Page 107 - Through New Eyes

Birds and Beasts 101

striction as to kind (Genesis 9:3-4). It was only with the Mosaic
covenant that the unclean animals were declared inedible. 1 Z
The distinction between clean and unclean animals, then,
must be symbolic. Here again, we must be careful. It was not
the overall lifestyle of these animals that made them clean or un-
clean. The Bible has many fine things to say about the eagle. “As
would be expected, the eagle’s regal appearance and superior
power are frequently emphasized. The Bible describes the im-
pressive sweep of its wings in flight, its awesome speed, and its
characteristic manner of swooping down to attack its victims .“ 13
Indeed, one of the faces of the cherubim is that of an eagle. Yet
the eagle is an unclean animal. The same is true of the lion; in-
deed, Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Yet the lion is un-
clean. The eagle and lion are every bit as unclean as dogs and
pigs, concerning both of which Scripture has nothing good to say.
And, unclean though the serpent is, it is used on one occasion to
describe the tribe of Dan in a “flattering metaphor.”14 The clean
goat is every bit as disgusting in its habits as the unclean pig.
What this means is that we have to be extremely precise in
determining exactly what made clean animals clean, and un-
clean animals unclean. It is not their general habits. It is not in-
formation from poetry, prophecy, or proverbs. It is, rather, the
precise details given in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. The
lion was unclean, resembling the Satan-possessed nations in
only one respect: He does not have split hooves and does not
chew the cud. Apart from this consideration, he is a fine and no-
ble beast.
In fact, the primary feature of clean animals is their feet, in
one sense or another. To understand this, we must bear in mind
that the ground was cursed under the Old Covenant (Genesis
3:17). Men normally wore shoes, and it was ceremonially impor-
tant to wash the cursed soil off one’s feet before entering a house
(Genesis 18:4; 19:2; 43:24; Judges 19:21; Luke 7:44; John
13: 3-15). Holy ground, where the curse was removed, required
men to go barefoot (Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15).
Bear in mind that animals are symbols of men. We find that
clean land animals wear “shoes,” while unclean land animals do
not. Clean land animals also chew the cud, traditionally re-
garded as an image of meditating on God’s Word (e. g., Psalm