God Makes Us Clean - Deuteronomy 13-15

Deuteronomy 14:11-20 (ESV)

“You may eat all clean birds. But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the kite, the falcon of any kind; every raven of any kind; the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind; the little owl and the short-eared owl, the barn owl and the tawny owl, the carrion vulture and the cormorant, the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat. And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. All clean winged things you may eat.

The nation of Israel was to be a light to the Gentile world.   God gave them some very unique and special revelation about how that might look.  They were to look different and were to set themselves apart in holiness.  For this aspect of their lives, the above dietary laws were part of that requirement.   The very way they ate was to be a testimony about God in front of the world.  God’s point was that there are some things that He makes holy and somethings He does not.  In this case it was animals.   God was teaching that they He makes Israel holy but not the Gentiles.  That was the point. 

That is what made the story of Peter and the Gentile solider Cornelius in Acts 10 so unique.   Prior to Peter telling Cornelius about Jesus, God gave him an object lesson via a vision that portrayed a sheet coming down from heaven.  In the sheet were all the animals mentioned above in this text.   Both the clean and the unclean.  Peter was commanded to eat.  He refused, possibly remembering the above verses.  But this is where God gave him a marvelous revelation: 

Acts 10:14-15 (ESV)

But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

The point Peter needed to learn was that God was challenging how the message of the gospel was being delivered to the world.  Peter and the rest of the Apostles were conveying that the gospel was for Jews, ONLY.   Jesus sent this vision to change the message from Jews only to all those who believe.   He didn’t really change it, however.  That was the message all along (John 3:16).  They (the leaders of the church) had limited the message based upon their past misunderstanding of scripture.  This is the rejoicing of both the above passage and the Acts passage.  God is still in control of who He declares holy.  But it is no longer limited to the Jews. It is also for the Gentiles.