Exodus 19:5 "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:"
The mixing of wool and linen was mentioned somewhere in this thread, I've no idea how many pages back. These commands are designed to show Israel how they are to keep themselves separate from the world IMO. This may be the very basic meaning, I'm sure there are many more thoughts and ideas about our Creator that one could learn resulting from studying these. Here in context, these 3 seem to have a common theme...…(mixing)
Deut 22:
9 Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.[
a]
10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
Any thoughts?
Greetings K,
Good to see you here again.
Not that I wish for your persecution!
I agree with your opinion. The excerpt below is from a book; "Beyond Humiliation, The way of The Cross", which I read decades ago, written in the late 1800's by James Gregory Mantle. Does the third chapter speak to anything we see coming from some here in CC?
In the beginning a threefold separation was accomplished before the command was given: “Be fruitful, and multiply.” God separated the light from the darkness, the waters beneath from the waters above the firmament, the sea from the dry land. To show His jealousy for physical order still further, He forbid an Israelite to plow with an ox and an ass under the same yoke (Deut. xxii. 10). The sowing of a field with mingled seed, and the wearing of a garment mingled of linen and woolen were also strictly forbidden (Lev. xix. 19). To this day an orthodox Jew will not mend a woolen garment with a flaxen thread. One of the preparations made by the Jews for an approaching Passover was to go over the fields and root up plants that had grown from mingled seeds. These prohibitions were intended to cultivate in the mind of the people the sentiment of reverence for the order established in nature by God. Wool and linen come from separate kingdoms in nature, one from the animal, the other from the vegetable, and unmixedness of moral character is clearly foreshadowed. To wear, in the same robe, the wool of selfishness and the linen of spirituality is contrary to the law of order which prevails in the kingdom of grace as in the kingdom of nature. God is as jealous — nay, more jealous — of moral order than of physical order, and in the management of their cattle, in the cultivation of their fields, in the making and wearing of their clothes, God was whispering in their ear, “Be pure of heart and life.” “What communion hath light with darkness?”
This thought of unmixedness is still further illustrated in the dress of the priests: “When the priests minister in the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; no wool shall come upon them while they minister in the inner court, and within” (Ezek. xliv. 17). To enter “within the veil” and dwell there in the presence of God, there must be a laying aside of all that appertains to the dark world — the world of our selfhood — and we must be clothed with the fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteous acts of the saints and the robing of the Bride of Christ (Rev. xix. 8).
Few will deny that this mixedness in Christian life and work is a great bane, and seriously interferes with the effectiveness of both. This must be so, because it is a subversion of God’s order, and, as we have previously intimated, the creature will not be permitted with impunity to interfere with the laws established by the Creator. This was Paul’s trouble in the Corinthian Church. The Christians were possessed of a regenerate babe-life which Paul calls “carnality.” They lived a kind of suspended life, now dominated by the flesh and now by the Spirit, and the result was an elementary experience, envying, strife, and division (I Cor. iii.). Those who are living this mixed life are spoken of as double-minded (more exactly double-souled) men (James i. 8; iii. 8). There is only one cure for such a condition. It is the converging of all the desires and affections in the same center, viz., the love of God’s will and glory. When this is the case true singleness of heart is experienced. “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”
Before we can live the unmixed life, and belong no longer to the carnal but to the spiritual Christians, we must be willing to know the extent of the mixedness in our own character, for what the eye does not see the heart will not grieve over. Before we invite God to search us, let us pause and ask whether we are willing that He should make a thorough work of this self-discovery, however painful and humbling it may be. If not, we had better not begin; for it is better to be without the light than to possess it and be disobedient.
To this I add a poem that gets me literally every time I read it;
Search me, O God, my actions try,
And let my life appear
As seen by Thine all-searching eye—
To mine my ways make clear.
· Search all my sense, and know my heart
Who only canst make known,
And let the deep, the hidden part
To me be fully shown.
· Throw light into the darkened cells,
Where passion reigns within;
Quicken my conscience till it feels
The loathsomeness of sin.
· Search all my thoughts, the secret springs,
The motives that control;
The chambers where polluted things
Hold empire o'er the soul.
· Search, till Thy fiery glance has cast
Its holy light through all,
And I by grace am brought at last
Before Thy face to fall.
· Thus prostrate I shall learn of Thee,
What now I feebly prove,
That God alone in Christ can be
Unutterable love.
F. Bottome
We are so blessed to have a Loving Creator who will and does this for us!
SG