View source for ELTB 2.0300

{{bl| ELTB 2.0300 }}

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{{3cr|
The dietary law is not about eating
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{{3cr|
God gave the Hebrews a number of laws telling them how to live. 
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{{3cr|Some of these laws told Israel what to eat and what not to eat (dietary laws). 
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{{3cr|These laws were to be used as a script for a play. 
<ref>{{bgw| De 28:37 }} And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee. </ref>
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{{3cr| They would act out the play, and the audience, everyone else, would learn from it. 
<ref>{{bgw| Ge 22:18 }} And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. </ref>
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{{3cr|
The play is written in symbols and riddle. 
<ref>{{bgw| Pr 25:2 }} [It is] the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings [is] to search out a matter.</ref>
<ref>{{bgw| Ps 78:2 }} I will open my mouth in a parable : I will utter dark sayings [riddles] of old: </ref>
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{{3cr|
God chose priests to keep the actors in line with the script. 
<ref>The priest was first a prophet, to speak the word of God. </ref>
<ref>{{bgw| Ex 7:1 }} And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. </ref>
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{{3cr|
The priests were also actors. 
<ref group="n">Their robes are called "costumes" or "garments of deceit" so that we didn't think they were the real priest (Jesus)</ref>
Nothing the priests or the actors did made them good people.
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{{3cr|
The script only told them that they were not good and only God was good.
<ref>{{bgw| Da 9:11 }} Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that [is] written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. </ref>
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{{3cr|
For us in the audience, the dietary law  says nothing about what we can eat. 
<ref>{{bgw|  Ac 10:15 }} And the voice [spake] unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, [that] call not thou common.</ref>
<ref group="n">If there was a moral component to the dietary law, God would not have changed his mind.</ref>
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{{3cr|Instead, eating is a symbol for learning what God says. It tells us who we should learn from, and who we should not learn from. 
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{{3cr|Each of these animals is a symbol for a different type of teacher. The clean animals are good to learn from. The Unclean animals teach things God doesn't want you to learn.
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{{3cr| If you know the story of Adam and Eve, the unclean animals are like the tree they were not allowed to eat from.
<ref>{{bgw| Ge 2:17 }} But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.</ref>
{{3cr|Since the scriptures all speak of Christ, the animals all represent Christ. Some represent him as the good teacher. Others represent him bearing the sins of the bad teacher. 
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