Pork

“And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, ‘Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.’” -Leviticus 10:8-11 ESV

“And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, These are the living things that you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. Nevertheless, among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat these: The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.” - Leviticus 11:1-8 ESV

You might have guessed that my devotion time, this morning, was on Leviticus and I read the above (and more).  What I want to point out is that I grew up on a small farm and heard many times to make sure that pork was cooked well done to avoid getting trichinosis (round worms).  Thank God I live under the new covenant because I do like pork. But I paused and started thinking about this.

Pigs, raised in small farms, are prone to have trichinosis worms due to the scraps that they traditionally were fed (and the pens they were raised in).  My parents, who heard it from their parents, knew that unless the pork was cooked well, they could experience with great discomfort and possibly death an infection of trichinosis.  My ancestors figured this out and through oral tradition passed it on to each subsequent generation.

Now, let’s picture a nomadic tribe like Israel, wandering the desert for 40 years until they were ready (actually I believe it was until that generation that left Egypt died off) to conquer and occupy the promised land. They had flocks of sheep, oxen and goats and could have had pigs (but probably not cows in that area) but would have had to deal with the nature of pigs raised in that way to have trichinosis.  Being in a desert or arid environment, there probably wasn’t a lot of wood for fires and I imagine that ensuring well cooked pork would have been almost impossible. Compounding this, living in close quarters would make it easy to transfer maladies among them. It seems prudent to abstain from pork altogether. 

God has provided us many guidelines or laws by which to live our lives (that we’ll never be fully successful following completely).  Some of these are God’s law to worship only him because that is his commandment.  All of them are beneficial to us to follow whether we know why or not.  I imagine some of these Israelites questioned the prohibition against pork especially if they had experienced its magnificent flavor before the commandment from God.  However, it is easy to me to see why the commandment, given their circumstances, was better for them.  I can easily provide a defense for prohibiting sexual relations prior to marriage and every other commandment given to us.  That doesn’t make it easy.

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” - Romans 6:1-14 ESV

I saw a documentary that stated that, under modern pork raising practices, the risk of getting trichinosis from pork is very low to the point that you could eat a pork chop medium rare (the way I prefer my steak). I wonder, if the exodus were to happen today, whether God would have prohibited pork? 

I don’t know the answer to that. But now… I’m hungry for some bacon!