Leviticus 11:24-47
24 ‘By these you shall become unclean; whoever touches the carcass of any of them shall be unclean until evening; 25 whoever carries part of the carcass of any of them shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening: 26 The carcass of any animal which divides the foot, but is not cloven-hoofed or does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Everyone who touches it shall be unclean. 27 And whatever goes on its paws, among all kinds of animals that go on all fours, those are unclean to you. Whoever touches any such carcass shall be unclean until evening. 28 Whoever carries any such carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. It is unclean to you.
29 ‘These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth: the mole, the mouse, and the large lizard after its kind; 30 the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon. 31 These are unclean to you among all that creep. Whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening. 32 Anything on which any of them falls, when they are dead shall be unclean, whether it is any item of wood or clothing or skin or sack, whatever item it is, in which any work is done, it must be put in water. And it shall be unclean until evening; then it shall be clean. 33 Any earthen vessel into which any of them falls you shall break; and whatever is in it shall be unclean: 34 in such a vessel, any edible food upon which water falls becomes unclean, and any drink that may be drunk from it becomes unclean. 35 And everything on which a part of any such carcass falls shall be unclean; whether it is an oven or cooking stove, it shall be broken down; for they are unclean, and shall be unclean to you. 36 Nevertheless a spring or a cistern, in which there is plenty of water, shall be clean, but whatever touches any such carcass becomes unclean. 37 And if a part of any such carcass falls on any planting seed which is to be sown, it remains clean. 38 But if water is put on the seed, and if a part of any such carcass falls on it, it becomes unclean to you.
39 ‘And if any animal which you may eat dies, he who touches its carcass shall be unclean until evening. 40 He who eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. He also who carries its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.
41 ‘And every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be an abomination. It shall not be eaten. 42 Whatever crawls on its belly, whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet among all creeping things that creep on the earth—these you shall not eat, for they are an abomination. 43 You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps; nor shall you make yourselves unclean with them, lest you be defiled by them. 44 For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 45 For I am the LORD who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
46 ‘This is the law of the animals and the birds and every living creature that moves in the waters, and of every creature that creeps on the earth, 47 to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten.’”
The lesson that the LORD was teaching the people was not why particular animals were acceptable as clean to eat and why others were unclean and to be avoided; what He was really doing was teaching them the knowledge of good and evil (Hebrews 5:14) which Adam and Eve had tried to do on their own (Genesis 3:5, 6) in disobedience to the command of prohibition for their good. Our progenitors brought sin on us all to be corrupted in our minds and hearts with sin that causes us now to call good evil and evil good as we struggle to figure out what is spiritually clean and unclean for our souls. We need to be taught by God to know good and evil, clean and unclean, between selfish sins and God-pleasing choices based on the guidance of His word to inform and confirm these things to us. Because of this corrupt and confused state, the LORD first began with teaching discernment to Israel by following rote commands of acceptable and prohibited foods labeled as clean and unclean. After the fullness of the Law was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, these went away and all foods (except offered to idols and with their lifeblood) were declared clean (1 Timothy 4:4-5) to those following Him. We now are taught by God Himself (John 6:45) and are given the freedom with foods as we are provided wisdom and guidance by His Spirit to discern good and evil (Hebrews 5:14) and will taste of the tree of life in Christ when we meet Him face to face at last in the resurrection. God teaches us as we grow in conformity to His Son what is good and evil, what truly is clean and unclean for our souls. This is our sanctification which we work out fearfully and confidently in grace as we hold to the promise that He will complete the work (Philippians 1:6) which was begun in each of us at our transformative new birth of regeneration to gain the mind of Christ () and be able finally to listen to His teaching of good and evil as originally planned in our creation before we in all futility tried and failed to learn with our own (Proverbs 3:5-6) flawed and corrupted (2 Corinthians 11:3) understanding. Of we are therefore to learn and discern right from wrong, we must heed the word (Isaiah 30:21, 2 Peter 1:19, 2 Timothy 3:16-17) given us by His Spirit through His prophets and apostles. May we ever be learning from our Lord through His word the difference between good and evil, acceptable and unacceptable, clean and unclean for our holiness, to be more like Him. We are called to learn to discern to be holy (1 Peter 1:13-14, 15-16) because He is and we are called to be His in His likeness as in our creation in the beginning.
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