Dogs

Ronny Graham, reviewing the fifth and sixth days of Creation, when God created the sea-and land-animals, points out the symbolic traits many have come to associate with some animals: Snakes trigger fear; the sloth connotes laziness, and the ant represents industry. We are familiar with the clean and unclean distinction in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, where God commands His People to shun eating unclean meat or touching the carcasses of dead animals, this last being a wise health precaution as exampled by people contracting leprosy via contact with armadillos. Historically, in Middle Eastern cultures, the dog has a bad reputation. As people began to domesticate animals, they removed many disparaging stigmas, even to the point that, today, they promote some animals to the status of family members, sometimes according them equal legal footing with humans. Some have even dared to domesticate Pit Bulls, only to have loved ones mauled to death. All this points to the lack of balance exhibited by many in Western society.

John Ritenbaugh, reflecting upon the Middle East connotations casting disdain upon dogs, points out that the grounds of comparison may be their inclination to be sneaky, groveling scavengers feeding on the refuse of humanity, including human flesh. God's Word describes the ritual harlot and the sodomite as disgusting, vile dogs on the lowest echelon of humanity. The wages of a harlot or sodomite would defile any offering. God expects offering to Him to be undefiled, meeting His standards. An example is the Passover lamb, which was to be without blemish. The Israelites were not allowed to use livestock or produce from Gentiles or foreigners as offerings because they were contaminated. The very land metaphorically vomited them out. Consequently, the offerings we produce should emanate from the work of our own hands and not from any ill-gotten gains. When we give an offering, it should come from pure unsullied motives.

In this sermon on the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, Richard Ritenbaugh, using three consecutive Psalms (22-24), affirms that Jesus Christ was the antitype, perfectly fulfilling the Old Testament types, slain as the Lamb of God on Passover, Nisan 14, resurrected with the cutting of the wavesheaf at the conclusion of the Sabbath, and ascended to His Father at the time of the waving of the sheaf.