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Eze. 4:13-15

13 And the LORD [Yahovah] said [amar], Even thus shall the children [ben] of Israel [Yisra'el] eat [akal] their defiled [tame] bread [lechem] among the Gentiles [gowy], whither I will drive [nadach] them.
14 Then said [amar] I, Ah [ahahh] Lord [Adonay] GOD [Yahovih]! behold, my soul [nephesh] hath not been polluted [tame]: for from my youth [na`uwr] up even till now have I not eaten [akal] of that which dieth of itself [nabelah], or is torn in pieces [tarephah]; neither came [bow] there abominable [pigguwl] flesh [basar] into my mouth [peh].
15 Then he said [amar] unto me, Lo [ra'ah], I have given [nathan] thee cow's [baqar] dung [tsaphuwa] [tsaphuwa] for man's [adam] dung [gelel], and thou shalt prepare [asah] thy bread [lechem] therewith. KJV-Interlinear

13 Then the LORD said, 'Thus shall the sons of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I shall banish them.' 14 But I said, 'Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any unclean meat ever entered my mouth.' 15 Then He said to me, 'See, I shall give you cow's dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.' NASB

Now a little more is added to the picture. The Israelites will be eating unclean food. They will be banished to foreign nations, and they will eat unclean food during their banishment. This is all due to their choice of rejecting God in their life.

Everything in the Bible, is there to teach a spiritual lesson. Certainly the people will have rules to guide their physical lives, but then when a person has no spiritual life, they have to have rules to guide them in their physical life so that they might gain some comprehension of the spiritual application.

Unfortunately most people just see the Bible as a whole lot of 'thou shat nots' with a whole lot of taboos with respect as to what they can eat or not eat, what they can do or not do and so forth. We first have to look at the physical before we can see the spiritual side of life.

Deut. 23:12-13
12 You shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there, 13 and you shall have a spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn to cover up your excrement. NASB

Whenever a person had to go to the bathroom, he had to take with him, a shovel to bury his doo-doo. It was considered unclean. Anything unclean could not be kept. It had to be put away, out of sight and out of reach, so that it would not draw you into its uncleanness.

Ezekiel complained that the use of human dung would make him unclean, so God allowed Ezekiel to substitute cow's dung, which is still to be used as fuel. He is to bake his food over the dung, so that the dung forms the material of the fire and that the bread will be polluted by this association.

Remember that there is a spiritual lesson to be found in all of this. This is not a cooking lesson.

What goes into the mouth and into the stomach is of no importance. God commanded human dung as fuel for the fire but permitted animal dung to ease Ezekiel's conscience. The real threat to an individual is that which goes in to the soul, not the stomach. Bible doctrine is the real food that is clean. Human viewpoint, worldliness, indifference, satanic views and such are the 'unclean' foods for the soul.

Ex. 22:31
31 And you shall be holy men to Me, therefore you shall not eat any flesh torn to pieces in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs. NASB

Acts 10:13-14
13 And a voice came to him, 'Arise, Peter, kill and eat!' 14 But Peter said, 'By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.' NASB

Peter was commanded to eat what was otherwise considered to be unclean foods, but God taught him the lesson, that food for the body is irrelevant. Food for the soul is what is important in life. Likewise dealing with gentiles should not be a big deal in life, because it is not their race or cultural status, but their spiritual status, which is important.

There are two environments in which we can live - the spiritual and the carnal. The spiritual environment is what we call being in fellowship. The carnal is being out of fellowship. The spiritual side is the clean side. The carnal side is the unclean side.

When you live out of fellowship, then you are polluted by the unclean environment of the carnal life. The two sides of life cannot be mixed. They are mutually exclusive. Thus they have to be separated in your life and that is accomplished through learning Bible doctrine and living in fellowship. Most of this concept was covered in detail in our study of 1, 2, 3 John.

The side of life which you select for yourself is the side which will rule your life. Pick the clean side and Gods Word will guide you. Choose the unclean side of life and your sin nature will control your life.

So this illustration brings up the contrast between the two. Gods side is the clean side, the blessed side, the prosperous side, the side with a great future and destiny and happiness beyond ones imagination.

The unclean side is the side of famine, of nothingness, of dung and filth, of unhappiness, and stench, and misery.

The people of Jerusalem were living in the city that represents the peace of the spiritual life. Jerusalem means 'city of peace.' Peace comes only from advancing to spiritual maturity. But the people had bastardized their life styles and lived a lie. In the city of peace they lived unclean lives. Lives without God. So their pretended spiritual lives were not really spiritual, but their own inventions of life as they saw it and preferred it.

Since the people tried to live a false life inside their own defined spirituality, God will evict them from His true spirituality and send them into foreign lands. Foreign in the spiritual sense, is anything which is not of God. So, unclean, foreign, gentile, putrid, false, are all terms that represent the false life, a lie, a life without God.

You cannot live in Gods peace unless you abide by His rules. Because the repercussions for living a lie are so harsh, one should be frightened at the thought of living outside of Gods will.

The people faced a life of starvation, a life of eating bad food, a life that will end up in destruction and slavery (no freedom).

If God is very real in your life, then your fears will drive you to doctrine and a successful life.

If however, you don't think much of the spiritual life, if you ignore a daily commitment of Bible study, if you look to emotional highs from time to time by means of the holiday spirit, by means of the occasional 'spiritual' stories, by means of emotional movies, or music, or poems and such, then your spiritual resources are shallow and lacking, if they exist at all. Then, one day you will come face to face with the Grim Reaper and it won't be Halloween.

Then you will have all the tears, all of the terrors, all of the fears of helplessness, and there will be no one to come to your aid. God will have placed the pan of provision between Himself and you, having turned His back on you as you have turned your back, all of your life, on Him. The spiritual life cannot be created in an instant, but takes a lifetime to develop. Tears and emotion, 'There, there. Everything will be all right.' will never solve your problem. Only spiritual growth can do that.

If fear and the nausea of your future is what it takes to get you to wake up, then so be it. But then why should anyone be so stubborn and so negative as to run their life right up to the cliff's edge before they turn around? Why would anyone fully believe that what they are doing in life is quite enough, when their lack of a daily study is a clear indication that they are not following Gods mandates?

What you do in life is irrelevant. What you think guides all that you do and that (your thinking) is what is important.

There is only one way to gain the proper soul, and therefore thought content, and that is through a daily Bible study, residence in fellowship, and application of Gods principles to your daily life. Anything else is a lie. Go back and review your Isaiah 11 notes.

Now is the time to post a prayer.

End Of Lesson

Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.

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