The Dietary Instructions and Believers in Messiah

The dietary instructions are not presented as suggestions or health tips. They are given as commandments from the Creator to a people He redeemed.

The foundation of obedience is not fully understanding every reason behind a command. The foundation of obedience is trusting the One who gave it.

Just as a child may not understand every reason behind a parent's instruction, believers do not need to know every purpose behind a command before deciding whether it is worth following. We obey because we love and trust the One who spoke.

The Dietary Instructions Are About Holiness

Although obedience is the primary reason, Scripture does reveal several purposes behind the dietary instructions.

The most obvious is holiness.

Repeatedly, the dietary instructions are connected to being holy because Yehovah is holy. They were part of Israel's calling to be a people set apart from the nations.

The distinction between clean and unclean animals was not merely about food. It was a daily reminder that Yehovah's people were to distinguish between what is holy and what is unclean, between what He approves and what He does not.

Every meal became an opportunity to remember that life belongs to Him.

The Distinction Existed Before Sinai

Many assume the dietary instructions began at Mount Sinai.

However, Scripture shows that the distinction between clean and unclean animals existed long before Israel became a nation.

In Genesis 7, Noah already knew the difference between clean and unclean animals. Yehovah instructed him to bring additional clean animals onto the ark, and Noah later offered sacrifices from the clean animals.

This demonstrates that the categories themselves did not originate at Sinai. Sinai formally incorporated them into the covenant instructions given to Israel, but the distinction already existed.

They Teach Discernment

Throughout Scripture, Yehovah teaches His people to distinguish between holy and profane, clean and unclean, truth and error, righteousness and wickedness.

The dietary instructions fit into this larger pattern.

They remind us that Yehovah defines what is acceptable. They teach us to submit our own preferences to His wisdom. They train us to think in terms of obedience rather than personal desire.

In that sense, the dietary instructions become part of a larger lesson about spiritual discernment.

Do the Dietary Instructions Apply to Believers in Messiah?

This is where opinions often differ.

Some believe Messiah abolished the dietary instructions. Others believe they remain relevant for those who follow Him.

For believers who understand Messiah as the living Word of God made flesh, the question becomes straightforward.

Yeshua never sinned.

If the dietary instructions were part of Yehovah's instructions, then Yeshua never violated them.

Likewise, Scripture teaches that sin is lawlessness and that the Torah reveals what sin is. Messiah did not lead His people away from obedience but came to restore them to covenant faithfulness.

The promise of the New Covenant is not that Yehovah's instructions disappear. Rather, He promises to write His Torah upon the hearts of His people.

Through Messiah, believers receive forgiveness, reconciliation, and new life. Having been redeemed, they learn to walk in the ways of the One who redeemed them.

The dietary instructions do not save anyone, just as following the commands not to murder or steal does not save us. Salvation comes from Yehovah through Messiah alone.

Yet salvation does not make obedience unnecessary. Instead, obedience becomes the natural response of a heart that loves Yehovah, desires to walk in His ways, and seeks to remain faithful to the terms of the covenant we have entered into.

Conclusion

The dietary instructions were given by Yehovah to teach holiness, obedience, discernment, and separation unto Him.

Most importantly, they were given because He commanded them.

The question is ultimately not whether we can explain every reason behind the command.