Leviticus 11
WE may forget that it was God who first made every living thing, but when we read which animals, fish and birds, He said the people of Israel should not eat, we think how well He knew the habits of all His creatures. All have a use in the world, but some were unclean for food for Israel, as the camel, which was much used in those lands to carry loads, but not to be for food. The coney is a small wild animal, we do not have here, but something like a rabbit. It lives arid hides in the rocks (Psa. 104:1818The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies. (Psalm 104:18)).
Fish must be a kind having both tins and scales, if used as food.
There are twenty birds named which they were not to eat; they are nearly all the wild night birds. They could eat locusts which seems strange to us, but are still used by, people in those lands. Creeping things they must not eat, and few people now care to.
There are ten animals named in Deuteronomy 14:4, 54These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 5The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois. (Deuteronomy 14:4‑5) which could be eaten so they had enough for meat; and no fruit or grain was forbidden them, and the Lord sent the manna every day while they journeyed.
These rules about eating are not repeated for believers in Christ. They are told that “every creature of God is good, ... . if it be received with thanksgiving,” 1 Timothy 4:4,4For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: (1 Timothy 4:4)
But there is a food all need, to be very careful to have good—that is the food for our minds. You know what you see, hear, or read feeds your mind. Foolish, untrue stories, pictures, or songs are unclean food to our minds.
God’s Word names the good food:
“Whatsoever things are true,
Whatsoever things are honest,
Whatsoever things are just,
Whatsoever things are pure, ...
Think on these things.”
ML 08/01/1937