Leviticus 3:17 It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood. No little stress is laid on the prohibition of two things - the fat and the blood of slain animals: it was to be "a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings." The fat thus interdicted was that which was offered in sacrifice (verses 3, 4, 9, 10), not that which was interlined with the lean (Nehemiah 8:10). We may look at - I. THE MEANING OF THIS PROHIBITION IN THEIR CASE. Evidently both the fat and the blood were disallowed as food because they were offered in sacrifice to Jehovah. On this account they were to be preserved sacred. They were not to be treated as ordinary things, vulgarized, lowered in public estimation; a feeling of their sacredness was to be cherished and carefully preserved by daily habit. To be continually using these parts as meat and drink at table would have the effect which was to be deprecated. It was, therefore, an act of religious duty to abstain from them. By such abstinence their feelings of reverence and piety would be guarded and preserved. Was it not for a similar reason, viz. that no violation should be done to the sacred sentiment of maternity, that the law was thrice repeated, "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk" (Exodus 23:19, etc.)? The influence of daily habit on the finer sentiments of the soul is very gradual and imperceptible, but in the end it is very great: it is often decisive for good or evil. II. ITS BEARING ON OUR OWN RELIGIOUS LIFE. We are to guard most sedulously our sacred feelings; to "keep our heart above all keeping" (Proverbs 4:23). Among other perils to be avoided is that of allowing sacred things to be vulgarized by too frequent use, to lose their force and virtue by reason of over-familiarity. With this end in view, there will be, on the part of the prudent, a certain measure of: 1. Wise limitation. This will apply to (1) the use of the Divine name (the avoidance of profanity); (2) the employment of pious phraseology in ordinary speech (the avoidance of offensive and injurious cant); (3) the repetition of sacred formulae (the avoidance of a Pharisaic formalism); (4) the multiplication of holy days (Romans 14:6). (5) These matters, and such as these, are questions of expediency, to be determined by practical Christian wisdom. Both extremes are to be avoided - the neglect of good things and so the loss of spiritual help, and their excessive use resulting in the loss of the sense of sacredness. The latter is a subtle and strong evil, for when sacred things have lost their sanctity to us, there is little left to elevate and restore. "If the salt have lost its savour," etc. But beside wise limitation, there must be: 2. Positive spiritual endeavour. It will by no means suffice to conform to good rules of speech and behaviour: such abstinences will not preserve a reverent and loving spirit; we must think seriously and pray earnestly. (1) By serious thought we must be frequently realizing how great is our indebtedness to the heavenly Father; how real is our need, as sinners, of the Divine Saviour; how urgent is our want, as weak and struggling souls, of the influence of the Holy Spirit! (2) By earnest prayer we must be drawing down from on high that spiritual replenishment which God is willing to bestow on all seeking souls, and without which all life will languish, all means and methods prove fruitless and vain. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood. |
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