This post flows through dietary laws, a current buzzword, and a comparison of how we should study. Ruminants are an important part of Bible history, and their science is a work of art in the digestion world. There are about 200 ruminant species (roughly) world-wide that chew a cud.
Ruminants can graze a large amount of food and later rechew it and then send it on for it to be used in its life processes. In good-ole-boy speech that is they can pig out and then chew on it all night long. (Pigs are not ruminants.) This process is known as rumination, which means they regurgitate what they have eaten, rechew it breaking it into smaller pieces, mix saliva into the food again, and swallow their meal a second time.
The first chew and swallow are important because microbes are introduced that ferment the food, while in the stomach, that helps break down the plants’ cellulose. The saliva helps the food to form a solid and liquid layer. The solids or cud is then rechewed, helping to break it into smaller particles that allows for the nutrients to be absorbed.
This ‘liquid meal’ can now pass into the omasum or “third stomach” which keeps the particle size small so it can go into the abomasum. This part of the stomach releases chemicals that further helps in the digestion process. The omasum also absorbs volatile fatty acids (VFA) and ammonia, which is important. Then this digesting mass is passed into the abomasum. The final step for digestion and absorption is done in the small intestines.
Those VFAs are from the fermentation of the carbohydrates the animal chews on. These non-sugar compounds are what is used to make glucose and lactose in the ruminant.
FOOD – In the Bible mankind begins and ends his story in a garden with fruit trees; in between those two points foods, feasting, and fasting shows up in religion.
Ruminants (sheep, goats, and cows) are the center point of the sacrifices in the ancient world. For Hebrews those animals also provided a meal after the sacrifice, not all of the animal was burnt. 1 Kings 4:22+23 list the daily provisions for Solomon, they are heavy on ruminants, but I doubt that the average family ate that good. (With 1,000 wives to feed maybe they did use that much!)
Thoughts, opinions, and ‘facts’ about the food laws are abundant and free. These laws were given after the food from Egypt was gone and about a year and a half before they should have gone into the Promised Land where “milk and honey” waited for them. I also know Peter and Paul said a lot about food because of the insight they were given.
Why ruminants? I do not have the 411 from the Lord on that subject. I tend to think that the lifestyle of the animals is better because of the moving about to find pasture. This in turn may lead to a healthier animal for us to eat.
To Ruminate
Buzzwords are just so buzzy. Yes, I have used ‘to ruminate’ occasionally, so I can’t be to mean. In the ‘good ole days’ it used to be chew the cud or reflect or meditate or ponder or muse, but no more now we ruminate. Psychology seems to associate rumination with negative thoughts; while dictionaries cover all of the bases. I just wonder how many people know the actual process requires eating grass, throwing it up, rechewing it, and then swallowing the goods. Would using this word qualify as exploitation of animals?
My Comparison with Studying
My turn to contemplate and deliberate on ruminate to graduate and show myself approved. I now step into the Land of Metaphor to conclude this study. For my convenience I will only travel from the head to small intestines, after that this metaphor could get messy. In this Land there are lessons to be learned, so we can improve how we study. At the beginning of a study, we take in a lot of information and mix it around with stuff we already know. After the church service, Bible study, or a long talk at small group we know that some info is usable now and it is passed on, however, something was hard to swallow even with some extra chewing. In our quite time, the thought, or notes, or second listen brings the hard stuff back to be ‘chewed on again’. Added resources in the form of a concordance, text analysis, or second talk with a friend lets us send it into our lives where is useful. We pull out the good and neutralize the bad before it is absorbed and becomes a working part of us. Bye the way bringing in too little food can shut the whole system down.
