12:20,21
The Lord provides richly. “When ... you crave meat and say ‘I would like some meat,’ then you may eat as much as you want”. This should make us think carefully about overly austere approaches to life. Now, this is not promoting gluttony and greed, but we do need to be careful in how we think. Also the context here is about the practicalities of dealing with the new fact that the land was quite large. One could not always easily go to the one place of worship. So allowance was made for this fact. God dealt with the practicalities and realities of life.
12:22-25
Neither were there restrictions on meat eating for the ceremonially clean and unclean. Again there is the restriction that they must not eat the blood. Indeed, the not eating of the blood is specifically linked to things going well or badly with them. On this point, it can help us to appreciate the shock that the disciples must have felt when Jesus told them to drink His blood at the Last Supper.
12:26-28
While meat eating was allowed anywhere, this did not mean that anything was allowed everywhere. The consecrated things and the vows were to be dealt with at the place of the Lord’s choosing. Burnt offerings and sacrifices were to be made at the Lord’s altar. Yet again, the promise that obedience of these commands would result in things going well for them.
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