VAYIKRA

And [He] called

The rule now in vogue among the friends of Christ is the one formulated by Paul:

"Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer" (1 Tim. 4:4).

Law of Moses Ch 29

3 Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.

The hoof is a horny enclosure of the foot in hermetically sealed case, which, while contributory to the comfort of the animal, disqualifies it for walking on any but level ground. It cannot clamber among rocks or difficult places. It is liable to stumble on uneven ground: whereas, when the hoof is divided, and each half is parted into claws (Deut. 14:6), the creature can easily walk on hill sides and even among rocky places ---as in the case of the goat or sheep. Surefootedness is the result of dividing the hoof and parting the clefts.

It does not seem difficult to see why this should be selected as a typical characteristic of acceptable men. "He that walketh wisely walketh surely." "Walk in wisdom towards them that are without." "Walk as becometh the gospel." This "walking" is the practical direction of our affairs. A man who failed in this would be a very unsatisfactory kind of man, however much he might be given to ruminating on the word of God. A man all theory and no action--first class at describing what ought to be done, but with no gift at practising what he preached--would be the poor sort of creature signified by that which only chewed the cud but did not divide the hoof.

The other state of the case would be equally abortive--that is, where there might be excellent capacity for execution, but no understanding of what the will of God required. This case is also provided against in the type: "The swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase" (Deut. 14:8).

Law of Moses Ch 29

Cheweth the cud

We want men and women who can think and do think‭; ‬and who are not afraid of truth which does violence to the thinking of the flesh.‭ ‬Such an audience as this we seemed to have at Temperance.‭ ‬They seemed to listen as though they were thinking upon what they heard‭; ‬and such are the only people that will ultimately be led captive by the gospel of the kingdom.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come December, 1854

What sort of men are they who correspond to the type of cud-chewing and hoof-parting animals? We are in the presence of at least the shadow of an answer when we hear the modern phrase "chewing the cud of reflection".

The literal act of chewing the cud is part of the process of preparing the food for assimilation by the animal tissues. Digestion in the grand requisite. For gross organizations, no great thoroughness is necessary in the process: a short alimentary canal is sufficient for the carnivorous races. The lion and the tiger bolt their food and it is converted quickly.

But in the higher races, where a finer result is aimed at, in producing food for man in the flesh of the ox and sheep, there is a greater elaborateness in the structure provided for the conversion of grass and turnips into beef and mutton. The chewing of the cud belongs to the greater elaborateness of structure: the thorough preparation of food for conversion into life is the essential idea of this act.

It is not difficult to go from the typical to the spiritual in this matter. There is spiritual food and there is spiritual life that results from the eating and assimilation of that food. "Thy words were found, and I did eat them", said Jeremiah. "The entrance of thy word giveth light", wrote the Psalmist. "He that eateth me shall live by me", said Christ; "the words that I speak unto you are spirit and life".

Men, then, who are given to turning over in their minds the divine knowledge conveyed in the words of truth are men who spiritually chew the cud. They are spiritually ruminant animals. They are the clean among men. As Jesus said, "Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you."

There is nothing mystical about this. It is the obvious fact that a man with the word of God stored in his mind, is a clean man by comparison with the man in whom the mere mind of the flesh prevails. He is clean in thought, clean in action, clean in all his ways--in a word, holy. His holiness is not the result of natural organization, but of the presence in that organization of the truth which sanctifies. The truth is the sanctifying power, and this not merely as a thing once learnt, but a thing constantly read and thought about.

The sheep nibbles the grass all the day long. Men of God are in harmony with the command which says "Be thou in the fear of God all the day long", The sheep is constantly growing as a sheep. If it ceased its activities as a living animal, it would die. In the antitype, the process of spiritual life is constantly going on. There is no arrest or suspension. The word of God is read and pondered every day: God is thanked every day, "in sincerity and truth", both at meal tables, and at bedside night and morning.

God is before the mind every day, as a factor in all life's calculations. The truth is much more than a knowledge of the fact that man is mortal and that Christ is the Saviour and that the Kingdom is coming. It is a knowledge of God as the possessor of heaven and earth and the weigher of actions. This knowledge cannot be retained except by the constant reading and reflection typified by the chewing of the cud by the clean animals--reckoned clean because they did so.

...But things signified by the distinction established by the law between things clean and unclean, remain unchangeable parts of eternal truth--that those men only are acceptable to God who are given to feeding and reflecting on His truth, and to directing their ways in harmony with His commandments.

Law of Moses Ch 29

7 And the swine [Deut 14: 8];, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.

Porkism

àThere is no evidence that swine's flesh was interdicted to the natural Israel because it was not good for them. We care nothing at all about the physiologists, who have as many crotchets when it suits them as the theologists.

If we square our diet by their fashions, which are as outrés and unstable as a French milliner's, we shall be reduced to bran bread and water. We shall not quarrel with any one who chooses this sort of prison fare, provided he does not incorporate it with the gospel as a condition of salvation.

Swine's flesh, horses, hares, eels, all legally unclean, are wholesome enough where the digestion is good; but where this is not the case it is difficult to find any thing that agrees.

There are some that cannot eat it; and there are some that cannot eat beef or mutton; the peculiarity is in the eater more than in the eaten. According to a man's experience, so let him eat, and be thankful; for both clean and unclean are sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Jun 1860

9 These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.

Scales and fins appear to sustain the same analogy to chewing the cud and dividing the hoof: the scales rendering the creature more accessible to the watery element of life around it than when clad in an impervious skin; and the fins giving greater power of guidance in "the paths of the seas" than where motion has to be obtained by contortion of the body.

Law of Moses Ch 29

10 And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:

The fishes forbidden are also those from which human appetite would naturally shrink; all those approaching the reptilian type in lacking fins and scales, and having therefore a heavy, greasy texture of flesh.

Law of Moses Ch 29

42 Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination.

Among insects, all mere creepers, or having more feet than four, were forbidden as food...

All that is odious and unwholesome among the creatures is forbidden; all that is beautiful, innocent, and good for food, is allowed. We have only to apply this in the amplest way to see with new force the spiritual comeliness that is required at the hands of those whom God will take into His eternal fellowship.

Law of Moses Ch 29