Deuteronomy 14

Until I was well into my teenage years, I believe the only meats I had eaten were beef, pork, chicken, turkey, duck, and fish. It wasn't until my adolescence that I discovered the delectable delights of lamb, lobster, crab, clams, and especially shrimp and calamari. If I had been an Israelite in the Old Testament times, however, I would never have been able to eat pork, bivalves, shrimp, and Admiral Ackbar's brethren. (I still find it funny that in Return of the Jedi, George Lucas went all out and called Admiral Ackbar's species "Mon Calamari." I mean, he didn't even try to disguise it.) As I probably mentioned before, I'm someone who eats to live rather than lives to eat, so a life without bacon, carnitas, al pastor, pulled pork sandwiches, clam chowder, fried calamari, and tempura shrimp would be a little less tasty, but I could live with it. And if you never eat it in the first place, how can you know what you're missing?

Moses also reminds the Israelites: "Do not eat anything you find already dead" (verse 21). Although the purpose for this stipulation was probably to prevent the Israelites from accidentally consuming blood or some other unclean part of the animal, this rule has hygienic benefits as well. Many animals (particularly lobsters and crabs, though the Israelites didn't have to worry about those) contract germs soon after they die as their bodies begin to decompose. The Israelites probably didn't know the scientific reasons for this phenomenon, but I'm sure more than a few found out the hard way after eating a dead animal they had found just lying there.

Moses then moves on to tithing. I find it interesting that not all of the tithed offerings went to the Levites or the poor. Sure, some of it did (verses 27 and 29), but some of it was also meant to be eaten by the offerer as a celebration in the presence of God (verse 26). When Christians tithe today, many do so by offering monetary funds. I don't know about you, but I don't much fancy the idea of eating bills, coins, or checks. They also don't get their tithes back (which would be pointless). However, I do believe that God rewards tithing in other ways, sometimes in ways that we may not perceive or discern right away--and sometimes not until after we "shuffle off this mortal coil," to quote Shakespeare's indecisive prince.

Moses is basically reiterating a lot of the Leviticus laws in this chapter, so he doesn't utter a whole lot, if any, personal nuggets. However, I do find the end of verse 21 strange. He seemingly concludes the section on clean and unclean food, saying "you are a people holy to the LORD your God." Strong, robust conclusion, right? However, he then adds on, "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk." If I were proofreading Moses's speech, I would ask him, "Why did you put that dangling at the end there? Why don't you move it to earlier, or at least add a more emphatic conclusion after?" Then again, I'm sure rhetoric was much different thousands of years ago. Especially because many people in Western society now have the attention span of a gnat.