God spoke to Moses and Aaron: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, Of all the animals on Earth, these are the animals that you may eat:
“You may eat any animal that has a split hoof, divided in two, and that chews the cud, but not an animal that only chews the cud or only has a split hoof. For instance, the camel chews the cud but doesn’t have a split hoof, so it’s unclean. The rock badger chews the cud but doesn’t have a split hoof and so it’s unclean. The rabbit chews the cud but doesn’t have a split hoof so is unclean. The pig has a split hoof, divided in two, but doesn’t chew the cud and so is unclean. You may not eat their meat nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.
-Leviticus 11:1-8 (MSG)
God begins his instructions to the Israelites with land animals that are OK to eat. He specifically goes through example by example naming some of the “unclean” animals… No camels, no rock badgers, no rabbits, no pigs. And to sum it up he simply says, “You may not eat their meat nor touch their carcasses.” And as he continues on in later verses referring to other types of animals he makes the same request.
As weird as they sound today, God did had reasons for the avoidance of eating certain animals: for the general health of the people; to separate them from other pagan religions; because of symbolic associations, etc. When you think about it, those do make sense. But why was he so concerned that they not even touch the body of a dead animal?
I think God was pointing out the severity of sin and the dangers that come with association. He was making it clear that not only do we need to not do the things he’s told us to, we need to go as far as to be totally separated from them. It’s as if he’s saying, “Don’t eat these meats… And to make sure that doesn’t happen, don’t even touch the carcasses.”
I wonder how often I have justified my flirtation with sinful things by thinking I was alright because I technically wasn’t committing the sin. The situation may be tempting but I haven’t done anything, so I’m OK, right? Not quite… The line of sin and temptation is very fine, and God recommends that we don’t even go near it.
When you think about it, God is comparing temptation to a stinky, rotten, bloated, maggot-filled, dead animal. To most the thought of even getting near a carcass sounds disgusting, let alone touching it. Flirting with sin and temptation should sound likewise.
