Day 36 or February the 5th. Keep an eye open for any elephants.
Our thoughts today are rooted in Leviticus chapter 11 verse 2. Say to the Israelites,
of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat.
First the big picture surrounding this verse. Many Jews today still follow the kosher
laws of their ancestors and prepare their food as ancient Jews did. We have to remember
that these people who were being led by Moses were from the most sophisticated country in
the world at that time, Egypt, so they knew nothing about living as nomads. They needed
all the help they could get so they wouldn't eat the wrong things as they wended their
way to the promised land. These rules, like so many others that God gives us, are not
to impair our progress but to help us to achieve success and keep us safe. Rules about circumcision
of baby boys are specifically recorded too. Circumcision must be carried out on the eighth
day after the birth, and an appropriate offering made following the period of purification,
which varied depending on whether the child was male or female. It is very likely that
the eighth day is the ideal one, as the congealing quality of blood is at its best by then. The
timing was critically important, so God was really precise.
And now our action step for today. These early dietary laws were well known to Jesus and
will have been in his mind in Matthew chapter 23 verse 24 when he said, blind guides, you
strain your water so you won't accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel. Of
course, swallowing a small insect wouldn't harm them, but they needed to strain out the
gnat because it was not kosher, as this part of Leviticus makes very clear. The point Jesus
was making was that we often fail to see the elephant in the room, to use a modern analogy.
We concentrate on the minutia and leave the big things to dominate our lives, usually
to our detriment. Why not step back occasionally and see if there are any elephants in your
life? See any yet?