Just say, “No!”

“But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine.”  Daniel 1:8
 
In Deuteronomy 14:4-10, God commanded Israel to eat only foods pronounced clean by Him and to abstain from all foods He deemed unclean.  In other words, Israel was placed on a permanent fast from certain types of foods by God Himself.  God explained to Israel in Leviticus 11:44-45 that their diet was restricted so that the Israelites would reflect His holiness in every aspect of their lives, including how they ate, to the surrounding nations and to the rest of the world.  Adherence to God’s commands would cause the other nations to turn from their idol worship in order to worship the One True God (Deuteronomy 4:5-8).

Israel’s obedience to God’s commandments in Deuteronomy 14:4-10 would have resulted in the nation fulfilling the mandates of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 and Romans 12:2.  Specifically, Israel would have exemplified that obedience to God’s word is better than sacrifice.  As she obeyed God, she would have automatically presented herself as a living sacrifice, as Romans 12 dictates, because the nation, collectively, would honor God with each individual person’s body (1 Corinthians 6:20) by choosing to give up the unclean things in reverence to and worship of the Lord, causing others to follow Israel’s example and turn from their sin.  
 
Instead of glorifying God in this way, Israel failed to fulfill God’s plan for her, and now Christians are in danger of doing the same.  The difference is that in the New Testament, God declared to the Apostle Peter in a vision that all creatures were clean (Acts 10:9-16).  Peter explained that the dream was not only about what Christians were allowed to eat, but it also extended to the Gentiles, whom the Jews considered unclean for many reasons.  Specifically, the Jews considered the Gentile people unclean because the Jews were commanded not to marry Gentiles, the Gentiles were accused of shedding blood, and the Gentiles defiled themselves by killing and eating the animals previously declared unclean by God.  As a result, the Jews would not eat with, drink with, or enter the homes of Gentiles.[1]  The realization that the vision extended to people occurred when the Holy Spirit directed him to go to the home of a Gentile at the conclusion of the dream.

Galatians 2:11-21 confirms that the dream meant not only that the Gentiles should no longer be considered unclean, but also food consumed by the Gentiles was permissible to eat, too.  Otherwise, Peter would not have been able to accept the hospitality of Cornelius, the Roman soldier whose home Peter entered in order to preach the gospel of Christ.  Specifically, in Galatians 2, Paul admonished Peter for refusing to sit with Gentiles who had been converted to Christianity in the presence of other Jewish Christians:
 
“But when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed, for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.  And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.
 
”But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, ‘If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?  We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified…  I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law then Christ died in vein.”  Galatians 2:11-16 & 21
 
Consequently, the modern church is not subject to the food restrictions imposed on Israel.  On the contrary, God has graciously given us the freedom to choose what we eat and what we abstain from eating in order to honor Him.  Nevertheless, God confirmed His Old Testament commandment to eat for His glory in 1 Corinthians 10:31.  
 
“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”  1 Corinthians 10:31


[1] Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible on http://biblehub.com/acts/10-28.htm.