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Fins AND Scales
By Michael Pemberton
"These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all
that have fins and scales shall ye eat: and whatsoever hath not fins and scales
ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you." -Deut. 14:9,10
I never was
all that graceful a child, and I felt ridiculous as I stood there on my first
day of karate class. And it didn't help
that I was wearing a borrowed uniform that was too small. The pant legs were high-water by about 8
inches and I thought I looked like a stork.
The full-length mirrors along one entire wall didn't help either.
The wood
floor beneath my feet was cold and rough, but I tried not to think about it and
focus on doing what I was told. The
instructor stood in front of me and demonstrated a side kick one more
time. "See," he said,
"The rear foot pivots just a little and you bring your knee up to your
chest first." Try as I like, I
couldn't seem to pull it off without nearly falling over. I found myself sort of dancing on one foot as
I tried to extend my leg. Talk about
looking goofy! "I will never get
this," I thought. At least nobody
laughed.
After a few
more unsuccessful attempts, the instructor finally realized that we just were
not going to get anywhere this way.
"Come with me," he said, walking over to the wooden bar that
hung a little more than waist high along the wall. "For crying out loud," I thought to
myself, "I hope he doesn't expect me to put my foot up on that
thing." He didn't. Instead he had me hold on to the bar while I
executed the technique. I wouldn't say
it was done flawlessly, but it certainly looked better than it did before. "See," he said, "it's not so
much a matter of strength or stretch, but of balance and form."
Why would God
care what kind of fish the children of Israel ate?
Are all scale-less fish dangerous?
Are all fin-less fish poisonous?
If a fish has fins and scales, does that mean that it will be safe to
eat? NO!
There are many examples of fish that are clean and safe and without
scales or fins. There are plenty of
examples of fish that are poisonous, yet posses both. So, why?
We need to
consider that "unclean" doesn't necessarily mean dangerous or
filthy. "Clean" doesn't
necessarily mean safe or pure.
"Clean" means acceptable by God's definition. That is, he defined it to be right for
reasons he doesn't always reveal and we may not understand. One thing for sure, God seems to be
interested in things being balanced in our life. We may possess considerable strength of mind
and personality, but without the proper balance of humility and love for
others, our strength may well be unclean.
The same thing holds true for any other area of our service. It is more a matter of form and balance than
strength.
Consider the
following things that tend to occur in pairs in scripture:
- Fasting and Prayer
- Feasting and Praise
- Believing and Doing
- Repentance and faith
- Protection and guidance
- Ministry and the church
- Spirit and Truth
And there are
many others.
It turns out
that we need balance in our activities.
Some things just go together like Oreo's and milk. One is ok without the other, but what a
combination! Sometimes one attribute so
compliments another that without it, the first attribute doesn't work as
well. This is why the children of Israel were told that there could be not
mourning or sadness in all their country during the feast of tabernacles. This
feast was supposed to be a time of remembrance and praise. A time to send portions to the poor to
relieve suffering. A time when nobody
would be allowed to go hungry.
Interesting, no? In God's eyes,
it didn't work well for one to feast while another went hungry. Their praise was strengthened by their
feasting, their joy reinforced by their physical comfort.
So here's the
point to ponder. Every so often you may
find that everything you're doing is right, but you still don't accomplish what
you desire. Perhaps an important
ingredient is missing: faith, devotion, habit, love, etc. All the fins in the world won’t make it
clean; it must have scales as well. All
the devotion in the world is of little value without love (I Cor. 13). I'm
suggesting that we examine our service for what's missing. We may need to "clean up our act"
by adding the missing components. II
Peter 1:5-8
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