Goat Boiling Thoughts

"You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother."  Exodus 23:19

"You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."  Exodus 34:26

"You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."  Deuteronomy 14:21

Now, that there is a rule I can get behind.  If there ever was a regulation, command or law from God that I can solidly stand on it would be this one.  When God says that we are not to boil a young goat in its mothers milk I can, with a certainty, proclaim to the world that I have never in my life even considered violating this decree.  Admittedly, I have slipped on more than a few rules, and stumbled over a couple of others, but I have never, by golly, boiled a young goat in its mother's milk.  This old boy can say with a clear conscience that I have never done that, never considered doing that and, with a fair amount of confidence, can proclaim that I never will do anything resembling the act.

Those closest to me will tell you that I am not by nature a good rule follower, and I will, most certainly, own that.  Give me a rule, and I will probably break it.  So, understand that I do sympathize with anyone who struggles with the temptation of boiling a young goat in its mother's milk.  I do not look down on those people.  I only feel slightly superior to them, and would never publicly mock or ridicule them for this weakness.

But then, a few weeks ago, I read the command from Exodus 34, and made the mistake of asking myself why God threw that little tidbit in there in the first place.  Right between telling his people to bring the first fruits of their soil into and house of the Lord, and telling them that he is making a covenant with them, God says, "And, by the way, don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk."  I certainly have read that before, and probably passed over it with the thought that it seemed a tad strange.  This time, I did a little research, and here's what I found.  Turns out, the pagans surrounding the people of Israel would actually boil a young goat in its mother's milk.  For real.  They would then take the fluid and sprinkle it on their land in order to bring fertility to the soil.

God is not a random God.  The universe does not spin randomly, our lives are not random events in time flowing from the spinning universe, and God does not guide our lives by randomly throwing words together in his Word.  There is a reason that God mentions the young goat boiling rule three times in the Torah.  There is a reason that in each of the three times it is talked about in the first five books of the bible that it is directly linked to the law of bringing the first fruits of the soil into the house of the Lord.  In the Exodus verses, the young goat boiling ban follows right after the first fruit command.  In the Deuteronomy scripture the order is reversed, but in all three the commands stand side by side.  It is also interesting that in the two Exodus scriptures, the command is also closely tied to the covenant God was entering into with his people.

It occurs to me that God's purpose in commanding the people in Israel not to boil a young goat in its mother's milk is more than cautioning them against picking up the practices of the surrounding pagans.  God does that in a variety of ways throughout the whole old testament.  There must be a reason that this particular practice is strongly tied to the covenant God was making with his people, and bringing the first fruits of the land into the house of the Lord.

I am compulsive by nature.  My compulsion for the past few weeks has been God's purpose in connecting these three thoughts in his Word:

• Bring the first fruits of your crop into the house of the Lord.

• Do not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

• God is entering into a covenant with a people he has chosen.

As I consider the connection, I can see the Father making a clear distinction between a ritual of appeasement, and an act of celebration and worship.  God is saying to the people of Israel that he has chosen them as the people that he wants to enter into a covenant with.  But, not only has God chosen them as his covenant people, he was also determined to live among them.  His chosen people lived in tents, and so he would live in a tent in the midst of them.  An offering would be taken from the people to build the tent and everything in it....each person gave what God placed on their hearts....and God chose the tribe of Levi to take care of the tent and offer the sacrifices necessary for the God of creation to live with the people he had chosen.  Because of the honor and responsibility of maintaining everything necessary for God to live with his people, the tribe of Levi would not receive a portion of the land God was leading them into.  Since they would have no land, God provided for their sustenance by having the remaining tribes bring the first fruits of their land into the house of the Lord.

So, a short synopsis of these scriptures as I would paraphrase them would read, "God wants a relationship with the people he has chosen.  He wants to live in the midst of the people he is in relationship with.  Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk, but rather bring the first fruits of your crops into the house of the Lord to sustain the tent God will live in and provide for the people who care for the tent.

I can imagine the pagans surrounding Israel going through the senseless ritual of taking a baby goat, boiling it in its mother's milk and sprinkling it on their fields, hoping the gods would be appeased and the crops would come.  It was done out of obligation.  It was done out of a fear of not doing it.  It was done in hopes that the unseen gods would be moved to do something on their behalf.

That is, I believe, the contrast God is making when he ties these scriptures together.  He is telling his people, by way of an example that they are familiar with, not to allow their service to him to become a mere ritual.  He is asking them not to allow their service to become a superstitious act of appeasement for a distant and angry God in the hope that he might move on their behalf.

Rather, their service to God is to be an act of praise, worship and thankfulness for what God has already done.  He has chosen them to be his covenant people.  He has chosen to live among them....to dwell with them.  He has provided them with a land that will produce abundant and plentiful harvests.  And then, as an outflow gratitude for what God has done, the first fruits are brought into the house of the Lord.  There truly is a stark contrast between working to get a god to move on your behalf, and the works that flow from a grateful heart in recognition for what God has already done.

When I consider this scripture in this light, I guess I have boiled a few goats in their mother's milk in my day.  There have been times when my giving has been based more on the fear of what would happen if I neglected to give, rather than an outpouring of gratitude to the God who has chosen me.  My prayer times and study times have, on occasion, been more ritualistic than they have been acts of praise and worship to the Father who has included me in his covenant.  At times, my acts of obedience have been more anxiety based than love based.  And, there have been occasions when my service to God has more resembled dripping milk on dry fields than a celebration of the fact that I am in covenant with the living God, and he has chosen to dwell in me.

So, in the end, when it comes to the heart of the most simple command from my God, I fall short.  I fail.  That is why I am a man who needs to tightly cling to the cross of Christ.  My every breath needs to be bathed in grace and mercy.  And that is why I am so thankful that, even when my Father knew that I would, in essence, be boiling young goats in their mothers milk....he looked on me.  He looked on me....smiled.....and said, "He's one of mine."