and the swine, for it hath cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open, but it cheweth not the cud -- it shall be unclean unto you.
Leviticus 11 sorts the land animals by two visible tests: a split hoof and the chewing of the cud. The pig passes the first test and fails the second, which raises the question the whole chapter is driving at — what does God count as clean?
An animal needed both marks. Each mark stands for something in a person's life.
The inward life and the outward walk must go together. A man may claim to love the Word of God and feed on it — to study it and think it over, the pasture of the soul. But if his footprints along the path of life are not what the Word calls for, he is not clean. On the other hand, a man may seem to walk with the blamelessness of a Pharisee. But if his walk does not come out of the hidden life, it is worse than worthless.
The verse marks the pig by what it does not do. So what happens when an animal chews the cud?
We have been told that animals that chew the cud have two stomachs. When they eat, the food goes into the first stomach. After a time, by some process, it comes back up to the animal's mouth, and the animal chews it a second time with care. Then it goes down into the second stomach, and the animal absorbs it. Chewing the cud stands for full assimilation... if we are to please the Lord we must not only read the Word of God. We must meditate on it, make it our own, absorb it, take it into our spiritual beings.
The pig eats. It never comes back to what it swallowed.
The swine did not chew the cud. It gulped its food down, though it had cloven hoofs and feet quite split open. It was to be unclean to them. They must neither eat the flesh nor touch the carcass.
The pig is the one animal here you would misjudge by the footprint alone.
The last animal here is very different from the rest, and the very type of uncleanness. The swine made no pretence of chewing the cud, but it had the cloven foot. If you looked only at that, the swine would seem clean. It pictures people who openly slight faith and the Word of God and plead their good conduct instead: "He can't be wrong whose life is in the right." In fact the life is not right. The swine loves the mud and roots up the ground; it is a destroyer by nature. God does not judge as man judges, but His judgment alone is true.
There is a religion that measures itself by conduct alone.
There are some who make a loud case for works. They argue for an upright, conscientious walk. Their constant cry is, "Give and do."... They are something like the clean animal in one point: they have a divided hoof and leave a certain track in the walk. Yet they are as unclean as the swine, because they do not chew the cud. They ignore the testimony of God about man's utter ruin as a sinner, and about eternal redemption accomplished by Christ Jesus for all who believe in His name — the foundation of all true Christianity.
The same failure has an end point: the washed animal goes back to the mud.
Some people seem able to walk in the right way. They concentrate on moral uprightness, yet have no heart for learning the Word of God, and so never meditate on the person of Christ who sits at the right hand of God. They may have feet that could carry them through the mud of the world. But instead, though they may even be washed (not saved, but cleaned up on the outside), they prefer to return to wallowing in the mud (2 Peter 2:22). The believer is warned not to have any fellowship with such people.
So the answer does not lie in trying harder at either mark.
So it is as pointless to rest on inward meditation alone as on outward self-denial alone. By itself either one is only self, an empty boast in the flesh, in total ignorance of both God and man. But His grace meets man — unclean, wilful and proud — in and by His own Son. That Man without sin came to die for him and to suffer for his sins. In resurrection a new condition begins. There He gives those who believe to live by His life and to receive the Spirit of God, so that we may walk accordingly.
- Two tests. A clean animal had to chew the cud and split the hoof. The pig fails the first test. One mark alone never made anything clean.
- Inside first. Chewing the cud pictures taking the Word in and going over it again until it becomes part of you — not just reading it.
- Outside follows. The split hoof is the track left behind, the walk; it counts only when it comes out of the hidden life.
- The pig's warning. Look only at the footprint and you would pass the pig as clean. That is good conduct offered in place of faith in God's Word.
- The way out. Neither inward meditation nor outward self-denial makes anyone clean. Grace meets unclean man in God's own Son, and in resurrection He gives believers His own life.
Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch they shall be unclean unto you.
Leviticus 11 gives Israel a food list, and verse 8 is the verdict on four animals that just failed the test: the camel, the rock badger, the hare and the pig. Their meat and even their dead bodies are off limits, and the reason is not health or taste but God's own word — "they are unclean to you."
Verse 8 falls on animals that were half right. The two marks stand or fall together.
The divided hoof was not enough on its own, without the chewing of the cud. The pig parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, so it is unclean to you (v. 7). In a word, the two things were inseparable in every clean animal. The spiritual application matters enormously in practice. The inward life and the outward walk must go together. A man may claim to love and feed on the Word of God — to study it and turn it over, the pasture of the soul. But if his footprints along the path of life are not what the Word calls for, he is not clean. On the other hand, a man may seem to walk with a Pharisee's blamelessness. But if his walk does not come from the hidden life, it is worse than worthless.
The vocabulary itself carries the lesson: an animal that chews the cud is a ruminant.
Among animals only those were clean that had the two marks: chewing the cud and the cloven hoof. Animals that chew the cud are classed as "ruminants," and to "ruminate" has picked up "meditate" as a second meaning. The animals with a cloven hoof are sure-footed and often light-footed too. If the word of God is hidden in our hearts by meditation, and if it shapes our outward walk in this way, our path will be clean in God's sight.
Chewing the cud goes over food already swallowed — a second pass, not a first reading.
There is reason to fear that many who read the Bible do not digest the word. The two things are widely different. One may read chapter after chapter, book after book, and not digest so much as a single line... The cattle grazing on the grass can teach us a healthy lesson. First they gather up the refreshing pasture, then they calmly lie down to chew the cud.
The two marks describe someone before they describe us.
The clean, as we have seen, foreshadow Christ. They were marked by two distinguishing features — parting the hoof and chewing the cud... The "divided hoof" clearly points to walk, and "chewing the cud" points to meditation on the word of God. Jesus the Son of God displayed both marks in a striking and perfect way. His fellowship with God went on without a moment's interruption, until He was made sin and a sacrifice for us on the cross.
Israel did not draw up this list, and personal taste had no say in it.
They were not their own, and so they were not to do as they pleased. They belonged to Jehovah; His name was called on them; they were identified with Him. His word was to be their great regulating standard in every case... God's Word was to be their only guide. Other nations might eat what they pleased; but Israel had the high privilege of eating only what pleased Jehovah.
Verse 8 bans the carcass as well as the meat.
The care God took over His people went further than eating what was unclean. Bare contact was forbidden too. (See v. 8, 24, 26-28, 31-41.) It was impossible for a member of the Israel of God to touch what was unclean without picking up defilement... Jehovah would have His people holy in all things. They were neither to eat nor touch anything unclean.
God gave these rules to one nation for a season, and the New Testament says so.
One other thing we may note about this chapter: these distinctions were not made in Noah's day — see Genesis 9:2-3. This fact, we believe, lies behind Paul's statement, "nothing is unclean in itself" (Rom. 14:14); and again, "All things are lawful" (1 Cor. 10:23). In Noah's day all men were in view. In Moses' day only Israel was in question. These special laws had two aims: to impress them with the holiness of God, and to help keep them distinct and separate from the nations.
Peter learned what the unclean animals really stood for.
In a vision the Lord told Peter to eat all kinds of animals. Peter objected, but the Lord insisted. Then he realised that the unclean animals stood for people — that is, Gentiles. In Acts 10:28 Peter says that God had shown him he should not call any man unclean... God has removed the barrier between clean and unclean animals. So "everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving" (1 Tim. 4:4).
- Two marks. Cloven hoof and chewed cud had to appear together; verse 8 is the sentence on every animal that had only one.
- Two lessons. The split hoof pictures the walk; chewing the cud pictures meditation. Take the Word in, then go over it until you digest it.
- One Person. Both marks were perfect in Christ; His walk and His meditation on God's word never came apart.
- One authority. "Unclean to you" came from God, not from Israel's taste. His word, not their reasoning, set the standard.
- One lasting test. The list bound Israel only, and Peter's vision closed the food question. A life fed on Scripture and matched by a clean walk is still what God is after.