Scripture Daily

Context No. 1461 of 4322 · Leviticus

Context · Reflection

Leviticus 11:9-19: in context

9“‘You may eat of all these that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, that you may eat. 10All that don’t have fins and scales in the seas and rivers, all that move in the waters, and all the living creatures that are in the waters, they are an abomination to you, 11and you shall detest them. You shall not eat of their meat, and you shall detest their carcasses. 12Whatever has no fins nor scales in the waters is an abomination to you. 13“‘You shall detest these among the birds; they shall not be eaten because they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, 14the red kite, any kind of black kite, 15any kind of raven, 16the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, 17the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, 18the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, 19the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.

This passage is part of the law distinguishing clean from unclean creatures. Fish with fins and scales may be eaten; those without are to be detested. A long list of birds is forbidden, mostly birds of prey and scavengers, the eagle, the vulture, the kite, the raven, the owls, the hawk, and others. The regulations governed what an Israelite could and could not eat, drawing a line through the ordinary business of daily meals.

To modern readers these food laws can seem strange and arbitrary, and much has been debated about the reasons behind the particular distinctions. But whatever the specific rationale, the effect of the laws was to make an Israelite's belonging to God present in the most ordinary corner of life: eating. Every meal became an occasion of distinction, a small, daily reminder that this people belonged to God and was set apart from the nations around them, different even in what they ate. The point was not that the forbidden creatures were evil in themselves, but that the constant practice of distinction kept the fact of being God's holy people always before them, woven into the most routine act of the day. There is a principle in that which outlasts the particular laws, which the New Testament sets aside. We are shaped by our habits, and small, regular practices have a formative power out of proportion to their size. A daily discipline that keeps our belonging to God before us, a habit of prayer before meals, a rhythm of returning to him through the day, a regular practice that marks our lives as set apart, does quietly what these food laws did for Israel: it keeps the reality of belonging to God from fading into the background of a busy life. We need such reminders, woven into the ordinary, because without them the awareness of God slips away. The food laws are gone, but the wisdom of daily practices that keep our belonging to God present remains.

Do I have small, regular practices woven into my ordinary days that keep my belonging to God present, as the food laws kept it before Israel, or has the awareness of God slipped into the background of a busy life for lack of any daily reminder?

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