Portion 70

Golden Text: Leviticus 11-12
Readings for the week:

Day 1: Leviticus 11-12

Day 2: 2 Chronicle 19

Day 3: Haggai 2

Day 4: Matthew 18:15-19:30

Day 5: Romans 14

Day 6: 1 Corinthians 8

I- The seal of creation.

On one occasion a shepherd used a very peculiar illustration that began with a question: “What is the worst thing a dog can do to man?” The response of the audience was not long in coming. Some said, “Bite him!” others, “Lay him to the ground!” and others, “Excrete him!” The shepherd smiled and said to them, “The worst thing a dog can do to a man is to make a man bite the dog.” Everyone was surprised by such a wise illustration, because if man became a dog that meant a greater denigration. God knows, and it is His plan, that man should be above all the creation around him[1].

The point is that there will always be a battle between the material body that makes up the human being and the natural world that is made up of the same substance. God gives man some resources so that this material world does not drag him down and make him diminish by losing that human dimension that makes him superior to the rest of creation. Among these resources is the special treatment they must have with food, mainly towards animals, so as not to become someone sadistic without moral scruples. For example, it is given to all human beings that you should not eat an animal that is not dead, that is, you cannot take a part of the animal and leave it alive to eat only that part that was taken from it[2].

God allows human beings to eat meat, but He sets several limits so that the process of eating meat does not harm human beings by breaking their spiritual essence.

II- Purity for cigars.

It is good to emphasize here that the text does not indicate that a person being impure constituted a sinful crime. God commands to be pure, but there are impurities that are natural such as death or the issue of blood, so you could be impure all your life and not be a sinner because of that. The problem with impurity was that there were many things that could not be done because of this.

For example, entering the temple was obligatory to look at purity and impurity from a ministerial perspective. By Jesus’ time this perspective had been lost, and purity and impurity became fundamental and thus a stumbling block for the people. A very important detail to keep in mind when broaching the subject is that these rules or commandments are for those who follow the Bible, for those who desire their lives to be concentrated or consecrated to the things of God, for those who make up His kingdom as sons and priests. To impose this on someone who has not consecrated his life to the Lord voluntarily is to fall into the sin of imposition and mistreatment, it is to be a stumbling block for others.

By having a clear vision of what is impure, one was not discarding the material world with it but was signaling not allowing oneself to be absorbed by it. These commandments, rather than purifying the body, were directly focused on strengthening the person’s self-control, which is the main weapon against material things and concupiscence.

III- The Scripture that comes from above.

Something very special to highlight in these texts is that here is one of the clearest proofs that this Scripture is the Word of God. He said here the four animals that did not have one of the characteristics of the two that were needed to be eaten: the camel, the rabbit, the hare, and the pig.

How do we know that this is not the writing of Moses, but of God? Today we know with certainty that in the entire planet Earth only these four animals or species have these characteristics. The only one who could know that to be able to say it like that more than 3000 years ago is God.

Questions:

1.- Why do you think Peter did not eat of the animals that God put on his canvas and yet he did accept the miracle of the conversion of the Gentiles?

2.- Why can we say that through the pure and the unclean God trained the self-control of his people?

3.- Why do you think Paul taught that no one should force another believer to eat or not eat the unclean?

 

[1] Ps 8:3-8.

[2] Gn 9:4.

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