But if any water be put upon the seed, and any part of their carcase fall thereon, it shall be unclean unto you.
Leviticus 11:38 is part of the law given through Moses distinguishing clean from unclean animals and foods, forbidding the eating of what is unclean, including swine's flesh and certain other animals and meats, and it belongs to Israel's sanitary laws. Its specific rule is that seed to be sown becomes unclean when water has been put upon it and any part of a carcass falls upon it. These food restrictions were given to preserve the life and health of God's people, not as arbitrary commands, teaching health principles and requiring care to preserve health.
The forbidden foods were not the best articles of food but fill the blood with impurities and shorten life. Swine's flesh is hurtful under any circumstances, never designed to be eaten, filling the system with humors and often producing leprosy in a warm climate, where its influence upon the system is far more injurious than in a colder climate. Swine were useful as scavengers permitted to run free in a fruitful country to devour decaying substances upon the ground that would poison the atmosphere, and this service preserved health. If Israel had manifested submission to these wise prohibitions, God would have removed from them everything injurious to health and suffered no sickness to be among them, but because they would not submit He gave them what they lusted for.
Daniel and his companions refused the king's meats and wines in obedience to this command, having been taught that this class of food would not keep mind and body in the best condition of health for God's service. They refused in order to honor and glorify God, to perfect character, and to keep clear intellect as representatives of true religion amid false heathen religions, holding God's will as the supreme law of life. They practiced temperance so as not to enfeeble brain or muscle and refused to imperil physical and moral powers for appetite, treating physical health and clear undimmed mental powers as matters of the highest consideration. They knew perils surrounded them and that they must make decided efforts against temptation and then trust the rest with God.
The Pharisees perverted and extended these restrictions beyond what God specified into unwarranted extremes and excessive regulations. They required all water used to be strained lest it contain the smallest speck or insect, even an invisible one, that might be classed with the unclean animals, burdening the people with continual anxiety over cleanliness and tradition. Their focus on such minor external purity rules exposed their neglect of grave sins.
Leviticus 11:38 is part of the law given through Moses distinguishing clean from unclean animals and foods, forbidding the eating of what is unclean, including swine's flesh and certain other animals and meats, and it belongs to Israel's sanitary laws. Its specific rule is that seed to be sown becomes unclean when water has been put upon it and any part of a carcass falls upon it. These food restrictions were given to preserve the life and health of God's people, not as arbitrary commands, teaching health principles and requiring care to preserve health.
The forbidden foods were not the best articles of food but fill the blood with impurities and shorten life. Swine's flesh is hurtful under any circumstances, never designed to be eaten, filling the system with humors and often producing leprosy in a warm climate, where its influence upon the system is far more injurious than in a colder climate. Swine were useful as scavengers permitted to run free in a fruitful country to devour decaying substances upon the ground that would poison the atmosphere, and this service preserved health. If Israel had manifested submission to these wise prohibitions, God would have removed from them everything injurious to health and suffered no sickness to be among them, but because they would not submit He gave them what they lusted for.
Daniel and his companions refused the king's meats and wines in obedience to this command, having been taught that this class of food would not keep mind and body in the best condition of health for God's service. They refused in order to honor and glorify God, to perfect character, and to keep clear intellect as representatives of true religion amid false heathen religions, holding God's will as the supreme law of life. They practiced temperance so as not to enfeeble brain or muscle and refused to imperil physical and moral powers for appetite, treating physical health and clear undimmed mental powers as matters of the highest consideration. They knew perils surrounded them and that they must make decided efforts against temptation and then trust the rest with God.
The Pharisees perverted and extended these restrictions beyond what God specified into unwarranted extremes and excessive regulations. They required all water used to be strained lest it contain the smallest speck or insect, even an invisible one, that might be classed with the unclean animals, burdening the people with continual anxiety over cleanliness and tradition. Their focus on such minor external purity rules exposed their neglect of grave sins.