The Lord has been teaching me a lot about his word. There is a scripture that is repeated three times in the Bible, that I have never understood till now.
"Thou shalt not seeth
a kid in it's mothers milk." This is interpreted
to mean that meat cannot be cooked, mixed or served with milk or milk products.
NO Pizza, NO lasagna, NO burritos, NO tacos, and NO cheeseburgers!
This is of course the basis for the
Jews keeping separate dishes for meat and dairy products, keeping kosher.
According to what I learned some years back, keeping kosher meant having
two sets of dishes, glassware etc. One to use for dairy products and one
for meat. If you were a well to do Jewish family, you had 4 sets of everything,
the other two were for passover only! I recall the story of a missionary
in Israel who had a hard time finding a burrito. Then he was told that
they are not kosher, since meat is mixed with cheese. So the title of this
article: The Case of the Kosher Cheeseburger is a tip-off. There is no
such thing as a Kosher Cheeseburger!
"Thou shalt not seeth
a kid in it's mothers milk."
This verse had puzzled me for a long time. Every now and then, I would think about it and wonder what it really meant.
What do I mean by that? Well take the verse Thou shall not muzzle the Ox that treads out the corn. This in one of those Old Testament, Torah laws, that could be strictly intended for guiding farmers in taking care of animals. Except that Paul in the new testament tells us that there is a spiritual meaning to it. "For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope." (1 Corinthians 9:9-10)
For our sakes no doubt this is written, because the things that are written are written for examples and lessons. So perhaps there is a lesson in that verse that says :
"Thou shalt not seeth a kid in it's mothers milk."
I have found that when I really inquire of the Lord about some passage in his word, he starts to show me the meaning. So I said to my self, one of these days I am really going to press in and seek the Lord for understanding of this passage. And then! He interrupted my train of thought and said "Why don't you ask me about it now?" And thus an answer began to come. And this is it.
The spiritual truth behind this is found in applying it to the Word of God. See the scripture references at the end of this article. In the New Testament the word is often compared to milk and sometimes the milk is contrasted with meat - the deeper truths of the Word. Isaiah says 'to whom shall he teach knowledge, to them that are weaned of milk'!
So Then: To rightly divide the word of truth, requires us to separate the milk from the meat.
Not the literal milk from the literal meat, but the milk and meat of the word! That is we must separate the literal from the spiritual. Not to do so is unbelief! And unbelief is disobedience! When you look into a cook pot and see milk, you cannot tell if there is any meat beneath the surface! But you need to look for it and take it out if you can find it. So it is with the Word of God. The milk is the surface meaning, and the meat is the deeper spiritual meaning.
"Thou shalt not seeth a kid in it's mothers milk." is in effect speaking about unbelief. Why is it unbelief if we do not separate the milk from the meat? Because the word says all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for instruction, correction, reproof and doctrine. Since the word says that all scripture is profitable, you must expect to find a deeper meaning in even the most ordinary historical passage. And this scripture is a perfect example of that very principle! It occurs to me that in keeping kosher, the Jews have made almost a religion out of just this one scripture. I am reminded of the verse that says "He hath concluded them [the Jews] all in unbelief."
And so the principle of literal interpretation needs to be modified, lest it lead us into unbelief. If we stop our inquiry once we have a literal interpretation, we are settling for just the milk! Interpret the word literally where possible but continue on and look beneath the surface. And expect to find deeper truths! Seek and ye shall find - meat in due season.
Now will somebody please explain this one: "If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young:" (Deuteronomy 22:6)
Scripture references:
Exodus 23:19 19 The first of the firstfruits
of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt
not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
Exodus 34:26 26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
Deuteronomy 14:21 21 Ye shall not eat [of] any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that [is] in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
Isaiah 28:9 9. Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? [them that are] weaned from the milk, [and] drawn from the breasts.
1 Corinthians 3:2 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able [to bear it], neither yet now are ye able.
Hebrews 5:12 12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which [be] the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk [is] unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
1 Peter 2:2 2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: