Here is the law, 1. Concerning flying insects, as flies, wasps, bees,
&c.; these they might not eat (v. 20), nor indeed are they fit to be
eaten; but there were several sorts of locusts which in those countries
were very good meat, and much used: John Baptist lived upon them in the
desert, and they are here allowed them, v. 21, 22. 2. Concerning the
creeping things on the earth; these were all forbidden (v. 29, 30, and
again, v. 41, 42); for it was the curse of the serpent that upon his
belly he should go, and therefore between him and man there was an
enmity put (Gen. iii. 15), which was preserved by this law. Dust is the
meat of the creeping things, and therefore they are not fit to be man's
meat. 3. Concerning the dead carcasses of all these unclean animals.
(1.) Every one that touched them was to be unclean until the evening,
v. 24-28. This law is often repeated, to possess them with a dread of
every thing that was prohibited, though no particular reason for the
prohibition did appear, but only the will of the Law-maker. Not that
they were to be looked upon as defiling to the conscience, or that it
was a sin against God to touch them, unless done in contempt of the
law: in many cases, somebody must of necessity touch them, to remove
them; but it was a ceremonial uncleanness they contracted, which for
the time forbade them to come into the tabernacle, or to eat of any of
the holy things, or so much as to converse familiarly with their
neighbours. But the uncleanness continued only till the evening, to
signify that all ceremonial pollutions were to come to an end by the
death of Christ in the evening of the world. And we must learn, by
daily renewing our repentance every night for the sins of the day, to
cleanse ourselves from the pollution we contract by them, that we may
not lie down in our uncleanness. Even unclean animals they might touch
while they were alive without contracting any ceremonial uncleanness by
it, as horses and dogs, because they were allowed to use them for
service; but they might not touch them when they were dead, because
they might not eat their flesh; and what must not be eaten must not be
touched, Gen. iii. 3. (2.) Even the vessels, or other things they fell
upon, were thereby made unclean until the evening (v. 32), and if they
were earthen vessels they must be broken, v. 33. This taught them
carefully to avoid every thing that was polluting, even in their common
actions. Not only the vessels of the sanctuary, but every pot in
Jerusalem and Judah, must be holiness to the Lord, Zech. xiv. 20, 21.
The laws in these cases are very critical, and the observance of them
would be difficult, we should think, if every thing that a dead mouse
or rat, for instance, falls upon must be unclean; and if it were an
oven, or ranges for pots, they must all be broken down, v. 35. The
exceptions also are very nice, v. 36, &c. All this was designed to
exercise them to a constant care and exactness in their obedience, and
to teach us, who by Christ are delivered from these burdensome
observances, not to be less circumspect in the more weighty matters of
the law. We ought as industriously to preserve our precious souls from
the pollutions of sin, and as speedily to cleanse them when they are
polluted, as they were to preserve and cleanse their bodies and
household goods from those ceremonial pollutions.