Lobsters are shellfish. Shellfish were forbidden under the old law. For that matter, so was pork. I don’t like lobster, but I love pork sausage. Lobsters are prettier than pigs, so lobster it is.
In Acts 10: 9-16 Peter has a vision:
9About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. 13Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
16This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
We’re free from the old law and new creatures in Christ. Not only was Peter’s vision meant to take the Gospel to gentiles and Jews alike, but it tells us we’re not defiled by was goes in, rather, by what comes out.
So, those pretty lobsters signify our release from the old, and rebirth in the new. And as lobster is a delicacy, so is our Christian freedom.
2 Comments
April 3, 2007 at 8:43 am
That’s a great introduction to the verse. Man, I love seafood!
April 20, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Thanks Art for your comment. I hate lobster…but love lobster…a connundrum of sorts.