Chewing Spiritual Cud
By Michael
K. Farrar, O.D.
© July 29,
2009
www.godsbreath.net
Psalms
119:97
“Oh, how I
love your law! I meditate
on it all day long.”
In graduate school I took some courses that required
me to do some rather strange things to obtain a good grade. I swallowed a radio
transmitter to measure body temperature while it traveled through my body. I
caught a cockroach and dissected it so that I could create a microscope slide
series of cross sections of its intestinal system. I even helped dissect the
stomach of a cow. Yep, I helped examine the contents of a huge four-chambered
cow stomach. Yes, cows actually do have four stomachs. This was just about as
gross a task as you can imagine for it still had the contents of the stomach
inside. The smell was horrible, but my colleagues and I held our breath while
we took samples from each of the stomachs and performed chemical analysis on
them.
Believe it or not I
do have a Christian application that relates to talking about cow stomachs, but
first let me give you a short little biology lesson. Cows are ruminants and
most ruminants have four stomachs although camels and others have only three. The
stomachs are actually chambers within the large stomach mass. The first stomach
chamber is called the rumen and this is where food such as grass is stored and
softened. Here comes the gross part. After food is processed and softened in
the rumen, it is regurgitated and chewed. Hang in there with me, there is a
good spiritual truth here in the end. Anyway, this regurgitated substance is
called the cud and is chewed over and over until it is swallowed again and goes
into the other chambers of the cow’s stomach, the reticulum, omasum and the
abomasum (not Obama but abomasum – a little political pun, sorry). In
these chambers additional digestion takes place so that the cow can use the
nutrients. So what in world does all this yucky cow stomach information have to
do with our Christian life?
Well if you’ve ever watched cows lying out in the field you’ll notice that they
are just sitting there relaxing as if they are just sunning themselves, then
all of a sudden they start chewing on something but they haven’t taken a bite
of anything. What they have just done is regurgitate softened, partially
digested matter from the rumen and they chew on this cud.
The spiritual application here is pretty
straightforward. We are called to meditate on God’s Word throughout our day. We
meditate on what we have already read or been exposed to in God’s Word. In a
sense we are called to meditate on or chew on scripture that we have already
read and stored in our heart, mind and soul. So you see the spiritual
application is that, just like cows will regurgitate cud to further digest
their food, we are to regurgitate God’s Word back into our minds for further
digestion so it can be used for application. This is possibly a very gross
analogy, but very accurate if you consider it. Numerous scriptures talk about
this practice of meditation.
Psalms
119:15
“I
meditate on your precepts and
consider your ways.”
Psalms
119:23
“Your
servant will meditate on your decrees.”
Psalms
119:27
“Let me
understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your
wonders.”
Psalms
119:48
“I lift up
my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.”
Psalms
119:78
“I will
meditate on your precepts.”
Psalms
119:99
“I have
more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.”
Psalms
119:148
“My eyes
stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your
promises.”
The cow will chew on its cud so that every possible
nutrient can be broken down into digestible components for it to use to
continue living and staying healthy. We are to chew or meditate on God’s Word
continually for the same reason spiritually.
The more we read God’s Word and digest it thoroughly
and completely, the more our chances are of obeying and applying it to our
lives. We should do this not just at church, in our small group Bible study or
in our quiet time. We should also meditate on God’s Word throughout the day as
we work, drive and shop. If we chew on scripture and continue to spiritually
digest it we will very likely see situations of how to apply it to what we are
doing. We will see how to react to situations in a more wise and loving manner.
We will behave properly when confronted with a temptation. Chewing on scripture
or meditating on it throughout the day helps us be doers of the Word. James
1:22-25 talks about this when it says,
“Do not merely listen to the
word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the
word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a
mirror and, after looking at himself,
goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives
freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing
it — he will be blessed in what he does.”
If we don’t chew on scripture to get every bit of
spiritual nourishment out of it we put it on the fast tract through our
spiritual digestion system (heart, mind and soul) and it is never really
absorbed. If scripture is not absorbed it can never be applied. That is one of
the secrets to living a successful and victorious Christian life, to not just
read God’s Word but to digest it thoroughly, to meditate on it through the day
so that it can be applied whenever and wherever it might be needed.
I wonder if part of our problem with being hearers
of the Word and not doers is we fail to meditate on God’s Word on a regular
basis throughout the day. This also relates to our relationship with the Lord.
As we meditate on the Word, we are more apt to pray and talk to the Lord as we
go about our daily activities. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 talks about this when it
says, “Pray continually.” So if we chew or meditate on scripture
throughout the day, we are more than likely going to be praying continually and
fellowshipping with the Lord all through the day as well. What kind of changes
would occur in your life if you sensed God by your side each and every hour of
the day? What would happen to your attitude towards life and towards problems
if you were aware of his presence moment by moment? How would this change your
health? What impact would it have on your relationships? Maybe there is some
precious truth here that we need to learn from the cow.
So the next time you see a cow out in the field
chewing its cud, ask yourself if you are chewing on God’s Word at the moment.
If you’re not, take a lesson from the cow. Remember God owns the cattle on a
thousand hills and He owns all of us as well.
Joshua 1:8
“Do not let this Book of Law
depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful
to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”