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Why is the World so Messed Up? Part Two
December 7, 2019

Last week we asked the question, "why is the world so messed up?" We found out the world is so messed up it will take a few weeks just to scratch the surface of the problems. Today's Bible study is joined by a companion sermon and sermon transcript. We found out that the world is messed up as a result of ignoring God and rejecting His way of life. Last week we looked at financial laws; this week we will look at food laws and the ten commandments.

Beyond the financial laws of God and the modern world where it seems that the rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer, more people are suffering from what is called food insecurity. People may not know where their next meal is coming from, and it is happening to more and more people, and not just the homeless and what we think of as poor. Food banks in the community can only take care of so much of the need. It’s important for each of us as we come across people who may need assistance to get their next meal, that we consider their needs and as God has blessed us, that we share with them the blessing that God has also given to us.

There are some reasons why we have problems with food insecurity that are related to financial inequalities in our society, where the rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer. There are also agricultural reasons why we have concerns with our crops.

Leviticus 25:19-22
And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.

The seventh year that is talked about in these verses was a year when the fruit was not harvested. It was a year when the ground was allowed to lay fallow, untilled, anything that would grow would simply be allowed to stay for the wild animals to eat, and when it became time to plow the land the next year, everything would be plowed under increasing the nutrients of the field. Today, we believe we should use artificial fertilizers to increase our crop harvests when what’s talked about in Leviticus twenty-five verse nineteen is organic in nature. Because we strive to cheat nature with how we grow our foods, it should not come as a shock to us when we have food insecurity, or when we have food that seems to be of increasingly lower nutritional value.

In addition to eating tainted produce, we also eat meats that are considered by God to be unclean. Some will look to passages from the New Testament, such as 1 Timothy 4:1-5 to look for reasons why we can eat unclean meats. The companion sermon goes into greater detail as to why this is a false understanding. We’ll look at a second passage from the Book of Acts that is also used to defend the eating of unclean meats. We’ll learn why this is false because Peter was being given a vision about salvation for the Gentiles.

Around lunch time, Peter went into what we might jokingly call a food coma today. His mind wandered; he was hungry. But in this case, we’ll see it was much more than this. It was spiritually brought on by the Holy Spirit so that Peter could learn something of great importance that he wasn’t willing to consider before this time. Peter saw a vision of every kind of animal, even common and unclean animals and was told by God in the vision to rise, kill, and eat. Because Peter had devoutly followed God’s dietary laws, this caused him great consternation. Peter correctly said, “I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” What most overlook is this vision was given to Peter right before a visit from representatives of a Gentile. A Roman Centurion, Cornelius. Right before these people made contact with Peter, God and the Holy Spirit gave Peter this vision that what was considered to be common, should not be considered common if God had cleansed it. Before this vision, Peter would have rejected these people. He would have seen these people as common, as unclean. God used this incredible vision not to tell Peter to eat unclean meats, but to teach Peter who was headstrong, who was stubborn, who needed information repeated to him often that Gentiles could be called by God, and when they are called by God, should be treated no differently than people who were Jews should be treated in the conversion to Christianity.

Acts 10:9-22
On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven. Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate, And called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there. While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them. Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come? And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.

The companion sermon goes into greater detail about clean and unclean meats. An easy way to think of unclean meats is to consider the function of the animal. Scavengers and predators are almost always unclean. Grain and grass eating animals are almost always clean. To find out more read Deuteronomy 14:3-21 and you will see that cattle, lamb, and goats are common four-legged farm animals to eat, but not the pig. Chickens, ducks, goose, Cornish game hens are birds to eat. Eagles and vultures are not to be eaten. In the ocean, lakes, rivers, and streams, we should only eat fish that have both scales and fins, meaning we will eat fish like cod and salmon, but avoid catfish and crustaceans like shrimp and lobster.

Something else that God taught from the very beginning of time that was codified for the ancient Israelites were the ten commandments. We tend to think that the ten commandments no longer apply because Jesus came and died for us. Everything that Jesus did was based on these ten commandments that he summarized as loving God with all your heart and all your mind and loving your neighbor as yourself. That’s a very good summary of the ten commandments where the first four commandments show us how to love God and the final six commandments show us how to love our fellow man.

We are not to anthropomorphize God, or to put God into the form of any animal, creature that we see anywhere in the earth that we know. God is much more than His creation. If we are going to commit ourselves to God, we have to commit ourselves to God in a way that is truthful, that is not phony. We cannot be the children of God in name only. The fourth commandment, the Sabbath day, is something that is ignored in today’s world. The Sabbath day as listed in the ten commandments is firmly understood to be what we would think of as Saturday on the modern calendar, from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. That’s the Sabbath that is talked about in the fourth commandment. Some people think, “Didn’t that change when Jesus died, because Jesus was resurrected on the first day of the week, wouldn’t that make that the Lord’s Day, and should we observe and worship God on the Lord’s Day?” That’s not what is discussed at all in the ten commandments. If we are indeed God’s children, we will listen to God, we will follow what He has for us to do, and part of that is following Him in the observance of the Sabbath day.

Exodus 20:1-17
And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

When we consider the final six commandments that teach us how to live with and love others, it’s easy to rush through the commandments and overlook the tenth commandment. Coveting is the lowest form and lowest common denominator to evils that follow. When we covet we almost always break all other of the final six commandments. Instead of coveting, we must be able to accept what God gives to us, and work hard to legitimately earn everything that we have.

Today, we looked at some of the reasons why the world is so messed up. We took a look at the dietary laws and the land laws. We reviewed the fact that every seven years the land should be allowed to stay fallow, and that anything that grows on its own accord during that year, should be tilled back into the ground so that the nutrients can grow and develop in the land.

We looked at God’s law of clean and unclean meats and we learned that many of the verses that people will look at as allowing us to eat clean and unclean meats really do not apply. They are a misunderstanding. And we also learned that the animals that are the unclean animals are really there to serve an ecological purpose. When we look at why the ecosystem is so messed up in the world, part of it is we are eating God’s natural garbage disposal system on land and in the ocean, and as a result the world is not as it was intended to be by God. The world is polluted and rather messed up.

All verses are from the King James Version.
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