In the past several years our family has been made very, very aware of diet and health issues. These topics have become an integral part of our everyday lives and we have gained much benefit from the principals and patterns and yes, even laws that God gave to His people in His Word. It was quite an eye-opener to read and understand what all God had to say about such things as diet, hygiene, clothing choices, etc. . It was clear that God was not neutral in these areas and had much to say to His people if they would only listen.

Because God is not just concerned with whether or not you are saved, but is also interested in how you live your life everyday, that you follow His plans, and receive the benefits and blessings He intends you to have, or the consequences you have to endure should you choose not to, He gifted His people with many laws to direct their day to day lives, spiritual, physical and otherwise.

As is so often the case with Old Testament Law, God had much more in mind than just keeping His people in line. The significance of His laws in areas of diet, clothing, hygiene, etc. were to show His people and those around them, that they were His people, and He was their God, and He could and would take care of them as a testament unto the world of his love.

The following short article on hygiene came to me on Jordan Rubin’s Extraordinary Health e-newsletter. Issue 25 I found it quite interesting.

The History of Hygiene

Scripture tells us that the Israelites were healthier, had more wisdom, and provoked their neighbors to jealousy. Throughout history, the Jewish people have been the most hygienic and healthiest race on the planet-as long as they held true to God’s commandments.

In the past, their hygiene has protected them from virulent diseases. When the bubonic plague swept through Europe in the Middle Ages and wiped out more than a quarter of the population, many small pockets of observant Jews escaped the Black Death, which attracted much persecution. Medieval cities were filthy places without modern sewers or garbage collection, and rats (which carried the flea hosting the plague) lived in intimate contact with humans.

The Jews, however, knew that rats were “unclean” animals and stayed clear of them. They followed God’s simple hygiene commandments that the rest of the world thought were ridiculous. For instance, back in the Middle Ages, people used a “slop bucket” as the household toilet, and they became so inured to having sewage around that they slept in close proximity to their own human waste.

Compare this form of dirty hygiene to the Jews, who had been burying human waste since before the days of Moses. Nor would Jews of the Middle Ages drink from city wells because they knew the water was unclean. In order to stay kosher, Jews had to draw water from country springs.

Speaking from a hygienic standpoint, God’s chosen people avoided the Black Death like, well, the plague. This shouldn’t surprise us because the Jewish people have been keeping themselves separate and clean since they received this promise in Exodus 15:26 (NIV):

“If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”

Think about the context of this Scripture. The Egyptians happened to be the most medically, culturally, and technologically advanced people in the world. They invented the calendar and hieroglyphics, a system of writing using characters in the form of pictures. They operated looms to weave cloth for clothing and made paper from papyrus reed plants. They used geometry to reset the boundaries of their fields after the Nile flooded. Two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World lie within Egypt-the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the Great Pyramid of Giza. (And the Great Pyramid is the only surviving member of the Seven Wonders.)

On a medical note, they knew about diseases and attempted to treat them. Of course, the Pharaohs and their families eventually succumbed to what ailed them, but we know what diseases caused their deaths because the Egyptians discovered a clever method of preserving bodies to remain lifelike. The process, which we call mummification, called for embalming the bodies and wrapping them in strips of linen.

When modern-day scientists unwrapped and studied these mummies thousands of years later, they determined that Pharaoh and his family suffered from health problems that may sound similar to you: bone deterioration or osteoporosis, joint degeneration or arthritis, calcification of the arteries or heart disease, and malignancies similar to today’s cancers. In other words, the most medically, culturally, and technologically advanced society was populated by men and women with sub-par health.

Sound familiar? Could it be that believers today-God’s called-out people, the ecclesia, the church-are inheriting the health curses of Egypt rather than the health promises of Israel? These days, the United States of America is the world’s supreme superpower, but statistically speaking, we can hardly be called a world leader in good health.

We could change things around, though, if we live by honoring God’s commands–and that includes our diet and our lifestyle.

Perhaps if we as Christians were to pay attention to the principals and the intent behind God’s Laws (as opposed to shouting “We are not under law, but under grace!”) and keep them accordingly – not as any means unto salvation, or as a work required to please God, but as a means unto blessing, I think we would all be better off.

Not that we loved God, but that He loved us.

Allen