Do you know why God told the Jews to not boil a kid in its mother’s milk?

J____

Hi J____,

It was good to meet you at the conference. It was encouraging just seeing your look of appreciation of what was being said. Things like that mean a lot to someone who realizes that what he is saying is not popular with most people.
You ask why God would tell us not to seethe a kid in his mother’s milk. This physical injunction for “the lawless and disobedient” Israelites (1Ti 1:9), like all of what is said in the law of Moses, is not the real point that God is making. The ‘kid’, the ‘seething’ and the ‘milk’ are all symbols of a spiritual statement. All of the sacrifices had to be a “spotless lamb” or goat or dove or heifer, etc. The Passover lamb had to be all eaten before the next morning. Offering a ‘spotless lamb’ was not because those eating the lamb would receive an unhealthy meal if say, the lamb were born with only three legs. There were no such thing as ‘dietary laws’ given in the Old Testament. Every law given regarding clean and unclean meats had nothing to do with the physical nutrition in the body of the animal. All of the law of Moses was a type and a shadow of some spiritual principle.

Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,

To prove this point just look at the law God gave to His people before He called Abraham:

Gen 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

Did God think more of Israel than He did of Noah? No, He did not. Just as man was not allowed to eat meat before the flood…

Gen 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

But now Noah is told that “Even as the green herb [ which is all I allowed before the flood] have I [ now] given you all things that move to be food for you”

Gen 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

So this change after the flood is simply making the spiritual statement that we cannot eat the things of the meat of God’s Word until we have endured a baptism which brings us into the new world of the new man.

1Pe 3:21 The like figure [ The flood of Noah- verse 20] whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

“Resurrection” places us on the new ground of the new man. Now we can eat meat that would have choked us to death before this ‘baptism.’ We simply could not receive this meat any earlier.
All of scripture is written in this code. It is God’s means of giving the multitudes who come and listen to Him “eyes that see not and ears that hear not ” (Mat 13:13). The only people who will understand the meaning of all of the symbolism of God’s Word are those to whom it is “given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven”:

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them [ The multitudes of ‘historical orthodox Christianity”] in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [ the multitudes of “historical orthodox Christianity] it is not given.
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

So what is the symbolism of “seething a kid in his mother’s milk?”

Exo 23:19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk

A ‘kid’ is a small young goat. It reflects the spiritual poverty of the giver of the sacrifice. It is not a bull or a heifer of the much more valuable “offerings of the herd.” Rather it is “of the flock.” The only offering of less value would be a sacrifice “of the fowl” such as a dove.
So ‘a kid’ represents a person who is young in Christ and who is not yet wealthy or mature in the things of the spirit.
It should be clear what is the symbolism of ‘milk.’

1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes [ a young goat] in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with [ mother’s] milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

So the ‘milk’ is the most basic and most elementary doctrines of Christ..

1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

The Corinthians, in this first epistle, were completely unprepared for the meatier concept of “dying with Christ:”

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Now we come to the “seething.” What does the seething signify in scripture? Most of the sacrifices were to be offered in this manner. Notice what we are told in 1 Samuel:

1Sa 2:13 And the priests’ custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand;
1Sa 2:14 And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither.

So the “seething” represents the “offering made by fire to the Lord.”
So what is this thrice repeated symbol of not seething a kid in his mother’s milk? It is nothing less that saying that a yet unbaptized child of God, still “in his mothers milk,” is not to be “tried with fire” as would be a “bull or [ even a grown] goat.”
Here is God’s law regarding how we are to treat each member in his church:

Num 31:23 Every thing that may abide the fire [ the elect of God], ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation [ all, even the implements which can “abide the fire,” must first go through ‘baptism’]: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.

Also read :

Mar 9:49 For every one [ of God’s elect] shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

The ‘seething’ is the fire of the “offering made by fire unto the Lord.” Many of the “vessels in God’s great house” cannot yet “abide the fire.” “Not seething a kid in his mothers milk,” in practical terms, is explained in Rom 14:

Rom 14:1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations [ Don’t “ seethe” him in his mother’s milk].
Rom 14:2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Rom 14:3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
Rom 14:4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
Rom 14:5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Rom 14:6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
Rom 14:7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
Rom 14:8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
Rom 14:9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
Rom 14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Rom 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Rom 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Rom 14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
Rom 14:14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itsel f: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Rom 14:15 But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
Rom 14:16 Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
Rom 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Rom 14:18 For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.
Rom 14:19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
Rom 14:20 For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
Rom 14:21 It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
Rom 14:22 Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
Rom 14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

I hope I have helped you to understand these symbols.

Mike