{UAH} Are we allowed to eat pork?

Are we allowed to eat pork?

21 November 2013, 11:02

Shalom

Many people are looking forward to a break after what has been a tough year, for many reasons.

And yes we do need rest. We actually need rest more than we realize. In setting up the weekly cycle, the Father created a framework that will have us work for 6 days but on the seventh we must rest. This is actually quite practical. When I say we 'must' I mean 'it is good for us to rest.' And this is essentially what the Sabbath or Shabbat aims to achieve. Yeshua taught that 'Shabbat was made for men and not the other way around'; the intention behind this was the well-being of men – it is to facilitate rest after a hectic week and to reconnect with loved ones. So we can conclude that Shabbat is about relationship or love not dead ritual.

Yeshua was quite a thorn in the flesh of the religious establishment of His day. Not only back then, but even today the religious establishment does not really like what Yeshua stood for, taught and demonstrated. His message was essentially that true worship of the God of Israel comes from within, the heart and works its way to the outside world. Religious establishment may not be courageous enough to admit it, but it actually encourages 'faking it.' In other words, it does not matter what is done in secret but if I can demonstrate in public that I am supposedly a good man then that's cool.

This is Babylon for you: a system of hypocrisy, lies, manipulation, ritual and above all dead religion. We will continue our discussion on Babylon another day…

And so religion is about dead ritual and secret codes that only ordained people truly understand. We are not allowed to question them because they have authority because they have been ordained and wear special clothes. By the way, have you noticed that Messiah never ordained anyone? He simply called people to follow Him. And following Him means to live with Him, to eat with Him and be around Him just like His first followers did back then in the 1^st century.  He was accessible to all, especially the poor and you could have a meeting/encounter with Him without scheduling an appointment. As a matter of fact, the Tanakh (Isaiah) states that He 'was anointed to preach the good news to the poor.' This is also in contrast with the practice today in the West of targeting the affluent of a city. This may be the way things have been done for some time now, but Messiah never did any of this. Messiah spoke against the false understanding that poor people were cursed and the affluent blessed. Did He lack business acumen or fail to understand the value of real estate?

Do you find this offensive? Well, read the Bible and let's talk. I have discussed on this very forum what so many people hold near and dear are but the traditions of men. As evil increases, these false beliefs will come under increased pressure. Are we trying to follow Messiah or what exactly are we busy with?

The key issue of Messiah's teachings was the heart or inner person. The Pharisees were focussed on presenting the right image, but their hearts were corrupt. They added a lot of rules and regulations, did not follow these themselves but expected others to do so and judged those who did not.

It is this sickening hypocrisy that is so prevalent in the world. A man says one thing but means another or does another. What we call political leaders are essentially masters of oratory skills who have learnt to say the right thing but do another in their private lives. South Africa has an abundance of this. Not just political leaders but businesses also collude to inflate prices of essentials but this is often overlooked. They may call for fair, transparent and good governance but they don't this in their own spheres of influence and authority.

So it's about the heart. Back then (and even today) people are deeply concerned that eating pork for instance would make them unclean, but Yeshua took it a step further and said that it is not so much what you eat that makes you unclean but rather what comes from your heart, your inner person, your secret motives and thoughts. How hypocritical is this: you may not eat pork but you may sleep with prostitutes? Now I have done a bit of reading up on pork and it would seem that pork is not good for us, but Yeshua took issue not with physical health here but spiritual health. He was therefore not contradicting the Torah but rather the exposed false belief. He was addressing the real issue, namely the heart.

Do I eat pork? Yes, but I don't like it so much. Pigs are just not cool to me. It's not a religious thing at all. Whether you eat it or not, is actually immaterial to me personally. Did you hear that? I said: it's immaterial to me. Remember the real issue here is not the pork, so move on…

Where did Yeshua get this concept of the heart from? He got it from the Torah/Tanakh as it is written in Deuteronomy: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul (will, emotions, mental faculties) and all your strength (hands, your outputs)

Can you see the heart is where it all starts?