic plague (Black Death) struck Europe in 1348 killing over 25 million people, the Jewish people largely were unaffected? Why? We now know the plague was a result of a bacteria brought over by rats from China.

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The Jews were following Biblical laws for hand washing and clean eating, which was not practiced by other Europeans at that time. The Europeans actually blamed the Jews for the plague, believing that they were bringing God’s wrath and judgment to Europe.

Look at today’s world. We are eating foods not designed by God, we have polluted our world, and we have a devastating amount of sickness and disease in our culture today.

We would never put Coca-Cola on our plants and expect it to live. A zookeeper wouldn’t feed the lions Doritos, ice cream and diet soda without expecting the animals to get sick and die, and hopefully you don’t do that to your pets.

Why? Because God’s design and God’s foods bring life; and unfortunately, man-made foods and much of what we are eating today brings sickness and disease. It is sad that many Christians have ignored the importance of clean eating in such a polluted world. God calls us to be pure, clean, holy vessels.

“Be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.” Isaiah 52:11

And then again in the New Testament Peter employs us to be holy.

“It is written, be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16

Peter is actually quoting straight from the Old Testament here. Guess where? Leviticus 11. So yes, you are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), He is Holy and He desires us to be Holy also. We need to be taking our bodies seriously and thinking about what goes into the body, your temple (1 Corinthans 6:19), because the Living God dwells there!

I would encourage anyone reading this to watch our free on-line video series called “Partnering with God” as well as “Foundation of Creation” where we go into this in much more detail.

It really matters how we live and yes, what we eat. God is clear on what to eat in Genesis 1:29 (every seed-bearing plant for food), and Leviticus 11 (clean and unclean meats).

If you are struggling with your health or just want to be healthier by believing, trusting and following God, then give this a try.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Choosing God is ALWAYS a win-win scenario!

 

–Vaughn Lawrence is a natural health care practitioner, herbalist and owner of Spirit of Health who lives by their motto: “We Love God. We Love People. We Love Health. www.spiritofhealthkc.com.