I thought it might be interesting to look at the dietary law – and to suggest how the believer in the Lord Jesus keeps this law.
Sadly, many religious persons – and some true believers – are under the misapprehension that God requires that His people to have a restricted diet. They’ve not understood, or have set aside, the Lord’s words in Mark 7 v 18-20, and the apostle’s confirmation in Hebrews 9 v 9-10, where he says of such restrictions that they were “imposed until the time of setting things right”. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with not eating certain foods – many of us avoid certain foods for reasons of health or ethical principles – but to impose the literal dietary law on ourselves or others is to deny the vital moral teaching of scriptures such as Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. To rob the souls of believers of this vital moral instruction is undoubtedly the work of the enemy. With that in view I wondered if it might be profitable to look into that moral teaching.
The chapter begins with God speaking to Moses, and telling him to, “Speak to the children of Israel”. What was to follow was to be addressed to those whom God had delivered out of Egypt. They were going to be introduced to a new standard, one which they hadn’t known among the fleshpots of Egypt. They may not have grasped the moral significance of this law, but I believe that God had the believer in Christ in mind, and their education in divine principles, when He gave this law.
We could consider Leviticus 11 for the fullest exposition of this law. First, we have the beasts which are on the earth. The clean beasts were marked by certain characteristics: “Whatever hath cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts – that shall ye eat”. It was vital that all these characteristics were present. The camel, the rock-badger and the hare were excluded: they chewed the cud, but they didn’t have cloven hooves. The swine was also excluded: it had cloven hooves, but didn’t chew the cud. The thought of “cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open” suggests a certain kind of walk – a morally separate walk. Chewing the cud is rumination: taking something in and thoroughly digesting it, which suggests the ability to take in the truth and assimilate it. A separated walk and reception of the truth are both “clean” features for the believer. One without the other is “unclean”. A person who takes in the truth but doesn’t have a separated walk – like the camel, the rock-badger and the hare – is not “clean”: they clearly haven’t been at all formed by the truth they’ve received. James warns us, “be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, beguiling yourselves” (James 1 v 22). Likewise, someone who has a separated walk but doesn’t ruminate on the truth isn’t “clean” either – going on like that is bound to result in pride, hardness and legality. Paul writes that “knowledge puffs up, but love edifies” (1 Corinthians 8 v 1). The kind of person described in Colossians 2 v 18 is marked by the features of the “swine”.
These animals – or moral features – are to be clean or unclean to us, respectively. When we move on to “all that are in the waters”, we find things that “shall be an abomination unto you”. We come across features here which are to be judged even more deliberately and strongly than what’s merely “unclean”. We are to eat “whatever hath fins and scales”, and those that “have not fins and scales” are to be abominable to us. Fins are a method of propulsion, and scales are a form of defence. The believer goes through an adverse scene, the direction of which is to destruction, and is the object of the attacks of the enemy. We need fins to swim against the tide of the world, and scales to repel the attacks of the enemy. These features are set together in the scripture – we need both. C.A. Coates has remarked that Lot, in going down to Sodom, lacked fins, but he had scales. He had a “righteous soul” and was credited with being a righteous man. However, we know that although Lot was preserved, he suffered a good deal of loss because he was unable to swim against the tide of the world. The state of being carried by the world’s currents and susceptible to the wiles and suggestions of the enemy – without fins and scales – should be “an abomination” to us.
Then we move on to fowls. In Leviticus 11 we find no mention of clean fowls, as there is in Deuteronomy 14. This would make us especially wary of what we’re commanded to “have in abomination” here. All these birds or winged creatures are marked by one or more features: birds of prey, carrion birds, scavengers, or nocturnal creatures. Many of them are high fliers, and would speak of “reasonings and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10 v 5). We see in Luke 8 v 5 and 13 v 19 how the Lord uses “fowls of the air” in his parables as represents of the activity of the wicked one – stealing away the seed of the gospel and infiltrating the kingdom like the tares of another parable. These creatures represent all that is pretentious and high-flown, but subtle, carnal and fleshly nonetheless. All these birds and creatures, without exception, kill when they feed.
“Every winged crawling thing that goeth upon all four shall be an abomination unto you” – and yet there’s an exception – “Yet these shall ye eat of every winged crawling thing that goeth upon all four: those which have legs above their feet with which to leap upon the earth”. There are those winged crawling things which have the power and the energy to get free of the earth. They aren’t settled on the earth – just as the believer isn’t settled in the scene of Christ’s rejection – they “leap upon” it!
We have another exception next – this time a negative one. “Every beast that hath cloven hoofs, but not feet quite split open, nor cheweth the cud, shall be unclean unto you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean”. What is in view here is persons who have ‘one foot in the world’ – they have a kind of a separated walk, but not fully. Such people characteristically don’t take in the truth and digest it fully. With other unclean and abominable creatures, eating them or touching their carcase would make a person unclean – with these creatures, even touching a live animal would cause uncleanness. This would be a warning for us not to associate with those who are marked by this feature. Paul writes that if “one called brother” is marked by certain grossly immoral behaviours that we are “not to mix with him; with such a one not even to eat” (1 Corinthians 5 v 11).
We are warned about what “goeth upon its paws”: soft-footed, subtle creatures. Jude writes about “certain men [who] have got in unnoticed… ungodly persons, turning the grace of our God into dissoluteness, and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude v 4). We should be wary of such persons.
Then we have “crawling things which crawl on the earth”, which would suggest earthly-mindness and an attachment to the earth, an inability to get free of it – unlike the creatures which were able to leap upon it. We have here “the mole, the field-mouse, and the lizard” – all creatures which either tend to disrupt settled conditions or destroy crops. These would perhaps speak of elements which would hinder the progress of the work of God among His saints. We find various kinds of lizard identified here, and perhaps it’s best to take each individually:
– “the groaning lizard”, suggestive of “murmurers, complainers, walking after their lusts” (Jude v 16)
– “the great red lizard”, the distinctiveness and glory of the flesh, drawing attention to itself
– “the climbing lizard”, ambition, “their mouth speaks swelling words, admiring persons for the sake of profit” (Jude v 16)
– “the chomet”, a burrowing lizard, perhaps suggestive of thorough immersion in earthly things
– “the chameleon”, a creature which changes its pattern according to its surroundings, one who is all things to all men, a hypocrite
For the sake of brevity (I know this post is far too long already), I’ll pass over the no doubt instructive section of verses 32-40. We now come to “every crawling thing which crawleth on the earth”, which shall be an abomination – “whatever goeth on the belly”. Paul speaks about those “whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and their glory in their shame, who mind earthly things” (Philippians 3 v 19), and these crawling things would be the epitome of that.
I’m sure that every believer can see the moral necessity of the lessons of this chapter, and how much we would lose by reverting back to the terms of the old covenant. Much of the teaching is negative, but we can learn by contrasts and – freeing ourselves from any trace of these features with the help of the Holy Spirit – think on “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are amiable, whatsoever things are of good report” (Philippians 4 v 8). Even if these negative features do arise in our lives or associations, there is a remedy. Throughout the chapter we have references to being “unclean until the even” – it isn’t in the divine mind that we should be left contaminated by these things for a much as a single day, never mind two. There is “water for purification” available, as we see in the type of the red heifer. Our God and Father has seen to it that every resource has been made available for our preservation, and liberty in and enjoyment of His presence.