ELTB Eat Learn This Book: Difference between revisions

Everything... absolutely everything after this is to teach who God is. Through the dietary law, he reveals his nature by showing how to select good teachers. </ref>

God wants everyone to know him

Everything God made is designed to teach about him. [1] However, it is difficult to learn from the stars and rocks. We learn easier through words and actions.

God used their lives to write another story. [5] [6] Using things in their history as symbols, God wrote about himself, Jesus, and the cross. [7]  

In this book, we will look at the script; the rules God gave them about things they could eat. Through the symbols, good and bad teachers will be revealed by their behaviors.

Symbols

In order to hide a second story in the history of his people, God had to use symbols. [1] [2]

God gave the Hebrews a number of laws telling them how to live. Some of these laws told Israel what to eat and what not to eat (dietary laws). These laws were to be used as a script for a play. [1] They would act out the play, and the audience, everyone else, would learn from it. The play is written in symbols and riddle. As a part of his law, God ordained priests to teach his people. The priests were to teach people how to be holy in imitation of God. The priests taught the Hebrews to eat the clean things—the things that holy people could eat— and to avoid the unclean things that would divide them from God. In this way, Israel would act out the play that would show others what kind of people they should be and follow.

For us in the audience, dietary law [2] says nothing about what we can eat. Instead, eating is a symbol for learning how to live [3]. It tells us who we should learn from, and who we should not learn from. Each of these animals is a symbol for a different type of teacher. Unlocking the riddle of the dietary laws leads to understanding what the kinds of teachers the animals represent.

Introduction

The basis for this study is a first century hermeneutic demonstrated by the New Testament authors as they used Old Testament references, and an observable property of the Hebrew language called 'notarikon'. [1]

The hermeneutic and use of notarikon eliminate the need to search for a mystical Q document to explain the so-called 'Synoptic Problem'. [2]

Most people don’t know what Q or the Synoptic Problem is, so if you’re going to mention it, it needs a longer explanation. 

For Israel

The dietary law was written for Israel. 'Is' means 'man'. 'El' means God, just as it did in 'Elohim'. The 'R' sound means 'revelation'. Israel means 'man joined to God by revelation'.

Jacob was called 'Israel' because God revealed himself through a dream [1], and by wrestling with him. [2] The Hebrews were called Israel because God revealed himself at the mountain. [3] You are called Israel because God has revealed himself to you through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

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The Hebrews did not understand the riddles. They just acted them out. The answers to the riddles come from Jesus and the cross. We can understand the message of the play by the cross. The law tells us about God, by showing us the teachers that he wants for us. We don't need to act it out too.

The clean animals are the ones the Hebrews were allowed to eat. They symbolize the people we should learn from.

The clean animals of the Bible are described as those who 'chew the cud'. The actual word 'gerah' means to 'pursue the revelation that was not understood'. The cow will eat something and regurgitate it, up to three times, to chew it again and again until everything is digested. If you are a clean animal, you learn from God's word, then you 'chew the cud', thinking about it over and over again. The symbol of the cow reminds us to learn from people who spend time meditating (or chewing) on God’s word.

The cow has several stomachs, but you have only one. Please chew your food well before swallowing so that you only have to swallow once.

Clean animals also walk on split hooves with two toes. These symbolize a 'separated walk' or life. [2] The way you ‘walk' is a symbol for the way you live. [3] If you have a separated life, you are living a life for God, separated from the things that distract us from God.

You learn to walk with God by meditating on his word. [4] A good teacher is like this. 

Camel

The camel is an unclean animal. The Hebrews did not eat it because it didn’t have a separated hoof. Instead of walking with God, the camel is a symbol of a judge. [1] We hope our judges are good people. But God is using the judge to teach about himself through the nature of his teachers.

The man was shown great love through forgiveness, but then became a judge who had none. The king threw the man in prison for not also forgiving.

We should not learn to be a judge, because if we judge, we will be judged. 

Coney

The coney is another unclean animal that the Hebrews did not eat.

The coney-like teacher hides the treasure, or message of love, and only presents the teeth; the law. He uses the Bible to threaten people with the anger of God. 

Not dedicated to God

Rabbits are unclean!

The rabbit actually passes its food through a second time by eating its night droppings. Unlike the clean animals that meditate on God’s word, the rabbit-like teacher knows the word of God but is not a good teacher.

The teacher symbolized by rabbit or hare is not a good teacher because the knowledge of God does not produce a separated hoof. He does not live what he knows. Without discernment of what to celebrate, the teacher cannot dedicate his life to God. 

Swine

Pigs are also unclean. Swine eat, or learn, anything, and teach it as truth.

They may read the Bible and not understand it. They will teach their error as truth. When faced with things that appear to be opposite teachings in the Bible, they just choose one and ignore the other, rather than work to understand they are both true.

The one who cannot understand the word of God is not a good teacher. 

Swine -2

The attitude of the swine-like teacher is so contagious it is dangerous. God’s law to the Hebrews about the swine was that they should not even 'touch their dead bodies' [1]. This riddle in Hebrew about teachers means that we should not be 'joined to their foolishness nor plagued by it.'.

Swine attitudes of self-righteousness based on his own ideas are contagious because they appeal to our desire to be important. We want to be noticed and appreciated. We want to look good to others. Do not be plagued by it. Instead, seek teachers who build their students up.

Have nothing to do with the swine or you may get caught up in their folly. Perhaps this is a source for Paul's teaching: 2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 

Fish

Water is a symbol the word of God, so the clean fish represents the teacher who has been commanded to pursue, or search, the scriptures.

The fish live in three kinds of water or word. [4] The word of God comes from the 1. Father, 2. Son, and 3. Holy Spirit. God is made known through his 1. works; the things that happen in life, 2. his word; Jesus and the Bible, and by his 3. Spirit dwelling within us.

The one who wears the armor of God as he searches the scriptures, swims in the water of God’s word, and is motivated by the love of God, is a good teacher.

Summary

When we eat clean animals which ruminate and have a split hoof [4], we remember that our teachers should meditate on the Word of God [5], and it should produce a Holy life or walk, in them.