One last point on Nadab and Abihu, Dietary Restrictions and Creation

There was one point I meant to make last night concerning Nadab and Abihu that I want to get in before moving on today. We, the church, the disciples of Jesus, are the now the Tabernacle according to the New Testament (1 Cor. 3:16). One of the New Testament's key symbols (and facts) that point to this reality is the presence of the Holy Spirit within the church (Acts 2). The Holy Spirit functions inside the church as God's presence functioned within the Tabernacle: as a means of purifying God's people of sin and corruption. The Spirit is working within our community (and within us individually) to "consume" our impurities that we might be sanctified for service to God. We might therefore look at the story of Nadab and Abihu and symbolic of God's work to rid us of impurity that we might ultimately live in communion with Him. 1 Peter 1:6-7 speaks of this dynamic:

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Finally, I last night we discussed the priests eating the sin offerings as a symbol of sin being consumed by holiness. Ultimately, we said this was a symbol of life consuming death and the powers of evil. This corresponds to our ultimate hope, of which the Apostle Paul speaks in 1 Cor. 15:51-54 (note how Paul uses this same language of eating or consuming sin/death):

Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

Now . . . moving on! This week we will be looking at some of the "Purity System"; at least the parts concerning dietary restrictions, childbirth, skin disease and genital discharges (sounds fun, right?). Before we tackle any of the specifics, it's important to note from the outset that we should not view these codes as fundamentally different than the sacrificial system. That is, they too carry symbolic meanings greater than what they say at face value. Embedded within this system are Israelite values, norms, and worldview. And those are the things we want to discover.

I would like you to consider two questions as you read over the dietary restrictions in Lev. 11:

1. What is the status of predators? Why might this be the case?

2. Consider the divisions of creation (land animals, water animals, air animals) and the characteristics of each division (land animals don't have wings, water animals don't have legs, etc.). How do these divisions affect what is clean and unclean? Notice the status of animals that seem to have characteristics from multiple divisions of creation.

One final note: the words "detestable" and "abomination" with regard to animals or impurity  do not imply that God doesn't care for those animals or beings. These are technical terms about purity . . . to "detest" or treat as an "abomination" means to reject and not make use of. Remember, in Genesis 1 God refers to all of creation as "good" . . . even the "swarmers"!