March 7th Devotion

Deuteronomy 14:22-26 (NIV)
22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. 23 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always. 24 But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), 25 then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. 26 Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice.

Acts 10:9-15 (NIV)
9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. 13 Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." 14 "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." 15 The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

As believers, it is very important to rightly divide the Word. Today’s reading is a good illustration. Many Christians eat, pork, rabbit, shrimp, catfish as well as other animals that God called unclean. Acts 10:9-15 is the passage they quote to validate their choice. I am one of them and eat these animals. The point is that God once called these things unclean and later declared them clean. Although I am certain there are some, I cannot remember any time that a Christian said that they did not eat something because it is unclean.

Numbers 14:26 instructs the Israelites to drink fermented drink as part of the tithe, and rejoice in the presence of the Lord. I have heard many believers declare that God requires total abstinence, as if alcohol was unclean. I promise you that I am not encouraging drunkenness, but don’t know of one time that God declared “fermented drink” as unclean.

Love, Pastor Don