The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 214

We have thus inculcated, by this easy, popular division of the animals, important moral qualities to be cultivated and immoral qualities to be avoided. Animated nature, became thus a mirror for human nature. The living world around man was thus made to take up a parabolic language and promote his sanctification. IV. THE DEFll.ING CHARACTER OF DEATH THROUGH NATURAL CAUSES WAS TO BE CON- STA~->rLY RECOGNIZED. Even a clean animal which had died of itself was not to be eaten or touched with impunity. Defilement was the result of such contact. The lesson of mortality as the penalty of sin was thus illustrated. Men miaht devote an animal to death for sacrificial purposes or for their own use, but when death came as the debt of nature, at once its defiling character must be realized, and purification sought accordingly. The laws of this chapter entailed constant watchfulness. No careless living was- possible under the Jewish regime. In the s-ame spirit surely should we "watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation." In the same spirit should we ask ourselves, What spiritual lessons is surrounding nature communicating to our spirits? Not in vain, and not for mere utility, has such an environment been thrown around us.-R. M. E. Vers. 1-8.-0lean and unclean. As man is made after the image of God, so is the outward and sensible world constituted as a kind of apographa to represent the spiritual world which is the subject of faith (Rom. i. 20). The key to unlock the mysteries of this system is to be found in the Scriptures of truth ; and animals, according to it, are to be viewed as representing men. I. THE LA w DISTRIBUTES THEM INTO TWO CLASSES. 1. TM clean. The marks of cleanness are : (1) That they "divide the hoof." By the division of the hoof, as in the ox and sheep, the animal is able so to order its steps as not to throw up the mud upon itse!f, as the horse does whose hoof is not cloven. (2) They " chew the cud." So their food is more perfectly prepared for digestion, The manner in which this is done, while the creature rests, is so suggestive of thoughtfulness and meditation that it is described as ruminating. (3) The clean animals were therefore chosen to represent the Israelites, who were a holy nation. 'l'hey were ceremonially holy: (a) So walking in the ways of God's commandments as not to be polluted with the abominations of idolatry. (b) So meditating upon the Law as inwardly to digest it to their nourishment (see Ps. i. 2; 1 Tim. iv. 13-15). (c) Thus also they became morally greatly superior to the nations around them. 2. The unclean. (1) 'l'he Gentiles in contrast to the Jews were so, ceremonially, and were therefore shut out from communion with the Jews. But it was competent to them to be made holy by becoming proselytes. (2) They were in general idolaters, and so morally abominable. It was mainly to keep the Israelites from being contaminated with the idolatries of their neighbours, that these laws were instituted (see ver. 46; xx. 23-25; Deut. xiv. 1-3). 3. There are but two classes of 'IMn. (1) Though some animals divide the hoof, they are not clean unless they also chew the cud. The hog ie of this order, and is filthy to a proverb (2 Pet. i. 22). So it does not make men clean to have the faculty for walking cleanly when their disposition otherwise leads them to wallow in the mire of sin. (2) Though some chew the cud, yet if they divide not the hoof they are unclean. The "camel," the "coney," and the "hare," or whatever creature, the word n:1n11 may describe, are of this order. For what ~ood is the aemblar.ce of meditation and repentance, if the walk of the life be not clean (Jas, i. 20) ?- CH, XI, 1--47.] THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. li7