Before God created anything, there was just God.

Everything... absolutely everything after this is to teach us who God is.

God chose some people to teach everyone else about him. The problem was that they didn't know him very well themselves.

He had already said that they could eat anything. But if they wanted to teach about God, they would live in and around the script God gave them.

In order to hide a second story in the history of his people, God had to use symbols.

I will tell you a secret riddle: Why did the chicken cross the road? The real answer is not "To get to the other side" but "To get to the other side". "The other side" is a symbol for going to heaven. If you saw a dead chicken in the road, you would ask the riddle.

The dietary law is filled with riddles. We have clues for the riddles from the names that Adam gave the animals. The names of the animals describe what the animals do. We sometimes have nicknames like this.

Pigs do not care what they eat. Eating is a symbol for learning. So the pig doesn't care what it learns. His name means 'discern a new revelation'. When the pig finds a new thing, he just eats it. He doesn't care if it is good for him or not, it's 'new'.

The dietary law was written for Israel. 'Israel' means 'man joined to God by revelation'. Jacob was called 'Israel' because God made a covenant with him in his dream and again as they wrestled. When the Hebrews were called Israel, God made the covenant at the mountain. You are called Israel because God has made a covenant with you through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

As we sit down to breakfast, we can eat the tasty bacon and be reminded that we should not learn (eat) from people who learn just anything without knowing if it is good or bad.

Since eating is a symbol for learning, each animal is a symbol of someone who would teach. Some people we should learn from, and some we should not learn from. Benjamin Franklin said, "He who lies down with dogs, gets up with fleas." He used dogs as a symbol for people who behave poorly, and fleas as bad behaviors we might learn from them.

By learning this way, you learn to walk with God.

The camel, as a judge could reward or punish you. We hope our judges are good people we could learn from. But God's ways are not our ways. He is telling us a story about him, not about judges.

We should not learn from judges, because if we judge, we will be judged.

When Adam named the coney he must have seen the coney take a treasure into his den, then return to the opening to defend it with bared teeth. His name means 'hide the treasure' but it also means 'mystery of the biting teeth'.

The law is to teach us about God. Those who hide the love of God are not good teachers.

When looking at a warren of rabbits, one might think of popcorn popping. They jump when happy; they jump when scared; they just jump sometimes. The name means 'divided jubilation'.

But the rabbit or hare is not a clean animal because it does not have a separated hoof, or life. Without discernment of what to celebrate, the rabbit cannot dedicate his life to God. He is not a good teacher.

Perhaps you have heard people say their favorite verse of the Bible is "God helps those who help themselves". That isn't in the Bible. The swine hears something and thinks that if he thinks it is good, it must be good.

The one who cannot understand the word of God is not a good teacher.

The attitude of the swine is so contagious it is dangerous. God says we should not even touch their dead bodies. The word 'touch' also means 'join, plagued' and 'carcass' also means 'folly'. We should not be joined to their foolishness, nor plagued by it.

Have nothing to do with the swine or you may get caught up in their folly. Perhaps this is a source for Paul's teaching: 2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

The Hebrew word for 'fish' means 'commanded to pursue. When Adam watched the fish darting around the water, it seemed like an appropriate name.

The one who wears the armor of God as he searches the scriptures and is motivated by the love of God is a good teacher.

The dietary law says nothing about what we can eat. eating is a symbol for learning. It tells us who we should learn from, and who we should not learn from.

We should learn from Jesus those things represented by the clean animals, but the things represented by the unclean animals are things he could do without sinning, but we cannot.

Appendix