Not boil young goat in milk of its mother לֹֽא־תְבַשֵּׁ֥ל גְּדִ֖י בַּחֲלֵ֥ב אִמּֽו

We are in chapter twenty-three of Exodus with our word for today which is actually a phrase used for the first time in the Bible. לֹֽא־תְבַשֵּׁ֥ל גְּדִ֖י בַּחֲלֵ֥ב אִמּֽוֹ you will not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother. It is used 3 times in the Old Testament. Let’s  look at these starting with our chapter. Exodus 23:19 לֹֽא־תְבַשֵּׁ֥ל גְּדִ֖י בַּחֲלֵ֥ב אִמּֽוֹ You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. The context here as we have looked at over the past few days is the feasts God commanded the people to celebrate. Our next use also is in this same context. Exodus 34:26 The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. לֹא־תְבַשֵּׁ֥ל גְּדִ֖י בַּחֲלֵ֥ב אִמּֽוֹ You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. The last time our phrase is used is in the context of a list of clean and unclean foods for God’s people. Deuteronomy 14:21 Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner residing in any of your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to the Lord your God. לֹֽא־תְבַשֵּׁ֥ל גְּדִ֖י בַּחֲלֵ֥ב אִמּֽוֹDo not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. Did you notice right before this command God says that his people are holy to Him. This is given as the reason some foods are to be eaten and some avoided. So there is something to this practice that would damage one’s relationship with God. The young goat was a favorite food of the people. A good example of this is Isaac’s request for this meal (Genesis 27:9). As for cooking it in milk the thinking is that it was supposed to improve the taste. To use the mother’s milk to cook her own offspring would reveal an attitude of heart that could lead to all kinds of sin. Furthermore, cooking a young goat this way was a part of a Canaanite pagan ceremony, and God didn’t want His people emulating the demonic idolaters. Since this law is connected with the Feast of Booths, the harvest festival, perhaps this pagan ritual had something to do with prosperity. The milk was then sprinkled on the trees and fields to help promote fertility, a magical demonic practice that was forbidden to God’s people. There is one reference in the Old Testament connecting goats with demonic activity it is not the word used in our phrase for today but a specific reference to this goal idol or demon. Leviticus 17:7 So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices לַשְּׂעִירִ֕ם to goat demons, after whom they whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations. These goat demons or idols which as we have seen tend to be one and the same. They are from Egypt so we see this evil influence that is still there with God’s people. So God knows what he is doing when he warns his people to stay away from such evil practices. I’ll close with an interesting connection that Jesus makes in his parable of the sheep and the goats. Notice what side the goats represent in the parable. Matthew 25:31-33, 41-46 When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left … Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat ... “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”