Most of us have driven past it: a fox or a badger on the verge, and the crows already gathering. Nobody stops to pick it up for tea. In this verse today, we see holiness stretches even to what we eat. God says, don’t pick up roadkill for dinner, for you are holy.
“You are to be my holy people. So do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts; throw it to the dogs.” (Exodus 22 v 31)
I wouldn’t have put these two sentences together, would you?
I think the declaration to be holy should apply to the Tabernacle, the Temple, or indeed the Church. Doesn’t it?
Holiness is not kept for the tabernacle. It sits down at the kitchen table.
So before we go any further, let’s remind ourselves about ‘torn meat’. An animal that died violently would not have had its blood drained properly (the life was in the blood). God’s people were not scavengers, gathering what was left behind. God’s people were not to eat this meat because they were holy.
God’s people don’t do these things to make themselves holy, but because they already are.
All around us are predators. They lunge at the ideas and voices and tear at what is good, leaving it destroyed in the field. But worse comes next: the cynics and the gossipers gather to chew over the kill.
God’s people are called to a better table: Christ’s. Yes, the application isn’t about roadkill.
Christ was not torn down by the beasts of the field. He laid down His life willingly: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10 v 18). He says, “My flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink” (John 6: 55). The world’s carcass leaves us defiled. The slain Lamb gives us life.
The calling hasn’t changed. Holiness still shows up in what we choose to feed on.
Leave the torn meat to the dogs. You’ve been invited to the Lord’s table.
