Beasts of the Field, Fowls of the Air

In Leviticus we read:

"46 This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth:

47 To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten" (Leviticus 11:46-47). 

As the Church teaches, contemporary believers do need to obey the 10 commandments, both within themselves and in terms of their outward behavior and utterance; but do not need to care what clothing materials they wear or what animals or birds they eat. Still less do they need to burn cows to ashes or sacrifice doves. 

Nonetheless, the Lord said:

"Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18).

The correct way to construe this statement involves the spiritual meaning of the ceremonial and sacrificial laws which the Jews were told to observe. For instance, when the Jews were told not to eat pork literally -- and later the Muslims also -- this represents not 'eating' evil desires and making them part of one's spiritual body. 

So can we eat pork, or can we not? We ourselves can literally eat pork; however, we are forbidden to eat pork spiritually, feeding evil desires and making them a habitual and permanent part of ourselves.

The Lord cast the devils out of the possessed man Legion into precisely a herd of swine because of this spiritual meaning of that animal; and the herd of swine ran into the sea because their drowning there represents the fate of evil doers in Hell.

The people of the land, on learning that the Lord had essentially set in a motion a chain of events that cost them their pigs and thus a great deal of money, they asked Him to leave. 

This represents those who want to wallow in their evil desires asking the Lord to leave so that they can do so in peace; because the presence of the Lord tends to send evil people into turmoil aimed at their voluntarily shunning evils in their lives.

One has gone into some detail about swine because this places the entire matter of evil beasts, false birds, and the reasons for terming some of them clean and others unclean into context; as well as substantiating the attitude that we ourselves should take towards the Law.

In general, beasts in the Word signify either good or evil desires and behaviors; while birds in the Word signify either true or false ideas or thoughts. This accounts for the numerous references to both birds and beasts; whether mentioned apart or, as often happens, together.

In Hosea, for instance, we read this of beasts and birds in the upright position:

"18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies" (Hosea 2:18-19).

The Church frequently mentions the Heavenly marriage of divine love and divine truth in the soul in one form or another; and here it takes the form of making a covenant with beasts and fowls. The reference to breaking the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth refers to the Lord's driving away falsehoods and confirming people permanently in true ideas about spiritual life. 

As can be seen in v.19, the passage definitely concerns the Heavenly marriage of love and truth in the soul of the individual and of the Church; because the Word explicitly mentions betrothal.

We see the echo of this passage in Job:

"23 For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee" (Job 5:23).

Again, we have to do here with the Heavenly marriage of love and truth within our souls; whereby love and truth will be in league with us, or betrothed to us. Note that the book has substituted stones for birds here; because this is an instance of predicate substitution whereby one word meaning truth may be replaced by another.

Here, though, we have the Heavenly marriage in terms of beasts and birds reversed:

"4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end" Jeremiah 12:4).

In this case, the sins and errors of those in His nominal Church have destroyed the goods ("beasts") and the truths ("birds") thereof; leaving the land, or Church, desolate and thus no longer a Church but a whore.

We see the same kind of beasts and birds in the reversed position here:

"I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” declares the LORD, “the sword to kill and the dogs to drag away and the birds and the wild animals to devour and destroy" (Jeremiah 15:30).

Now, it is important to note that the passage appears as though the Lord has caused this destruction; but actually this is only an appearance masking the reality that their own sins and errors have done this to them. 

Why does the Word act as though the Lord has destroyed someone when they have destroyed themselves? Simple! Because with wicked people, the consequences of their own sin and error will be seen as someone else's fault and not their own. He did this, she did this, they did this; anyone but I did this and caused this calamity to come upon my head.

One has been speaking of birds and beasts in general, but every one of them means something in particular. This is not the place to go into considerable detail about each one, since so many species and meanings exist, but one will finish up with some indication of what these creatures mean. 

The eagle, for instance, means intelligence. Eagle in the upright position involves intelligence in its proper place in the sight of God; whereas eagle in the reversed position involves trusting in one's own intelligence rather than the Lord. 

The dove represents innocence, and also the truths and goods with one whom the Lord is regenerating. Reversed, it indicates innocence defiled. 

The owl represents the preference of someone for spiritual darkness and falsehood over spiritual enlightenment; and finding it easier to see in the darkness than in the light. The daughter of the owl represents the lust to falsify truths. As you probably know, some people enjoy lying; and a subset of them enjoy lying about the Word; hence daughters of owls.

The lion represents the power of truth from good in our lives; but when reversed it represents the power of falsehood from evil to destroy us.

The bear represents either a healthy or an unhealthy relation to the literal sense of the Word. Here, for instance, the bear means a healthy attitude towards the literal sense of the Word:

" 6The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 7And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den" (Isaiah 11:6-8).

In these verses, the predatory animals which represent various unhealthy and evil desires and behaviors have been transmuted into their positive counterparts. Lambs represent innocence, and of course so does the child. The Lord taught that we cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven unless we become as little children; in other words cannot enter Heaven unless we become innocent enough through purification of sins and errors to do so.

The wolf which was predatory becomes zeal. The bear which took the Word too literally knows exactly the proper place of the literal sense. 

The serpents which represent sensual prudence that originally saw divine truth as false become the servants of spiritual life; for even a serpent may be good or evil, which is why the Lord Himself has been compared to a serpent on a pole and has recommended being wise as serpents but harmless as doves.

Here is bear in the reversed position:

"23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.

24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them" (2 Kings 2:23-24).

This passage may sound terrible to people unaware that the violence in the Old Testament always means something above and beyond the superficial atrocity thereof. One may liken this procedure to the Lord's knowing that we humans are going to leave bodies and smoking ruins everywhere we go, sighing, and arranging the crime tape around the devastation in such a way as to encode it with a spiritual message for the peaceful to grow.

In this instance, Elisha represents the Word and the power of the Word to regenerate and save us. The mockery of the boys about his bald head represents their mocking the literal sense of the Word as though it were nothing; for the hair represents divine truth in such form as the literal sense, and baldness represents the Word without the literal sense to clothe it.

The boys, therefore, were torn apart by bears to represent their unhealthy attitude towards the literal sense of the Word; in that they mocked what some people see as crude and nothing yet is holy, the literal sense which serves to contain the spiritual sense. As for the number 42, this signifies blasphemy; for it is blasphemous to mock the literal sense of the Word as though to say that it contained nothing holy with power to teach us and save us. 

One will not go into any further detail about the birds and beasts today, but one hopes that this whets your appetite for learning more about what God means by writing about these creatures in the Word. You can find excellent explanations of various creatures at this website here:

http://scienceofcorrespondences.com/

You can also search the Latin Word for specific birds and animals here:

https://newchristianbiblestudy.org/advanced-search/