Christian Churches of God

 

 

 

No. CB19_2

 

Lesson:

The Biblical Food Laws

 

(Edition 1.0 20211205-20211205)

 

 

In this lesson we will review the Biblical Food Laws

 

 

 

 

Christian Churches of God

PO Box 369, WODEN, ACT 2606, AUSTRALIA

 

E-mail: secretary@ccg.org

 

 

 

(Copyright 2021 Christian Churches of God, ed. Wade Cox)

 

This paper may be freely copied and distributed provided it is copied in total with no alterations or deletions. The publisher’s name and address and the copyright notice must be included.  No charge may be levied on recipients of distributed copies.  Brief quotations may be embodied in critical articles and reviews without breaching copyright.

 

 

This paper is available from the World Wide Web page:
http://www.logon.org and http://www.ccg.org

 

 

Lesson:

The Biblical Food Laws

Goal: 

The children will learn about God’s food laws and begin to recognize clean and unclean foods.

 

Objectives:

1. Identify at least two clean and unclean animals.

2. Identify at least two clean and unclean birds.

3. Identify at least two clean and unclean fish.

4. Identify at least two clean and unclean insects.

5. Identify how many clean animals Noah took onto the Ark.

 

Resources:

The Biblical Food Laws (CB19)

Noah and the Flood (CB8)

 

 

Memory Verses:

Romans 2:13  For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

 

 

Format:

Open with prayer.

Lesson on the Biblical Food Laws.

Activity associated with the lesson.

Close with prayer.

 

Lesson:

1.      Read through the paper The Biblical Food Laws (CB19) unless it is read as a sermonette with the children present.

2.      Children’s questions are in bold.  This is a general review of the material covered in the lesson.

 

Q1.      Which two books in the Bible list the clean and unclean foods?

A.       Leviticus and Deuteronomy

 

Q2.      How many of each type of clean animal was Noah instructed to bring onto the ark?  What about the unclean animals?

A.          Noah was instructed to bring seven pairs of the clean animals onto the ark, seven males and seven females. There was only one male and one female for the unclean animals.

 

Q3.      What were Noah’s instructions about birds on the ark?

A. Noah was instructed to bring seven pairs of birds onto the ark.

 

Q4.      What does it mean to have a split hoof and chew the cud and are these animals clean or unclean?

A.        Animals like cows and goats have a split hoof which means their hoof is divided where a horse's hoof is one solid piece. An animal that chews the cud brings the food back up and chews it again before it is digested. Animals that chew the cud and have a split hoof are clean.

 

Q5.      Is pork clean to eat?  Why or why not?

A.        No, pork is not clean to eat.  The pig has a split hoof, but it does not chew the cud.  Pork products include most sausages, pepperoni, bacon and lard.

 

Q6.      Are we to eat the fat of a clean animal?

A.        We are able to use the fat of a clean animal to cook with, but we would trim the excess fat off of the meat before we eat the meat.

 

Q7.      Are we able to eat an animal that died of itself or was killed accidently?

 A.       No, we would not eat animals that died naturally or were killed accidently like in the case of a car accident, nor mauled to death by other animals.

 

Q8.      What are the 2 basic guidelines to know if a fish is clean and is able to be eaten?

A.        A fish needs to have fins and scales to be viewed as biblically clean.

 

Q9.      Are lobsters and oysters considered clean?

A.        No they are not; they do not have fins or scales.  By nature, these animals help clean up the waters they live in.

 

Q10.    Are birds like ravens, vultures, and eagles clean birds and acceptable to eat?

A.        No they are not clean; they are predatory animals and help clean the earth of dead and decaying material.

 

Q11.    What are the characteristics of a clean bird? Can you name some clean birds?

A.        Clean birds have a crop and typically eat seeds and such. Chicken, ducks, quail, turkeys, and doves are a few of the clean birds.

 

Q12.    Would God ever allow anyone to eat bugs?

A.        Yes, He does! The guidelines for insects are found in Lev. 11:20-23. Insects that jump or leap are able to be eaten. Things like locust, crickets or grasshoppers are able to be eaten as food. 

 

Q13.    In some countries people eat dogs, cats and rabbits: are these animals clean? Why or why not?

A.        Lev. 11:27 tells us animals that walk on all fours and have paws are not clean animals and therefore should not be eaten.

 

Q14.    Some people eat snakes or other reptiles such as alligators.   What does God tell us about eating reptiles?

A.        In Lev. 11 we are given the guidance of not to eat mice, geckos, snakes and reptiles.

 

Q15.    Are there scriptures in the New Testament that tell us that God made all food clean for us to eat?

A.        Many people believe that Acts 10 is the New Testament explanation of why God has now made all food acceptable to eat. However, this is not the case. Verse 28 shows us that the great sheet of animals was a metaphor and was representative of all types of people including Gentiles.  Peter was being instructed to go to the Gentiles as they were going to be called into God’s church. This passage shows us that all peoples will be brought into God’s blessings and promises.  If it were about food, no Gentile would have hope in Christ.

 

Q16.    Did Christ eat unclean foods?  Why or why not?

A.        In Matthew 5:17-18 Christ tells us he has not come to change one part of the law until everything is accomplished.  So therefore we would know that Christ did not eat unclean foods.

 

Activity Options:

1.      Alphabet Game:

Supplies:  Paper, markers or crayons or colored pencils.

Give the children a sheet of paper with the letters of the alphabet.  Have them start with A and write or draw an animal, fish or bird that starts with A.  Do the same thing for the remaining letters in the alphabet.  After they have all of their animals written or drawn, have them go through and label them as clean or unclean.  Example:  A - Alligator (unclean); B - Buffalo (clean); C - Catfish (unclean); D - dove (clean)......etc.

Younger children can work together in groups and each take five or six letters, older children can complete all twenty six.  If they can’t think of an animal, fish or bird for the letter X, maybe they can think of an animal, fish or bird that has the letter X in it (such as fox, or lynx).

 

2.      Noah’s ark game:

Supplies: pictures or stickers of various animals.  At a minimum,  have 8 male/female pairs of at least three or four different types of clean animals. For example: 8 bulls and 8 cows; 8 rams and 8 ewes; and 8 bucks and 8 does. Also have at least 8 male/female pairs of birds (both clean and unclean) including doves, eagles, ravens, etc. Have a variety of male/female pairs of unclean animals, such as a lion and lioness, pigs, male and female dogs, cats etc. Make sure you have more than one pair of some of them so not all of the animals will go onto the ark.

 

            Prep the area. Use a rectangle piece of paper and label it Noah’s ark.  On the opposite        side of the room, have all the pictures. Divide the children into 2 teams. Have the                  children standing where the pictures are located.

 

Ask the children on each team to pick up one pair of animals, yell out “clean” or “unclean” and race to the ark with their animal pair. Once their animals are in the ark they walk back to their team and tap the next person to start putting animals in the ark. Each team works independently yet collectively with the other team to ensure they only have 7 pairs of clean animals and birds and 1 pair of each of the unclean animals.  You can have a lot more animals than needed for the ark since we know not all animals were taken onto the ark.  For example, if you have 8 pairs of cows, then at the end of the game you should have 1 pair of cows that did not go onto the ark.  

 

3.      Other games:

The children can play charades. Once the name of the animal is guessed they determine if it is clean or unclean.  No supplies are needed if the children are coming up with their own animal names to act out.

 

The children can play pictionary. The child either draws a card with the name of the animal, bird, fish, reptile or insect or chooses a creature to draw. Once the other children guess the name of the creature the group discusses if the creature is clean or unclean with the rational why.

 

The children can play a version of “What Animal Am I?” Write animal names on index cards or pieces of paper.  Give one of the cards (face out) to each child and instruct them NOT to look at what is written on the card. Place the children in a circle so they can each see each other.  Lift the card up to their forehead so the other children can see it, but the person whose card it is cannot see it.  The person having the turn can ask yes or no questions only to the other children.  For example, “Am I an animal?”  “Do I live in the forest?” “Do I live on a farm?” Let each child ask three questions and take a guess before moving on to the next child.  Keep going until everyone has guessed their animal and knows if it is clean or unclean.

Close with Prayer