And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that ye shall eat.
Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud … the camel …divideth not the hoof; … the coney… the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof. – Leviticus 11:1-6
There is a passage in Pilgrim’s Progress where Faithful and Christian encounter one named Talkative of Prating-Row. Talkative is a glib fellow who has the speech of a pilgrim, and Faithful is impressed with him. Christian, however, has prior knowledge of Talkative. He explains that Talkative just likes to talk, and, though he can speak of spiritual things to the spiritual, he capable of equal vulgarity at other times with the crowd at the Ale House.
Faithful discerns the truth of Christian’s assessment and references the verses quoted above describing clean versus unclean animals to draw a conclusion about religious talkers. Clean animals such as the cow or the sheep both chew the cud and have divided hooves, whereas other animals such as the rabbit, though it is strictly vegetarian and chews the cud like a cow, remains in the unclean class because it has no divided hoof.
James tells us that we should attempt to control our tongues and that what we say is important (James 3). He compares the tongue to a ship’s rudder or the bit in a horse’s mouth. If we can regulate our speech, we can avoid many troubles. It is very true that we can talk ourselves into misery, but we can also talk ourselves into joy. Our words can curse our brothers or praise and honor God. The choice is ours. We need to be careful of what we say.
Yet words alone can be deceptive. I used to have knowledge of the French language sufficient to read Camus, but I’ve never been to Paris, eaten escargot, or had my butt kicked by Germans (not counting my wife). As telling as speech is, our walk is equal to it. The transformation must go beyond an acquisition of the right terminology and the mental assent to righteous principles. It must go all the way to the dividing of soul from spirit, to the point that we can determine in our common, everyday plodding around when the Spirit is speaking to us.
There are some who try to create a formula for distinguishing the soulish from the spiritual, but I’m skeptical. The soul is a useful servant while we are on this journey, but it is a very poor master and frightfully good at deceiving even itself. The soul can adopt and adapt to any standard or set of criteria necessary in order to prove its sincerity. It can be atheistic, pharisaic, or even murderously suicidal so long as it is, for a time, able to usurp the throne to please and aggrandize itself.
I think we can cultivate a genuine desire to know the truth coupled with humility, a willingness to acknowledge our mistakes when they are revealed to us – and to learn from them. We lean on the Lord in prayer and meditate on His Word, and listen.
The articulation of a divided hoof allows the clean animal to traverse hard ground and rocky heights. As the Bible says repeatedly (2 Samuel 22:33-35; Psalm 18:32-34; Habbakuk 3:17-19), the Lord makes our feet like those of a deer (“hinds’ feet”) to walk on high places. Without this dividing of soul and spirit, we are not able to scale the heights, to deal effectively with the difficulties we encounter “goin’ up, on the rough side of the mountain”.
Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will exult in the LORD,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord GOD is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds' feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.
2 comments:
If we can regulate our speech, we can avoid many troubles.I've often thought it easier to just shut up, as if it's the proper alternative to Talkative. But James says not - be slow to speak, listen and do, and keep a tight rein. That's much more difficult!
Damn it.
Following-on from Robin's comment, and your reference to the character Talkative, I connected it with GBs post today, where he wrote:
"...that truth is honorable, while there is something dishonorable about things that are false or unreal."
This is something I have intuited for a long time, but never quite articulated. It is similar to the common expression, "I won't dignify that statement with a response," but the latter is usually meant as a slam.
But if we can make the connection that "truth is honorable," then perhaps we can more easily catch and inhibit our own yapping.
One teacher in the past suggested that it was proper to man to spend a third of his life "pondering." That right there would prevent some of the useless bleat.
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