Winged Reptiles. Lev. 11:20-2520All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you. 21Yet 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; 22Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. 23But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you. 24And for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the even. 25And whosoever beareth ought of the carcase of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even. (Leviticus 11:20‑25)
Here we have a brief prohibition of winged creatures that crawl. It is so comprehensive that the only need is to specify the few exceptions of which the Israelite might eat: all the rest were regarded as abominable for them.
“Every winged insect (or, crawling thing) that goeth on [all] four [shall be] an abomination unto you. Yet these shall ye eat of every winged insect that goeth on [all] four: those that have legs above their feet with which to leap upon the earth. These shall ye eat of them: the arbeh (or, locust) after its kind, and the salam after its kind, and the chargol after its kind, and the chagab after its kind. But every winged insect that hath four feet [shall be] an abomination unto you. And by these ye shall make yourselves unclean: whoever toucheth their carcass shall be unclean until the even. And whoever carrieth of their carcass shall wash his garments, and be unclean until the even” (vers. 20-25).
We may assuredly dismiss from ver. 22 “the beetle” of the A.V. and “the cricket” of the R.V. The coleoptera are not to be mixed up with the orthoptera saltatoria. Nor is “locust” and “bald locust” a satisfactory specification, if there be good ground to believe that all the four here named are varieties of locust, which we do not know enough to distinguish with confidence. Hence, as in not a few cases through the O. T., it seems safer to retain the Hebrew terms. The first “arbeh” is the more ordinary appellative derived from its great numbers (compare Jer. 46:2323They shall cut down her forest, saith the Lord, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable. (Jeremiah 46:23)); the second, from its voracity, for it means “devourer “; the third, from its leaping, for it is equivalent to “hopper “; as the last seems called from its veiling the sun's light. All this is all we have for defining the species. It would seem that Joel 1:44That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. (Joel 1:4) does not refer to the palmer-worm (gnawer), the canker-worm (licker), and the caterpillar (consumer), but rather to the locust generally, and probably in the different stages of its growth, all of which were most destructive to vegetable life as a scourge from God.
But there is no doubt whatever that the locust is edible, whatever the Palestinians dreamed in their effort to substitute the fruit of the carob-tree. They have been and are esteemed a delicacy in the East. Drs. Kitto and Tristram pronounce them good when simply cooked, and not unlike our shrimps. So that the plain meaning of the text is vindicated beyond legitimate doubt. The believer needs no confirmative proof beyond Matt. 3:44And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. (Matthew 3:4), Mark 1:66And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; (Mark 1:6). Rapacious as they were, their food was vegetable. They were not unclean; whereas the other members of the insect realm that flew and crawled on their feet were unfit for food, and an abomination for Israel.
The spiritual lesson touched under the permission to eat at any rate some species of the locust here specified is not so easy to say. It would not become the present writer to give his thought with any pretension where other servants of God preserve silence. But as communion is certainly taught by the figure of eating, here too it can mean nothing else. God then employed these creatures as a scourge, not only for His enemies as we see in Egypt but for the chastening of His people, ungrateful and rebellious as they too often were. May we not view the eating of these locusts as meaning that, while called to patient grace in our own walk across a world wholly and incurably opposed to God as it is, we may have fellowship with His inflictions from time to time, in reproof of audacious self-will and its hostility to the name of the Lord, to His word, and to His followers?
Never have Christians meddled with governing the world, save to His dishonor and their own shame. They are now called to suffer with Christ; by-and-by they shall reign with Him. Even He has not yet taken His great power for reigning. He sits upon His Father's throne, as the earth-rejected Christ, waiting the word from His Father to execute judgment and sit on His own throne (Rev. 3:2121To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3:21)). Hence we learn that, whatever God's providential dealings (and they are admirable), it is an error to talk of “the Lord reigning” as yet. He awaits the time, which, when it comes, will leave not a soul in doubt of its actuality and power. When He reigns in the Psalmist's sense, all creation will rejoice, instead of groaning as now. But He does chastise from time to time even now, and will still more manifestly when the Apocalyptic judgments follow the translation of the heavenly saints, as in Rev. 6-18. And assuredly the saints, cognizant of His scourges, join their Amen, and worship, though they take no direct part in inflicting any. But it is, or will be, a permitted and appropriate fellowship. Let every believer judge before Him, what the intended instruction is.
There is no obscurity however in what defiles (vers. 24, 25). To touch the carcass renders unclean till even; to bear aught of the carcass entailed the necessity of washing the clothes and of uncleanness till even. Death came through sin, and Jehovah would have it felt by His people. Heathen feeling sought to hide it under flowers; but Israel were taught its defiling effect. So are we exhorted to touch no unclean thing, as well as to come out and be separate to the Lord according to our new and near relation to Him. Christ gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to Himself a people for His own possession, zealous of good works, not benevolent only but honorable in His eyes. Therefore, having promises of His love and blessing, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in His fear.