And some will reply that God knows about microorganisms, and was just trying to look after the health of the Israelites. But human nature hasn t changed in 3500 years. If I try to tell someone to do something that s good for them without giving them a good reason why, today they ll ignore me just as much as they would have 3500 years ago. And let s be careful not to read our worldviews into the past. The Israelites saw the world much differently.
Eels are unclean because they are fish without scales.
Ostriches because they are birds that don t fly. The Israelites are dealing with out of place symbols. And in dealing with symbols Leviticus isn t outdated, it isn t irrelevant. Symbols are a very important part of our society. I d be carrying two examples with me this morning.