“‘You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.’”
Leviticus 11:47 (NIV)

I like to wear hats. I have a lot of them. Not the ubiquitous baseball cap, but actual hats like a pork pie and fedora. It’s funny how often people will comment to me about it. I suppose that it’s, in part, because I’m an Enneagram Type Four, the “Individualist,” and we actually like to be a little different. It’s a thing.

Beginning with today’s chapter, we’re entering a new section of the priestly instruction manual God gave his newly appointed high priest, Aaron, and his sons. It was also an instruction manual for the Hebrew people and how God wanted them to live. This section of the manual deals with being ritually clean and ritually unclean along with prescribed rituals for dealing with any uncleanness.

Today’s chapter begins with food. God tells the Hebrews that there are certain creatures they can eat and others that they cannot. In some cases, scholars have argued that the restrictions given had certain health benefits. For example, cud chewing animals tend to secrete the toxins of the food they chew so by the time it gets to their stomach, only the most nutritious part of the food is left and the meat of the animal is healthier. While this is true of cud chewing animals, this healthy versus unhealthy distinction is not clear through all of the various types of creatures God labels clean and unclean.

What is clear is that God has chosen the Hebrews to be His people. He’s already breaking all religious convention of that day by being the one and only God and by choosing a people to perpetually dwell with, lead, instruct, and provide for. With these instructions, God is ensuring that His people will be different from all of the other peoples around them. They eat differently, they have a completely different belief system, they behave differently, and live differently.

Hundreds of years later, when God’s Son, Jesus, shows up, He will instruct His followers that they are to be different, as well. He spoke of food, as well, but this time it was metaphorically. He said that everyone knows a plant or tree by the fruit it bears. Some bear good fruit you can eat. Some bear bad fruit you need to avoid. So, He expected His disciples to bear “good fruit” through our thoughts, words, actions, and relationships that are marked with love in all its positive varietal attributes. Jesus graduates the “difference” from dietary to spiritual, from food to behavior, from meat to love.

In both cases, the underlying mission is for the world to know God through His people, that they might see, believe, and follow. With his fledgling Hebrew tribes in the toddler stages of humanity, it begins with simple instructions for how to eat. It’s much like teaching a little child how to dress, eat, and wash their hands. God is taking baby steps in His relationship with humanity the way every parent does with a child.

So in the quiet this morning, I think back to my hats. It is a little different, which I confess that I like. Nevertheless, it’s not the different that Jesus asks of me, and of all His followers. The difference He wants people to notice in me is in the way I love them and others, the way He has loved me: generously, graciously, mercifully, humbly, and sacrificially. That’s a pretty “clean” and easy instruction. Lord, help me not dirty it up today.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.