Coney/legalist

Coney/legalist

Le 11:5 And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he [is] unclean unto you.

When Adam named the coney, he observed the the behavior of taking his treasures underground. There is a meaning derived from from the letters within the name. It means the mystery of the biting teeth. Eating is a metaphor for learning, which we will see played out wherever it occurs. The mouth is a metaphor for teaching which contains law and grace. When God revealed himself, he used two main ideas; love or grace and holiness or law. The word of God contains both. The biting teeth represent the law. In proper allegory, the metaphor is related to the words. Teeth, like Elisha's axe head refer are the 'business end' of the word of God.

In the account of Elisha removing an axe head from a stream, it represents Jesus removing judgement from the Word. This is the Gospel message! Christ took our judgement for us. The same thing is taught when Jesus turned water into wine. Jesus removed judgement from the Word, represented by water, leaving grace, represented by wine.

The coney represents the legalist because he hides the treasure of grace and bears his sharp teeth of the law. He has no grace/wine, just like the rulers of the banquet

coney shaphan שׁפן - hide the treasure

coney shaphan שׁפן - the mystery פ of the biting teeth שן . The mouth speaks the word of God, the teeth are biting, they are the law within the word.

We should not learn from the legalist. The gospel is a gospel of grace and they misrepresent God and the gospel by only teaching the law. Even the symbols of grace, like baptism and communion become hideous legalisms with many rules as to who, how, and when they can be celebrated. Celebrating the symbols is preaching the cross through those symbols. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Consider a person who is perishing who goes through baptism. The baptism itself is the preaching of the cross through a symbol. Though the baptism means nothing and has no effect on the unbeliever who was baptized, to us, the symbol is still the very power of God.