In Exodus 23:19 we read,"Thou shalt not seethe [boil] a kid in his mother's milk." Is this verse saying It Is wrong to eat meat and milk together?
In analyzing the context of this particular verse, we notice that it does not refer to just any kind of meat or milk - but specifically to the meat of a kid seethed in its own mother's milk. The association of these two products of the mother's body suggests that this scripture is referring to something connected with pagan fertility rites. Peake's Commentary shows that this is so: "The significance of this prohibition has now been made clear by the Ras Shamra texts. According to the Birth of the Gods, i, 14, a kid was cooked in its mother's milk to procure the fertility of the fields, which were sprinkled with the substance which resulted" (p. 232).
Referring again to the same page in this commentary, we find something which a careful reading of the text of Exodus itself also shows - that verses 10 through 19 are a unit which is concerned with Sabbath and Festival (annual holy day) worship.
Verse 18 states: "Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning." Unleavened bread was eaten with the Passover on the day preceding the seven-day festival of Unleavened Bread (Ex. 12:8). It was a standing rule that no fat should be eaten (Lev. 7:23-25; 3:16-17). The Passover lamb was roasted whole, but its fat was not to be eaten. It, along with any other remains, was to be burned the morning after (Ex. 12:9-10).
The same sequence of thoughts is repeated in Exodus 34:21 -26, and it is definitively stated to be in reference to "the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover." The firstfruits mentioned in both places refer to the "wavesheaf" offering which is described in more detail in Leviticus 23:10-14.
But why does this verse refer to kids, when the Passover sacrifice was traditionally a lamb? We know that originally kids (young goats) from the "flock" and even calves from the "herd" (Deut. 16:2; II Chron. 35:7) were permitted as well as lambs (Ex. 12; John 1 :29, 36; I Pet. 1 :19; Rev. 5:6, 12). But, "Later Jewish ordinances, dating after the return from Babylon, limit it [the Passover animal] to a lamb" (Alfred Edersheim, The Temple, p. 213).
But what does not seething a kid in its mother's milk have to do with the Passover? Just this: God did not want the Israelites to confuse the Passover with the pagan rites of the heathen (Ex. 23:32-33). He did not want the Passover to become a spring fertility festival! Israelite amalgamation of the Passover with this heathen practice (or rather the abandonment of the Passover in favor of the other practice) was a very likely possibility. From the preceding it is obvious that the command against "seething a kid in its mother's milk" had to do with safeguarding the observance of the Passover. It was never meant as a dietary law.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Notice in addition we read in this account from Genesis 18:1"-And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
2- And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
3- And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
4- Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
5- And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.
6- And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
7- And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.
8--And he took butter, and MILK , and the CALF which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat."
CONCLUSION: Obviously if Abraham served milk and the meat of a calf to these righteous Heavenely visitors, and THEY ATE IT; it is not wrong to eat milk and meat together!
