Chewing Spiritual Cud

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

“Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.”

Psalms 119:97

 

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.

 

“I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.”

Psalms 119:15

 

“Your servant will meditate on your decrees.”

Psalms 119:23

 

“Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders.”

Psalms 119:27

 

“I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.”

Psalms 119:48

 

“I will meditate on your precepts.”

Psalms 119:78

 

“I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.”

Psalms 119:99

 

“My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.”

Psalms 119:148

 

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.”