| “Every winged crawling thing that goeth upon all four shall be an abomination unto you” (Leviticus 11:20 JND). |
| “Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth” (Leviticus 11:21). |
| “These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind” (Leviticus 11:29). |
| In our verses today we see further instructions that God gave the Israelites about what they could eat and could not eat. In the first verse, God showed them that small creatures that creep on the ground were unclean to them, and could not be eaten. This would refer to little creatures like insects that can fly, and yet often walk along the ground. You and I would probably say we would not like to eat them anyway! |
| However, you may remember that John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey. Why was it all right to eat locusts? In our next verse, it also says that they could eat beetles. Why was this? It was because those little creatures have strong hind legs, and can leap for a long way above the earth. When I was a boy, we used to try and catch grasshoppers on the farm, and we were sometimes surprised at how far they could leap with just one spring of their strong hind legs. |
| This is a picture of you and me, as Christians. Even though we live on this earth, and like the grasshopper, the locust, and the beetle, have to walk on it, yet we also have the ability to leap above this world, and not stay down at its level. For this reason they were regarded as clean animals, and the Israelites could eat them. |
| In the last verse for today, we get the same good lesson. There are many animals that walk on this earth, but many of them live very close to the ground. Maybe you have never seen a weasel, but they walk very close to the ground, and go after other animals that live in holes in the ground. A mouse walks close to the ground, and so does a turtle, or tortoise. There are other animals listed in this same class, such as the lizard and the snail, both of which live close to the ground. They are a picture to us of those who live for this world, and are not able to rise above it. |
