ELTB The law and the play
The first section of the Bible contains many laws that God gave the Hebrews telling them how to live. Some of these laws told them what to eat and what not to eat, called "Dietary laws".
When the Hebrews followed these laws, they showed us the character of God in a riddle. So the Dietary Law is not about eating. It is more like a play. The laws were the script for the play, and everyone had a role. God chose priests to be the directors of the play, telling everyone how to do their parts.
The lives of the Hebrews were the play. [1] The audience, everyone else, would learn from it. [2]
Symbols and riddle make up the play. [3] [4] For the audience, the Dietary Law says nothing about what we can eat. 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 .
Each animal is a symbol for a different type of teacher. The clean animals (the ones the Hebrews could eat) symbolize the people we should learn from. The unclean animals symbolize people who teach things that God doesn't want us to learn. these were the animals the Hebrews could not eat.
This isn't the first time that eating symbolized 'learning' in the Bible. Do you remember Adam and Eve, and the tree they were not supposed to eat from? [5] You could say that the tree was unclean.
Let's talk about the different animals that are part of the play, and what they teach about God.
eat akal אכל - smite אכ the teaching ל
1. De 28:37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb [parable], and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.
1. BP De 28:37 Everywhere God leads you, you will be desolate. Your lives will be a parable [of Christ], and people will taunt you.
2. Ge 22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
2. BP Ge 22:18 Because you obeyed me, I will bless all nations [by the parable of Israel and] by Christ.
3. Pr 25:2 [It is] the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings [is] to search out a matter.
3. BP Pr 25:2 God's glory is his riddling speech; kings gain honor by discovering his sayings.
4. Ps 78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
4 BP Ps 78:2 [When I come as Messiah] I will teach with parables that are riddles.
5. 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.
5. BP Ge 2:17 Don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you will die that day.
