Dung

dung: Excrementitious and decayed matter employed to fertilize the soil; manure. 2. (As constituting the usual manure) The excrement or fæces of animals (rarely of human beings): as cow-dung, horse-dung, pig's-dung, etc.

The Holy Ghost in both testaments uses candid, vulgar and sometimes graphic terms.

1. All scripture is profitable (2TI 3:16), even the 36 occurrences of dung.

2. Every word of God is pure. PRO 8:8; 30:5; PSA 119:140.

3. All scripture testifies of Christ (JOH 5:39), even the dung parts.

4. Christ spoke candidly about dung. LUK 13:6-9; 14:34-35.

5. Paul spoke with plainness and rudeness. 2CO 3:12; 11:6.

6. God uses “...base things of the world...” to His own glory. 1CO 1:28-29.

7. We are warned against being too righteous or more holy than God.

   ECC 7:16; MAR 7:1-4.

It will be helpful to remember Scripture associates dung with sin.

1. Dung itself is not sin, nor sinful. It is part of the natural order and nature can teach.

   1CO 11:14.

2. Dung and sin are both filth.

   1. filth: Foul matter. a. Putrid matter, corruption, rottenness; in later use, purulent

      matter, pus. Obs. b. Uncleanly matter, dirt... fig. Moral defilement, vileness,

      corruption...transgressions.

   2. As sinners we are filthy in God’s sight. JOB 15:16; PSA 14:3.

   3. Sins are filth. 2CO 7:1.

   4. Sinners’ righteousnesses are as filth. ISA 64:6.

   5. Our sins and our reliance upon works to justify us are both filth to be disposed of.

Israel was not to ease themselves of bodily waste in the camp. DEU 23:12-14.

1. Their weapon was for warfare and for personal sanitation.

   1. The holiness of the camp depended upon their bodily sanitation.

   2. Our personal holiness and the holiness of the church depends upon godliness, not

      waste disposal. 1TI 4:8.

   3. Cleanliness at best is next to godliness, but it is not godliness. That is a lie of

      Pharisaism. MAR 7:1-4.

   4. Repentance is our personal flush lever. ACT 20:21.

   5. Exclusion from the church is our corporate flush lever. 1CO 5:13.

2. We have a spiritual weapon that is similarly tasked. EPH 6:20.

   1. It is for offensive warfare of conversion. PSA 19:7.

   2. It is for defensive warfare against sin. PSA 119:11.

   3. You need not worry about hand placement: it is all clean.

3. Note that the emphasis in DEU 23:12-14 was on human dung, not animal dung. 1. This implies that human dung is worse. c/w EZE 4:9-15. 2. Mind that the ingredients of Ezekiel’s bread were good but could be defiled by what

   came out of man. By analogy, God’s words are good but man’s sins, traditions and philosophy are a different story. MAR 7:7, 13; COL 2:8; ROM 2:23-24.

Jesus used the dunghill to teach principles of discipleship. LUK 13:6-9; 14:34-35.

1. Dung, over time, may be of value to produce fruit. We can learn from the sins of others that we might bear fruit for God. 1CO 10:5-11.

2. Apostates are of less value than Jezebel. MAT 5:13 c/w 2KI 9:37.

False religion is dung.

1. Sin turns even ordained things to dung in God’s eyes. MAL 2:3.

2. When Christ upbraided the Pharisees about their outward-cleanliness hypocrisy, He appropriately spoke of dung and sewage. MAR 7:18-19.

   1. draught: Cesspool, sink, or sewer.

   2. The house of Baal was appropriately turned into a draught house. 2KI 10:27.

3. Paul described his former Pharisaism as dung. PHIL 3:8-9.

   1. Works-righteousness is a thing to be put away, not a thing to put confidence in.

   2. Mingling works with grace is a form of death in the pot. ROM 11:6 c/w 2KI 4:40.

   3. The Pharisee Christians that were troubling the churches had basically rolled the pure gospel in manure and called it manna.

Christ took our sins outside the camp and covered them.

1. The Book of Hebrews shows how Christ fulfilled the ceremonies and sacrifices of the Law. HEB 9:11-12.

2. The very first appearance in Scripture of any form of the word dung pertains to a sin offering. EXO 29:14.

3. The next pertains to a burnt offering. LEV 4:10-12.

4. Of special significance was the sin offering on the Day of Atonement. LEV 16:27.

5. Christ crucified is:

   1. our sin offering. HEB 7:27.

   2. our burnt offering consumed by God’s fiery wrath against sin. HEB 12:29.

   3. our atonement. ROM 5:11.

6. Christ similarly suffered without. HEB 13:11-12.

7. It should humble us to consider that the same term used for defecation (purge, MAR 7:9), is used to describe Christ’s putting away of our sins. HEB 1:3.

8. Being too holy to consider dung is to diminish a fundamental description of salvation.

The earthly Jerusalem had a dung gate. NEH 3:13.

1. The heavenly Jerusalem has twelve gates but none of them are called dung gates. REV 21:12.

2. There is nothing defiling there that needs to be taken out. REV 21:27.