Rediscovering Unchanging Love

Introduction

Did you ever wonder what it means to boil a kid in its mother’s milk? This commandment is found in Exodus 23:19, 34:26 and Deuteronomy 14:21. The Jews think that this should be taken literally. They do not cook milk and meat together. Many rabbis forbid consumption of milk and meat or anything merely containing the mixed tastes of milk and meat. If this was to be taken literally, then mixing milk and meat should not be a violation of this commandment, especially since it is referring to goat meat and goat milk. Mixing any other type of milk with any other type of meat should not be a transgression of this clear commandment. I could boil a kid—a baby goat that is—in another goat’s (not the mother of that kid) milk, and still be in the same accord, innocent toward the commandment. I could take a lamb and boil it in its mother’s milk or any other milk and I’ll be fine. I eat sandwiches with meat and cheese, which is a milk product, and I’m fine from a health and moral point of view. I could go on and on with finding endless loopholes in this law, and go to such extremes and still be blameless toward this standard, which appears to be confusing.

I think the omniscient God meant something much simpler for us regarding this confusing language, so that there are no loopholes. This is why I’ve decided not to take this literally, but instead to dig deep and to find its true meaning. It is clear to me that this language, like most biblical language, is figurative, and if it is to be taken literally, it makes God look different than the image of perfect love. God likes to hide important messages in parables to teach us how to understand Him better and grow and develop into better persons; or, He could give us all the answers and we would remain juveniles in character and thinking. When you went to school and were tested often on the material that you’d studied, did the teacher give you all the answers? The teacher didn’t even tell you what questions you were going to get on the test. Many pastors preach the same thing over and over again, the same elementary teachings that are merely boiling their listeners in milk. They do not know how to feed their parishioners strong food. They cannot give what they don’t have. This is where I come in: to help you come up with simple answers that not only make sense, but help you establish a more perfect relationship with the One who has never changed in His wonderful love for you. So join the new revolution in the Bible study.