Parting The Hoof And Chewing The Cud

PARTING THE HOOF AND CHEWING THE CUD

Leviticus 11:2-4

For some people the only exercise they ever get is when they are jumping to conclusions, running off at the mouth, putting their two cents worth in, raising cane, and I don’t mean sugar cane, walking all over someone, lifting themselves up on a pedestal, or strong arming someone else into doing something they don’t want to do.

One way in which we jump to conclusions and start running off at the mouth is when we assume that something is what it isn’t or isn’t what it is and then think that we are the world’s authority on matters that we know almost nothing about.

Take the Law of Moses for example. Most of us just sort of skim over the Laws that are written in the Book of Leviticus without giving them much thought. It all seems like so much double talk meant for a people who lived long ago in a very different society and under a different covenant than what we do today.

Instead of looking into these laws to see if they have any spiritual meaning to us, it is far easier just to say something like:

Well, born again Christians are no longer under the Law, but under Grace. The Law was done away with completely when Jesus died and rose again so why should I even give them a second thought.

Now that’s exactly the kind of attitude that many people in the church have but it just proves my point that we really don’t always know what we are talking about.

Jesus Christ did not do away with the Law; he fulfilled it. In other words he paid the penalty of every broken law that all men would break for all time.

But the Law is still active. It is still a living Law that condemns those who break its restrictions and who will still be condemned by its judgment for sin.

Every man, woman and child, over the age of accountability, will face the Righteous Judge at the Great White Throne Judgment one day, and will give account of every Law of God that they have ever broken. Then they will hear those inevitable words, “depart from me. I never knew you.”

Oh how sad it will be in that day for those who thought that the Law was not in effect any longer! Too late they will realize that the Law still condemns and that the sentence for breaking the Law of God is eternal death.

I praise the Lord that I am no longer condemned by the Law! I praise God that Jesus came down, shed his blood for me, died and rose again, and that by his death, burial and resurrection, he paid my debt in full. Everyone who accepts Jesus’ sacrifice and confesses him as Lord of their lives will be saved by grace, through faith in Him. He has fulfilled the law in us by his own precious blood and we are no longer guilty of breaking his law.

But tonight I want us to look back at a small portion of the Book of Leviticus because I believe that there is more to the Laws of God in that book than meets the eye. Our God is a wise God and He quite often uses types and shadows throughout the Old Testament to teach us by example, those things that we need to learn and to know.

Leviticus 11:2-4, "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you."

Now, as you read this scripture portion and this law concerning what God considers as an unclean animal that should not be eaten and a clean animal that may be used as food, you would likely think that this has nothing to do with us right now. But let’s take a closer look and see it really has something to say to us.

God laid down a lot of the Laws of the Old Testament with some specific ideas in mind. I don’t believe that God just randomly made up laws just to have laws. They all have a specific purpose and since God’s Word is eternal and alive, it surely must have some application in our own lives.

When God set down the Laws that pertained to the food and meat that the Israelites were permitted to eat, God knew what type of flesh would be tolerated by the body and what type of flesh could be potentially deadly if not preserved in a correct manner.