One time during my regular study nights during bible school, I was going over the passage in the book of mark about where we have been taught for generations that Jesus made all foods clean. At the time, I was agreeing with this teaching, and was merely trying to better get to know our messiah and learn from his words.

Shall we?

Mar 7:1 The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus.
Mar 7:2 They noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.
Mar 7:3 (For the Pharisees and indeed all the Jewish people don’t eat unless they wash their hands properly, following the tradition of their elders.
Mar 7:4 They don’t eat anything from the marketplace unless they dip it in water. They also observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, jars, brass pots, and dinner tables.)

Let us set the scope for the discussion that they are about to have.

#1 – The Pharisees object that Jesus’ disciples ate without washing their hands first.

#2 – The Pharisees and ‘all the Jewish people’ follow the tradition of the elders. Which we find are different than the commandments of Elohim.

#3 – The traditions of the elders have special instructions on how to wash your food, hands, cups jars, brass pots and dinner tables etc. with the purpose of ensuring they are considered ceremonially ‘clean’.

#4 – We will see that the Pharisees are inferring that without conforming to the traditions of the elders, you will make yourself and the food you are eating unclean. THIS is the root issue.

Let’s continue

Mar 7:5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat with unclean
hands.”

I’d like to point out that traditionally this passage of scripture is used to identify how Jesus taught that he made all foods clean, BUT, this previous verse clears up what this passage is about, eating with unclean hands.

Perhaps it is a good place to re-iterate what is considered eatable to the Pharisees and all of the Jewish people cited in this passage.

Lev 11:3 Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.
Lev 11:9 “These you may eat, of all that are in the waters. Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat.
Lev 11:10 But anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is detestable to you.
Lev 11:13 “And these you shall detest among the birds; they shall not be eaten; they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,
Lev 11:20 “All winged insects that go on all fours are detestable to you.
Lev 11:21 Yet among the winged insects that go on all fours you may eat those that have jointed legs above their feet, with which to hop on the ground.
Lev 11:46 This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground,
Lev 11:47 to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.

That whole chapter should be quoted, but for our attentions sake, I’ve only quoted the summary verses.

The reason it is important to establish which foods are considered clean, and which are considered unclean, is to determine what the Pharisees and Jewish people would have considered food.

For us gentiles, we were not brought up with the commandments of Elohim regarding our diet, and we often eat detestable things that Elohim commanded were not to be eaten. Things like, Pork, and all of its derivatives, shrimp, lobster, catfish, rabbit, snake, and other strange meats.

Lets continue.

Mar 7:6 He told them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Mar 7:7 Their worship of me is empty, because they teach human rules as doctrines.’
Mar 7:8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
Mar 7:9 Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your own tradition!

Why would he say that? What was wrong with them asking why don’t they wash their hands before they eat? In what way is their tradition opposing the commandments of Elohim?

Mar 7:10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses his father or mother must certainly be put to death.’
Mar 7:11 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother, “Whatever support you might have received from me is Corban,”‘ (that is, an offering to God)
Mar 7:12 you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother.
Mar 7:13 You are destroying the word of God through your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other things like that.”

Here he is using an example of one of their other traditions that make the commandments useless. Perhaps easier to understand in an english context, instead of honouring your mother and father, that is, helping and supporting them, the tradition taught that if their parents earned or received any food or money from their child, that they should give it up as an offering and not keep it.

Basically, translated into our society, your traditions teach that it’s more important to tithe to the church, than it is to take care of your parents.
Thereby making the commandments of Elohim useless.

Mar 7:14 Then he called to the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand!
Mar 7:15 Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It is what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean.
Mar 7:16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen!”

AHA!! Finally! Here we go!! This is the root issue.

So lets sum it up, the Pharisees and Jewish people had traditions passed down to them from the elders. Those traditions contained teachings about washing their hands, cups and such, why? In order to prevent themselves from becoming ‘unclean’.

So our teacher here explains that it’s not what comes from the outside that makes a person unclean, (like the traditions had taught) but it is what comes out of a person that makes them unclean.

Now it becomes apparent as to what he meant when he said their traditions destroy the commandments, being, their tradition taught that it wasn’t good enough that Elohim set apart the clean animals, but they taught that clean became unclean, even if they are clean animals, until they were washed a special way according to the tradition.

The reason any of this matters is, by their traditions, they were teaching their own rules as the commandments of Elohim, and thereby causing people to feel guilty and believe they had sin, where there was no such commandment from Elohim like that.
Do you see? Sin comes by transgression of the commandments of Elohim, not the traditions of men.

It would be like me saying to someone, God will curse you because you smoke cigarettes. And that person believing me because of my status, getting all guilty and living in shame about something that Elohim made no such commandment about cursing cigarette smokers. Do you see?

So his commandments were destroyed in the sense as they became useless, and were given no authority compared to the teachings that the Pharisees and Jewish people held on to, the traditions of the elders.

Mar 7:17 When he had left the crowd and gone home, his disciples began asking him about the parable.
Mar 7:18 He said to them, “Are you so ignorant? Don’t you know that nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean?
Mar 7:19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and is expelled as waste.” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
Mar 7:20 He continued, “It is what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean.
Mar 7:21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come, as well as sexual immorality, stealing, murder,
Mar 7:22 adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.
Mar 7:23 All these things come from within and make a person unclean.”

Lets not forget the synoptic version from the book of Matthew, where he even closes his argument;

Mat 15:20 These are the things that make a person unclean. But eating with unwashed hands doesn’t make a person unclean.”

Amazing that he goes and clears it up for us, that he wasn’t teaching that we should throw away the commandments and eat whatever we want, but that he was dealing with the Pharisees tradition!

But again, for those who continually fight against their conscience and rebel against the commandments, and take a hold of the slightest chance to remain in ignorance, let’s deal with the parenthesis (Thus he declared all foods clean)

First, where in this passage or any other has the messiah taught that he came to change the commandments of Elohim? Is there any? There isn’t.

Next, we also know that if messiah came teaching anything that made the commandments of Elohim useless, he would be a false teacher, and thereby also a false saviour, and we would all be dead in our sins with no hope of a resurrection.

Do the Pharisees and Jewish people consider unclean animals, the ones they were taught were detestable, even food at all? Definitely not.

So very simply, thus he declared all foods clean, must mean something different than what we’ve been instructed and passed down from our forefathers.

What can it mean then? Let’s look deeper into this;

Act 10:14 But Peter said, “Absolutely not, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean!”

OH? Peter in his retort reveals that there is more than meets the eye; he claims that there is a division of clean, common and unclean in regards to food. Imagine that! It actually lines up with the passage in mark that we’ve been dealing with.

Clean = all the foods set apart by the commandment as eatable for the children of Israel.

Common = all the foods set apart by the commandment as eatable, YET not properly cleansed according to the traditions of the elders

Unclean = all the creatures and bugs and animals that are set apart as detestable and not for eating, by the commandment of Elohim.

So what did Jesus do then by declaring all foods clean?

He restored the commandments of Elohim to their proper authority, in that a person should not be judged for eating COMMON food, but according to Messiah, there is no division between clean and common. Making any sense to anyone yet?

So while we are here, we might as well deal with the foolish teaching that Elohim used the vision he gave to peter to help him understand that it’s ok to eat unclean animals.

We will see that peter actually interprets what his vision meant for us.

Act 10:9 Around noon the next day, while they were on their way and coming close to the town, Peter went up on the roof to pray.
Act 10:10 He became very hungry and wanted to eat, and while the food was being prepared, he fell into a trance
Act 10:11 and saw heaven open and something like a large linen sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the ground.
Act 10:12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals, reptiles, and birds of the air.
Act 10:13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter! Kill something and eat it.”
Act 10:14 But Peter said, “Absolutely not, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean!”
Act 10:15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “You must stop calling unclean what God has made clean.”
Act 10:16 This happened three times. Then the sheet was quickly taken into heaven.

Its interesting to note, that this experience peter had was several years after the resurrection of messiah, and according to foolish teaching, peter still didn’t get it! LoL, yeah right@!

Act 10:17 While Peter was still at a loss to know what the vision he had seen could mean, the men sent by Cornelius asked for Simon’s house and went to the gate.
Act 10:18 They called out and asked if Simon who was called Peter was staying there.
Act 10:19 Peter was still thinking about the vision when the Spirit said to him, “Look! Three men are looking for you.

Wow, is it so hard? 3 times the sheet came down in his vision, and immediately after, 3 gentiles show up at his door.

Act 10:28 He said to them, “You understand how wrong it is for a Jew to associate or visit with a gentile. But God has shown me that I should stop calling anyone common or unclean,

LOOK! BUT I was shown to not call gentiles unclean! What does that have to do with food? Nothing! Constantly we see that Elohim uses figurative examples for literal meaning.

Act 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said, “Now I understand that God shows no partiality.
Act 10:35 Indeed, the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him in any nation.

Excellent! Peter realizes with conviction that the visions had nothing to do with food, but they were regarding people, and that Elohim shows no partiality between races.

Later, peter retells the story further solidifying what the vision meant, and how it was powerfully necessary.

Act 11:2 But when Peter went up to Jerusalem, those who emphasized circumcision disagreed with him.
Act 11:3 They said, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them!”

look they are giving peter heck for eating with gentiles!

Act 11:7 I also heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter! Kill something and eat it.’
Act 11:8 But I replied, ‘Absolutely not, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth!’
Act 11:9 Then the voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘You must stop calling common what God has made clean!’
Act 11:10 This happened three times. Then everything was pulled up to heaven again.
Act 11:11 “At that very moment three men arrived at the house where we were staying. They had been sent to me from Caesarea.

Act 11:17 Now if God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to try to stop God?”
Act 11:18 When they heard this, they quieted down, and praised God, saying, “So God has given even the gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

So there we have it. If Jesus didn’t teach that he made all foods clean, and Peters vision has nothing to do with food, what else do we have to hold on to for our rebellion?
Over and over we are encouraged to walk as messiah walked, and to live our lives growing up into maturity to be like him more and more each day, so why is it so bad? Why is it so bad to do what Elohim says is good? If he goes through the trouble of explaining that certain things are good for food and other things are detestable and should never be considered food, why do we have issue with that? He even went so far to have that portion of his commands preserved for thousands of years.

This is really what it always comes down to, how much do you love Elohim? How much do you love the truth? Are you really an overcomer? Have you really been redeemed from the world? Then why do you continue to act and do the things the world does? Are we not to be set apart and live holy as Elohim is holy? Are we not building our lives and learning to live according to his ways? It all sounds good until we make a dramatic change in our lives.

We don’t like to be told what to do. Especially when it’s something we like or feels good. Can you hear the conviction of the Holy Spirit? It is sin to eat unclean foods. So what do we do? Harden our hearts like usual? Get pissed of at Dominic, and erase or stop reading? Or do we take the time, to pray, to read his word, to ask him to teach us, to help us to be aware of the lies we have believed, and to cleave to him, and TRUST HIS WORD, that he is for us! That is for LIFE! PEACE! And GRACE! Why do we fight so hard against his commandments? They are good holy and right. Hear the voice of his spirit and repent! And learn his ways, for the kingdom of Elohim is at hand!

Dominic St. Pierre, May 29, 2008

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