“Thou shall not kill”
The consumption of meat was permitted in the Law of Moses, but sparingly and begrudgingly. People only ate meat when it was presented to a priest in which the list of “clean” animals in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 were those that were acceptable to present as sacrifices at the altar. The blood and fat had to be drained, the liver and kidneys placed upon the altar, eating the blood was forbidden, etc.
[Leviticus 17:3-5] “Any man from the house of Yisra’ĕl who slaughters a bull or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or who slaughters it outside the camp, and does not bring it to the door of the Tent of Meeting, to bring an offering to יהוה before the Dwelling Place of יהוה, blood-guilt is reckoned to that man. He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people, in order that the children of Yisra’ĕl bring their slaughterings which they slaughter in the open field.
The point of these sacrifices was to accrue guilt on the person making the sacrifice, so they would not commit the sin again, realizing that it should be them that should be put to death for sinning and not the animal. It was supposed to be a once-and-for-all means to stop sinning and repent. However, the Israelites never wanted to repent, but wanted to perpetuate sacrifices instead because of their appetites for meat, as evidenced by the event in Numbers 11 where the Israelites demanded meat out of contempt for manna, in which God sent them quail to gorge on until they became sick and died. The chapter records two prophets, Eldad and Medad, who were warning people not to eat the meat, which proves that it was never God's will for the Israelites to eat meat in general. This is evident in Exodus 16:4 where God said his law was to eat bread (rather than meat), and this was before the Law was given to Moses, and before the law of sacrifice was instituted.
[Exodus 16:4] And יהוה said to Mosheh, “See, I am raining bread from the heavens for you. And the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, in order to try them, whether they walk in My Torah or not.
[Numbers 11:4-6] And the mixed multitude who were in their midst lusted greatly, so the children of Yisra’ĕl also wept again and said, “Who is giving us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate without cost in Mitsrayim [Egypt], the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic, but now our throat is dried up. There is naught to look at but this manna!”
The perpetuation of sacrifices meant the perpetuation of sin which is why the sacrificial system never saved anyone (Hebrews 10:4). It was not because the Law was flawed, but because it was being abused. It was intended to purge sin and not to be practiced as a routine meal. Offering sacrifices was not the point of the law, but actually the penalty for breaking the law. It was to deter the Israelites from sinning which is why the law of sacrifice was instituted to begin with.
[1 Timothy 1:8-10] And we know that the Torah is good if one uses it legitimately, knowing this: that Torah is not laid down for a righteous being, but for the lawless and unruly, for the wicked and for sinners, for the wrong-doers and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for those who whore, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and for whatever else that is contrary to sound teaching,
Even when sin was committed, slaughter was not the only option available for offering.
[Leviticus 5:11] But if he is unable to bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, then he who sinned shall bring for his offering one-tenth of an ĕphah of fine flour as a sin offering. He puts no oil on it, nor does he put any frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering.
One could even bypass all the laws of sacrifice by becoming a Nazarite with a lifetime oath (Numbers 6), which consisted of a life of righteousness which is what Moses desired the whole nation of Israel to become. Nazarites were forbidden to touch dead bodies (Numbers 6:6) which necessarily means they did not put meat into their bodies (2 Kings 4:38-41).
[Numbers 11:27-29] And a young man ran and informed Mosheh, and said, “Eldaḏ and Mĕyḏaḏ are prophesying in the camp.” And Yehoshua son of Nun, Mosheh’s assistant from his youth, answered and said, “Mosheh my master, forbid them!” Then Mosheh said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Oh, that all the people of יהוה were prophets, that יהוה would put His Spirit upon them!”
The law was intended to guide Israel into righteousness, but instead of graduating from it (Galatians 3:24-25), they failed because they didn’t want to listen to God. They were stubborn against Moses and turned away from God after Joshua passed. They were even faithless before the Exodus began.
[Exodus 5:20-21] And when they came out from Pharaoh, they met Mosheh and Aharon who stood there to meet them. And they said to them, “Let יהוה look on you and judge, because you have made us loathsome in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants, to give a sword in their hand to kill us.”
[Exodus 32:9] And יהוה said to Mosheh, “I have seen this people, and see, it is a stiff-necked people!”
[Psalm 95:9-10] When your fathers tried Me, have proved Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.’
[Judges 2:1-2] And the Messenger of יהוה came up from Gilgal to Bokim, and said, “I led you up from Mitsrayim [Egypt] and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers, and I said, ‘I do not break My covenant with you, and as for you, do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land—break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done?
[Jeremiah 7:21-24] Thus said יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your slaughterings and eat meat. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, about matters of burnt offerings or slaughterings. But this word I did command them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I shall be your Elohim, and you be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, so that it be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in the counsels, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.”
The fact that eating meat was only allowed as offerings with restrictions indicates that it isn’t what God had in mind, not just from the beginning (Genesis 1:29), but within the Law of Moses itself.
[Deuteronomy 8:6-20] Therefore you shall guard the commands of יהוה your Elohim, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For יהוה your Elohim is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you eat bread without scarcity, in which you do not lack at all, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you dig copper. And you shall eat and be satisfied, and shall bless יהוה your Elohim for the good land which He has given you. Be on guard, lest you forget יהוה your Elohim by not guarding His commands, and His right-rulings, and His laws which I command you today, lest you eat and shall be satisfied, and build lovely houses and shall dwell in them, and your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and your gold are increased, and all that you have is increased, that your heart then becomes lifted up, and you forget יהוה your Elohim who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim [Egypt], from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and awesome wilderness—fiery serpents and scorpions and thirst—where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, in order to humble you and to try you, to do you good in the end, you then shall say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand have made for me this wealth!’ But you shall remember יהוה your Elohim, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, in order to establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is today. And it shall be, if you by any means forget יהוה your Elohim, and follow other mighty ones, and serve them and bow yourself to them, I have warned you this day that you shall certainly perish. Like the nations which יהוה is destroying before you, so you are to perish, because you did not obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim.”
[Deuteronomy 11:13-17] And it shall be that if you diligently obey My commands which I command you today, to love יהוה your Elohim and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your being, then I shall give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, and you shall gather in your grain, and your new wine, and your oil. And I shall give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be satisfied. Guard yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other mighty ones and bow down to them. Then the displeasure of יהוה shall burn against you, and He shall shut up the heavens, and there be no rain, and the land not give its increase. And you shall perish quickly from the good land which יהוה is giving you.
Due to the fact that the Leviticus sacrificial system does not exist any more means the all meat sold in the grocery stores and markets, including Kosher meat, is in violation of the Law. The fact that all meat is slaughtered without the Law's regulations, and the fact that most slaughter animals are fed GMO feed, and therefore are GMO, makes the meat an abomination. Any Christian who, therefore, uses Leviticus 11 or Deuteronomy 14 to justify his carnism is “justifying himself by the works of the law” (Galatians 2:16).
[Deuteronomy 14:3] Do not eat whatever is abominable.
Ultimately the simple command “Thou shall not kill” should be apparent and obvious to those who believe the Bible that a vegan ethic is what God has had in mind all along. God said that by obeying His commands “may you live and that it may be well with you,” which means that God made his laws with our best interests at heart. Considering that eating meat causes degenerative diseases, like cancer, is not in our best interests, and is not “well with you.”
There are passages like Deuteronomy 12:20 has God granting permission to “eat as much meat as one desires,” but this is not out of the bounds of the restrictions laid out two chapters later (ch.14). In the same chapter (ch. 12), the command not to eat the blood is reinstated from Genesis 9:4. The meat had to be drained of its blood to the best of one’s ability before eating it. Consider the spirit of this law. Blood is made of blood cells. Even if you were to strenuously drain as much blood as you can from the meat and cook as much out to the point of it being extra-well done, the blood cells are still present. Where there are blood cells there is blood, therefore, don’t eat it.
This permit in 12:15, 20 was for sinners who were unwilling to obey God in full, but anyone who is righteous would apply the spirit of the Law and “do what is good and right in the eyes of יהוה” (Deuteronomy 12:28). In other words, obey your conscience. Eating meat is never done according to anyone’s conscience. Think about the meaning of the command “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:39). Earth is our home. We share it with the animals who live here. They are not only our neighbors but our housemates. Therefore, killing them would be breaking God's law. Abstaining from meat altogether is the only way to fulfill that particular law.
The idea of the Law was to point the Israelites to the path of righteousness, and its goal was to make them righteous and perfect in the eyes of God to where sacrifices were no longer needed. This is what Paul meant when he said, “Christ is the end of the Law” (Romans 10:4) and what Yahushua meant when he said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). Yahushua was in this graduated state of righteousness that the Law of Moses was designed to school the Israelites into (Galatians 3:24-25). The Israelites, however, decided to go astray in the opposite direction and failed the trials that God tested them in the wilderness, and even continued to sin once in the Promised Land (I will cover more about this in part 2). They provoked God on numerous occasions during their journey, and the mercy which God extended to them was in spite of their treachery and only because of the promise he made to Abraham.
So what about the Passover lamb?
This was God’s commandment concerning Passover:
[Exodus 12:18-20] In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra’ĕl, whether sojourner or native of the land. Do not eat that which is leavened — in all your dwellings you are to eat unleavened bread.
Now the instructions in Exodus 12:8-11 before the above law was given were only for that present generation of Israel. The Exodus was a flight so rushed that the Israelites didn’t have time to buy/make paint, or didn’t have access to it at all. Lamb’s blood was their only option and was the quickest way they could mark their doorposts. Everything had to be done in haste. A population of roughly 600,000 Israelite “men on foot” (excluding women, children and elderly men, Exodus 12:37) had to pack up their possessions, round up all livestock, slaughter the lambs, paint their doorposts, prepare their meal, and eat it in haste with their “loins girded, sandals strapped and staffs in hand” (v. 11) all in one night and burn any leftover food in the morning. Some sources have given a rough estimate of a total population of 2.4 million people (600,000 × 4) who were prepping for delivery from Egypt in a single night, and this figure doesn’t include the non-Hebrews who left with them (12:38). This was indeed one of the greatest miracles recorded in the Bible. Clearly this was an act of God, for without, the anxiety alone would have been disastrous.
The celebration of Passover is all about the fact Israel had no time to allow their bread to rise and had to exclude leavening to make bread in haste, and of God’s breaking of Egypt’s rule over His people. On a spiritual level, the unleavened bread symbolizes the unleavened soul—a deflated ego, without which it is impossible to fulfill the law of God—to have it written in your heart (Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10). Therefore, Passover is about the upholding of the Spirit of the Law, the spirit of righteousness, which in this case would be “don’t kill any sentient being period.” Survival is the only exception, but only in extreme cases, see 1 Kings 17:6.
The Bible commands the commemoration of the Passover, but not a re-enactment of it. To re-enact the Passover is to make it a celebration of the death of numerous firstborns, which is clearly not what God had in mind. This would be like Americans commemorating 9/11 by re-enacting the event—by flying a plane into a skyscraper (or detonating one). There are laws in Numbers 28 and Deuteronomy 16 which demand a Passover sacrifice, but it doesn’t really refute anything that has been written in the article. The law was written for sinners (all of which are under the Law) as instruction on how to be righteous, then assuming that the person following it does so faithfully and spiritually, will graduate from it in due time. If Israel had been obedient and faithful to God in the first place, then the law of sacrifice would never have been given to Moses. Why the sacrificial system existed in the first place is because of their carnivorous appetites for flesh and not being satisfied with manna. But even the laws in Numbers 28 and Deuteronomy 16 do not issue the command for re-enactment.
Concerning the Law, you can eat meat while pretending to obey it and provoke God with your legalism, or you can obey the spirit of the Law and abstain from it. Otherwise, you bear false witness against God alleging he gave you the green light to eat a juicy cheeseburger.
[1 Corinthians 6:12, 10:23] All is permitted, but not all is profitable.