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Day 36, or February the 5th. Keep an eye open

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for any elephants. Our thoughts today are rooted

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in Leviticus chapter 11, verse 2. Say to the

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Israelites, of all the animals that live on land,

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these are the ones you may eat. First the big

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picture surrounding this verse. Many Jews today

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still follow the kosher laws of their ancestors,

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and prepare their food as ancient Jews did. We

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have to remember that these people who were being

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led by Moses were from the most sophisticated

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country in the world at that time, Egypt, so

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they knew nothing about living as nomads. They

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needed all the help they could get, so they wouldn't

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eat the wrong things as they wended their way

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to the promised land. These rules, like so many

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others that God gives us, are not to impair our

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progress, but to help us to achieve success and

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keep us safe. Rules about circumcision of baby

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boys are specifically recorded too. Circumcision

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must be carried out on the eighth day after the

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birth, and an appropriate offering made following

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the period of purification, which varied depending

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on whether the child was male or female. It is

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very likely that the eighth day is the ideal

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one, as the congealing quality of blood is at

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its best by then. The timing was critically important,

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so God was really precise. And now our action

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step for today. These early dietary laws were

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well known to Jesus and will have been in his

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mind in Matthew 23, verse 24, when he said, Blind

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guides, you strain your water so you won't accidentally

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swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel. Of course,

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swallowing a small insect wouldn't harm them,

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but they needed to strain out the gnat because

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it was not kosher, as this part of Leviticus

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makes very clear. The point Jesus was making

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was that we often fail to see the elephant in

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the room, to use a modern analogy. We concentrate

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on the minutia and leave the big things to dominate

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our lives, usually to our detriment. Why not

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step back occasionally and see if there are any

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elephants in your life? See any yet?