When the priests had been set up, and the tabernacle operating, they had to know the difference between clean and unclean. We are priests before God. We also need to learn the difference. We are going to find seven sections from here to chapter 17, each teaching what is clean and unclean about a different thing. Today it is about clean, pure food. We need to know the difference between clean and unclean in the things which we read and listen to. Anything of the unclean will harm us.
V.2-8 Animals which chew the cud and divide the hoof were clean and could be eaten. The animals had to do both to be considered clean. The carelessness which swallows down without slow digestion, and which rushes anywhere without consideration, is pictured by the animal which did not chew the cud and did not have a divided hoof.
V.9-12 The fish which did not have fins or scales were unclean. Fins enable a fish to push his way through the water. Scales resist outside attacks.
V.13-23 The birds which prowled around at night, and the one which could not be trained are listed. They were unclean.
V.29-45 The creeping things which dragged themselves along the ground were unclean.
V.46-47 We might say that a believer who is careful about what he reads, hears and sees, keeps himself clean from the world. God wants His people clean. So this chapter has good instruction for us. God’s Word is clean food, read 1 Peter 2:2, “sincere” means “pure.”