Don't give to dogs what is sacred. Don't throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet and then turn and tear you to pieces. Let's just pick it up right there with those three images. Those are very strong images, right? Dogs and pigs, that's image number one, animals, and then pearls. Well, why the dogs and pigs? Why not penguins and caterpillars? I think Jesus very intentionally picked two animals that would have been very alarming to have anyone likened to in the original audience. You know how teachers have very soft hearts and they care about their students. And it it kind of, in my experience, it doesn't matter like how awful a student is or how horrible a thing the kid has done. A teacher will always say, ah, he's a good kid. I'm like, you guys are amazingly patient. Because did you see what they just did? That's that's not particularly good kiddish, but I think it's really admirable and I think it's really cool. And I think there would have been a lot of people in the original audience who were like, Man, we just don't call people dogs and pigs, Jesus. There's just too much. Like we give people a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. At least the nice people on the hill would have thought that. So why did he pick these two animals? Okay, the dog thing, I don't think is too tough. Dogs for you and me has a little bit of a positive connotation. I mean, friendly, well groomed, they smell nice and sleep at the foot of the bed. That isn't exactly how people in the classical world viewed dogs. We had a marmot die out here by the house the other day, and I was talking to the neighbor. And I was like, hey, do you want me to bury this thing? And she was like, nah, coyotes will get it. And that is how the original audience would have thought of dogs, this opportunistic, cunning, calculating, ruthless creature that stays just out of attack range and is ready to pounce on and pick off anything, regardless of its value level or lack thereof, that you leave guarded or get a few feet away from. Pigs, on the other hand, I think that translates pretty well. That's not a compliment, no matter who you say it to today, but no matter how offensive you might find that is an insult today, I promise you, it was even more offensive to the original audience because they had the religious overtones that go along with that. Remember, pigs were unclean animals. I mean, this is the kind of thing that would trigger somebody to vomit. So it's very mean to say somebody's a dog or a pig. Why would Jesus do that? Doesn't he know that it's important to be nice to people? Well, I think he's making a very intentional point that we're not talking here about the kind of people who are a little rude sometimes, or can be a little pushy, or sometimes are a touch-demanding, or sometimes can be a little fussy if they haven't eaten in a while. No, he's not talking about normal people with their normal foibles. He's talking about people who want to see the world burn. He's talking about people who linger on the edges of what you're doing, just waiting to inflict pain and damage and chaos because it is their fuel. The same way the boogeyman feeds on the grief of people. So the person who is the dog to whom Jesus is likening this behavior feeds on the drama and the pain and the chaos and the insanity that happens around them. And they are happy to bring that about. They don't value anything. I love my dog, but if I gave my dog a chew toy or the Mona Lisa, she would treat them the same way. She just doesn't understand something valuable. A pig, on the other hand, is something even more. Because you notice the language here. If you do, they may trample them under their feet and then turn and tear you to pieces. I can picture that from a wild dog, but I can really picture that from a pig. Have you ever been around a wild boar or any kind of like really kind of uh primal, aggressed out pig with like some kind of tusks or something? Those things are massive. They are meant to unseem you from knave to chaps. They are incredibly dangerous animals and they're unpredictable and they're erratic and they're weird. And again, they'll root around for anything. They'll pretty much put anything in their mouths. They will destroy anything and make anything they touch unclean and sullied and worse. And if you irritate them in the process or make them feel threatened, even if you were fine with that pig a minute ago, look out. One turn, one second, three steps, unseen from Nabe to chaps. They're an incredibly violent and unpredictable animal. Again, Jesus is trying to paint a picture here. And if he'd gone with penguins and caterpillars, uh the analogy just doesn't work. It doesn't have the shock value, it doesn't have the teaching value. So even though it might feel mean, we're getting a pretty clear picture of what kind of person we're talking about here. Maybe the dog and the pig in this analogy weren't like that yesterday. Maybe they won't be like that in a month. Maybe we're just catching them on a bad day. And of course, people can change. If you don't think people can change, if you don't think the dogs and the pigs in this analogy can change, well then you need to explore a different religion because this whole thing is about people who are jacked up and weird and do stupid stuff and act like dogs and pigs and are victims of wreckage, but also perpetrators of wreckage, getting better and getting better because of the grace and redemptive power of God and of this kingdom. So this isn't even necessarily permanent, but we can be in this state. I can be a dog or a pig in this analogy, and also at some other time in my life be a victim of a dog or a pig. But okay, there's the animal side. Let's real quick talk about the pearl side. What does this mean? You think pearl, you think good stuff, right? Like this is my valuable stuff, like my money or my time. Well, I think it is that. But more so in this analogy, it looks like it's anything of value to you, whether it's of value to you because it's a really good, happy, redemptive thing, or whether it's of value to you because it's a painful thing, a painful memory, a failure, a calamity, a catastrophe, a dark secret, a thing that you got wrong, and then maybe you tried really hard to fix it, or maybe you haven't even really tried really hard to fix it yet. Your pearls are the things that are valuable to you. Let's just actually do the exercise here for real. Just stop and think about that. Pause it if you want to and think about it for a minute. But what is really valuable to you that you would not want to entrust to someone who wanted to destroy you? You're probably picturing like your money, your relationships, your reputation. But what about your secret stuff? What about your secret beautiful stuff? If you're married, what about say the intimate stuff in your marriage? That's a pearl. What if you screwed something up real bad? Picture that. The thing you feel guiltiest about. Would you want to entrust that to a dog or a pig who doesn't understand things that are valuable but just likes to convert any vulnerability into suffering and chaos? No, you would not. So the good stuff is pearls, but even some of the dark stuff is pearls. The things that make you you, the things that make you effective, the things that could make you very ineffective. I think that would be your pearls. It is possible that I am way off on how I'm reading this, and you do not have to think the same things at me, but just for the sake of the simulation, and this is my best read on it, let's just roll with this and think through what that would then mean implication-wise, if we accept that as the read. It would mean that Jesus is giving an overt command to kingdom citizens or aspiring kingdom citizens saying, do not not consider avoiding, but instead an explicit instruction that really requires something, well, explicit and implicit, is a twofold command. The command that's obvious is don't give your pearls to dogs and pigs. The implicit command is know what your pearls are and know who the dogs and pigs are. Man, that's freaky, especially coming right on the heels of the whole don't judge thing. Like you told me to deal with my own stuff and like not worry about a speck of sawdust in somebody else's eye until I have, like, do I really want to go around with a doggo pig o meter, being like, no, no, no, not that guy. No, I died, pretty sure I know what you're up to. Well, I think the reality is that Jesus is describing a behavior that is so atrocious and so obvious, but also so entangling, because it is so difficult to get past this kind of vortex of crazy that his expectation here is you know who's being a dog and a pig. You know what the precious stuff is, beautiful or ugly. You know what it is. You know what things about you that if you put it in front of someone untrustworthy, it would obliterate your ability to be an effective human and more so an effective kingdom citizen. So, therefore, this is very, very simple. Don't consider being discerning about that. Learn the art of discernment, recognize the pearls, recognize the dog and pig behavior, and just don't ever put the two together. And part of what I think is cool about this is there's implicit grace built into the command here from the king. Of course, you could be like, I think that's dog and pig behavior, and nope, it wasn't. You were just actually dumb and you read the whole thing wrong. Whoops, that could happen. Maybe you think, well, this these people are destructive, but these aren't pearls. Oops, no, they actually were. And they turned on you and tore you to pieces. Whoops, nuts. But because there isn't this explicit and obvious set of parameters and instructions for how exactly to know and follow this flow chart, there's some expectation that you'll just look at the kingdom values or look at the example of the king, then you should be able to kind of tell. And probably you're gonna get it wrong, and probably you will do damage at some point because you tried to follow this command and you didn't. But hey, isn't this whole thing predicated upon the grace of the king who's telling you to do it anyway? The instruction seems to be driving most closely at this. Being a part of the kingdom is not passive, it's active. He says that at the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. You're a city on a hill, you're a light, you're salt, you're a preservative, you're out there. You don't just sit and absorb kingdom stuff. You do kingdom stuff. You are the kingdom. So you got a role here, and well, you don't get to just punt on it. It is reminiscent to me of the parable of the talents, right? Remember this one where this master gives three different levels of investment to three different servants, like a buck, five bucks, and ten bucks. So this is super paraphrased. And then it tells him like you know, the assumption is go out and invest this stuff and give me something back. And then he comes back later. He's like, All right, how would you all do with the stuff? And 10 guy is like, 10 more. I turned this thing around, I did great. And she's like, Cool, give him like another hundred bucks. Let's do more again. Super paraphrasing. Five bucks guy is like five more bucks. And the master is like, rock and roll. Here's a bunch more. You can be trusted with little, you can be trusted with much. This is going great. All right, buck guy, you only had a buck, but how'd it go? And buck guy, rather than being the lovable underdog, is like, hey, I know you are a hardcore master and you do shrewd business. And so let me tell you what I decided to do. Keep this thing safe. I took no risks, I stuck it in the ground. It's a little dirty, but if you kind of dust it off, you can see there it is. There's your buck right there, clean as a whistle. And the master in the parable is unimpressed, to say the least. I think that reads back onto what we're talking about here in these twin passages with the don't judge and also the hey, be discerning and don't give to dogs and pigs what is sacred. I think the way it reads back is that the king is expecting a return on his investment from kingdom citizens who are really bought into what the kingdom is about and are vested in this thing. And if that return on investment doesn't happen because you got into some really unhealthy relationships with destructive people, and at some point when it's all over, you go to the king and you're like, hey, wow, I wanted to do kingdom stuff. That city on a hill business sounded great. I really wanted to be in on that, but Connie was a nightmare, and you should have met Dale. Golly, nothing personal if your name is Connie or Dale. I'm picturing literally no one. Man, they just ah, they were such a pain in the butt, and they always wanted to fight and they always had crises, and I tried to deal with that. And so I don't know, but bottom line, let's just skip to the end of this whole uh entrance interview, Jesus. Like I tried or whatever, but here's your buck back. That was all I was able to do. Because you know Connie and Dale are you know all things, you know there was nothing I could accomplish. It seems like this is meant to cover that base and be like, no, no, no, no, no. Do kingdom-vested stuff. And it is no excuse to be like I met some difficult people. Kingdom citizens are gonna meet difficult people, it's going to be part of the equation, and that is why Jesus covered that base and put this difficult thing right squarely on his own shoulders, saying, Me, I, the king, command you to just blow right past this stuff. What does that actually practically look like, though, in terms of relationships? How do you execute getting Matthew 7, 6 right without being a complete jerk or without being the dog or the pig yourself? How do you know? In a much shorter episode tomorrow, we'll try and process through what it would look like to actually do this thing. You guys are good sports. This was a lot. Thank you for hanging out with me. Time for an abrupt ending. My name is Matt W. This is the 10 minute Bible Hour Podcast, and I look forward to doing more of this soon.