The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 253

• Lord, we can trust thee for onr holy dead. They, undemeo.th the shadow of thy tomb, Ho.ve entered into peo.ce ; with bended heo.d We tho.nk thee for their rest, o.nd for our lightened gloom." R. M. E. Vera. 3-11.-.A holy people will eat sanctified things. The regulation of the diet of the children of Israel was most important in view of their remainin'.1; a "peculiar people" unto God. In no way ha.If so effectual could they, as a nation, be kept distinct from other nations, with whom it was undesirable on religious grounds that they should associate. By interdicting some of the animals used by surrounding and heathen nations, the Lord, as far as possible, prevented Israel's association with them. 'l'o this they had been accustomed in Egypt; for some of the animals they, as Israelites, would eat were regarded as sacred by the Egyptians, and on no account would be slain or eaten by them. Hence the slaves had never commingled with their taskmasters. The two rivers would not coalesce. The Canaanites and Phcenicians, again, ate freely of flesh that the Hebrew dare not touch; and even the Arab would eat such animals as the camel, the bare, and the jerboa, all of which-the latter translated "mouse "-were for- bidden to the children of Israel. I, THE RE<lULATION OF MEATS IS THE MOST n!PORTANT WAY OF SEPARAT□G O:S-E NATION FROM ALL OTHER NATIO~S. For if association at table is an impossibility, all other association will be very superficial and comparatively harmless. "Nothing more effectual," says Dr. Kitto, "could be devised to keep one people distinct from another. It causes the difference. between them to be ever present to the mind, touching, as it does, upon so many points of social and everyday contact; and it is therefore far more efficient in its results, as a rule of distinction, than any difference in doctrine, worship, or morals which men could entertain. . . . It is a mutual repulsion continually operating; and its effect may be estimated from the fact that no nation in which a distinction of meats was rigidly enforced as a part of a religious system, has ev~ changed its religion." 1 And we are surely taught the wisdom of expedients to keep up the desirable separation between the Church and the world. If every religious custom were abandoned, and the conduct of religious people were conformed in all par- ticulars to that of their worldly neighbours, religion would soon become a name, and nothing more. "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. xii. 2). II. 'fm: DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE ANIMALS SYMBOLIZED THE DISTINCTIO:S- WHICH SHOULD EXIST BETWEEN Gon's PEOPLE AND THE WORLD. An excellent writer bas sug- gested that in individual development we pass through the stages attributed to the organic world as a whole; children, for example, passing through the "parrot" or the "monkey" stage.2 "Animated nature" seems designed to mirror" human nature," whether in its evil or in its good propensities. Man finds himself in the image of the lower animals as well as, on his higher side, in the image of God. In conformity with this arrangement, then, the Jew was traiued to regard certain animals as clean and edible, while others were unclean and forbidden. 'l.'owards the one class he was drawn, from the other he was repelled. Now, in the clean animo.ls may be discovered certain good qualities, which make them fit illustrations of the moralities expected from an Israelite. For example, the characteristic of rumination, which belonged to the clean animals, was a fit type of that thoughtfulness and quiet meditation which should cha- racterize the people of God. Again, sure-footedness characterizes the animals with the cloven hoof, which symbolizes the steadfastness of religious character. Speed and cleanliness also characterize the fishes that were accounted clean. On the other hand, the unclean beasts, birds, and fish illustrate most powerfully the lustful, selfish, and impure spirit which characterizes unregenerate man. Not only, therefore, did the distinction among the animals secure the desired national separation, but also that poetic outlook upon nature which discovers in it a great parable for the soul.3 Thus Emerson says, "Every rational creature has all nature for his dowry and 1 'The PictoriC1l Dible,' on Lev. xi. 2 Cf. Secretan's 'Discours LC1:iques,' p. 7-l. • Cf. Kurtz's • Sacrificial Worshi.p,' pp. 22, 23; o.1so Principal Shairp's • Poetic lni.t,r- pretation of Nature;' Emerson's 'Miscello.uies,' etc. 248 THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [on. nv. 1-29,