Skip to main content

Leviticus 11:1-8 Thoughts on unclean animals

Good afternoon Friends,

Another catch up passage.  This was for 12/7.

Want to mention another benefit to electronic study helps.  Did you know John Calvin wrote a 22 volume commentary on the Bible.  Most of us would not really care to have 22 volumes sitting on a bookshelf.  But the Resource Guide function in Olive Tree links the passage I am reading to the section of Calvin's commentary.  So when I really have a hard time with a passage, I can see what Calvin thought.  I have shared some of his thoughts today.

Blessings

Jeff 

Just thinking about the camel as unclean.  The proverbial ship of the desert.  Calvin makes distinction that it is not the animal itself that is to be considered unclean but the uses of it (eating touching dead carcass).  So it seems that using a camel for transportation which would require physical contact is not prohibited.  He makes this point in regard to conflict some propose in the Genesis account where creature God made was "good" or "very good" but here some are declared unclean.  Another situation is the fisherman.  The net would catch all kinds of fish. Some that could be eaten and others that couldn't.  Throwing the "unclean" ones back did not make the fisherman unclean.

I must admit, I have a hard time finding Christ in such passages.  Calvin also objects to spiritualizing "cloven-footed" to mean dividing the word of God rightly, or "chewing cud" as digesting the Word of God.  He also denies these restrictions are purely for health reasons.

Ultimately, such passages should be understood for what the say and we should not make too much of too little out of them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leviticus 18:21 - Partial restoration of creation order

Dear Friends, Some times we forget that Moses wrote Genesis.  Obviously, he did not have first hand knowledge of the events of creation.  But God did and revealed them to Moses.  The "story arc" is clear to Moses despite the millenia of history between Genesis and Leviticus.  The plan for ultimate restoration is hazy, but God is at work repairing some of the damage. Blessings, Jeff What is the prohibition on child sacrifice doing in the list of prohibited sexual relations? Be fruitful and multiply - First commandment in Genesis.  God made the world to be inhabited.   Having children is how this  was to happen.  So child sacrifice was a direct violation of this first command to Adam and Eve. Marriage is one man and one woman is the creation order. Seems simple enough.  I can imagine men thinking, Yeah but God didn't say which woman.  I will do the one woman thing if she is my sister, or aunt or …..  So God gives all these examples of unlawful unions.  To this day, man stil
Post a Comment
Read more

1 Chronicles 24:1-6 How about those Levites! Day 332

Good morning friends, Good foundations are important.  Our author turns to the religious life of the returning exiles. Blessings, Jeff We have seen the emphasis on the Davidic line in the  political life of Israel.  The other area of emphasis is the Aaronic priesthood and Levitical workers. In this passage we have a quick review of the somewhat sanitized picture of the start of Aaron's line.  The returning exiles would have known that Nadab and Abihu did not just "die before their father without children".  They rebelled against God by offering unauthorized fire and were themselves consumed by fire from the Lord. Leviticus 10.  The case of Abiathar  son of Ahitub son of Ahimelech, who was faithful to David, but later rebelled with Adonijah is also not mentioned. But the passage points to the importance of the Aaronic line to the rebuilding of the temple by the exiles.  The history of the northern kingdom which was without the Levites from the beginning could not be repeat
Post a Comment
Read more

Revelation 22:3-5 Final and eternal restoration - Day 365

Dear saints in the Lord, Congratulations!  You made it.  We have been through much turmoil in the last year ('20-'21).  But God is faithful to His promises.  I trust that you have been blessed in your reading and have drawn closer to God.   Since we didn't get the blog up and running at the beginning of the challenge, I am going to go back and post entries to cover that first month or so.   Blessings, Jeff Nothing accursed in the city of God, the new Jerusalem.  The presence of sin will be gone.  I am working on memorizing Westminster Shorter Catechism and currently on question 82.  Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God but does daily break them in thought, word and deed. I think our passage today points to the truth of this question.  Do you notice how this answer is not exactly the same as the question. "Any man" becomes "no mere man since the fall
Post a Comment
Read more