Casting Pearls Before Swine?

Don't cast your pearls before swine!

Mat 7:6  Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you.


In Luke chapter 15 we have the story of the prodigal son.  We can tell that this young boy plunders off into the world hauling his Daddy’s wealth with him.  He in due course blows it all on harlots and partying.  


One striking point is that our protagonist joins himself to a citizen of that country.  


Luk 15:15-17  And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.  (16)  And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.  (17)  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!


In the original Greek we see that the underlying word for ‘joined’ has a very strong  implication that our protagonist is glued or cleaved to a worldly or non covenantal person.  Non covenantal people are  referred to as dogs, unclean, heathen, or even swine.  


Imagine our central character  with his royal apparel on and all the elegance you can imagine of the noblest of nobility.  Now  picture him crawling into a muddy pen of pigs looking for something to eat.  


He is out of place isn’t he?  


God gives us spiritual treasures not intended for non covenant people.  They can’t understand the spiritual things of God.  


1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.


Non covenantal people count worthless the pearls of spiritual wisdom God has given us and trample them underfoot and sometimes will even attack us personally.  


If you find yourself casting pearls before swine, it is time to get out of the pig pen!