Law of the Beasts Leviticus 11

Leviticus 11:46-47 "This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth; To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten."

Outline:

v1-What beasts may
v4-and what may not be eaten
v9-What fishes
v13 What fowls
v29 The creeping things which are unclean

theocracy: government by officials regarded to be divinely inspired. The Merriam Webster Dictionary

Israel was under such a government.

In chapter 11 we find a list of clean and unclean animals. The clean could be eaten, the unclean could not. We are most familiar with the Jewish law that forbids eating swine or pigs. There were many others which were not to be eaten or even touched. Procedures were put in place to remove the uncleaniness in case of accidental touching.

I do not know the habits of all those listed as unclean but many I do recognize are scavengers, that is they dispose of waste or refuse(Webster). That is many eat dead animals and such. The catfish does not have scales but does have fins. Both are required to make it clean. They tell me a catfish scours the bottom of water bodies for dead creatures making it a scavenger.

There are others mentioned that have paws and are considered unclean. You've seen the nature channel. They sometimes come upon dead carcasses and eat them.

I do not venture to understand the mind of God in putting forth this law. It does make sense to me knowing the habits of some of these animals. We should remember that these people were living very close together while wondering in the wilderness. They moved often as well. Cleaniness would have be paramount to their survival. So many of these laws also have social implications.

I found one passage that raised a question in my mind and if I run across the answer, I will try to remember to print it here.

v20 "All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you."

I've been trying to think of a flying creature that has four legs and have drawn a blank so far. I find it interesting that bone evidence by some evolutionist insist that four legged creatures that flew were from prehistoric times. To bad they don't believe the Bible. It would solve some of their problems with dating such creatures.

Some of them could be eaten v21 which had legs above their feet, to leap withal which included the locust and other such creatures. v22. So maybe that was the type of fowl mentioned in v20. I suppose a mosquito would be one not to eat. I've always thought of fowl as birds, turkeys, chickens and such.

Interesting chapter. Christians are not under the law now but we can still pay attention to the common sense these chapters give us.

Psalm 121:1 "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help."