Why A Dog Eats Its Vomit

I've had a least one dog, for most of my life.  I may have been 7 years old when I was given Laddie, a little Rabbit Hound. I've had dogs ever since.  A book cannot contain my affection and my appreciation for our canis familiaris. A couple things I've never understood is why my puppies eat grass.  It's kind of a cow-thing, in my opinion.  Even worse is when they chomp on their feces. Yuk! In like manner I am sickened when one of my dogs is caught eating its vomit. Yuk! Yuk!

There is a good reason why dog's re-eat their vomit.  The easiest answer is because they are doing what their nature is created to do.   It has all to do with the right ratio of food to their stomach.  But for us simple dog owners who have good veterinarians for our dogs all we need to know is that they are doing what they naturally do best.

Peter writes of false teachers in the same way. “What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”” (2 Peter 2:22, ESV).   In 2 Peter, the author speaks of a group of people and what he says about them concerns many of us.  Note what he writes in 2 Peter 2:1 (ESV),

¹ But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

This can very quickly sound like these prophets were once Christians but they turned against their Redeemer.  Now they are lost and will be destroyed.  Verse 22 makes that even more significant: 2 Peter 2:1 (ESV) ¹ But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

But then Peter helps us understand that these men are like dogs returning to their vomit.  They are only doing what their nature demands.  Their nature has never been changed.  It, for awhile sounds like they are Christians, but it's all show and polish.    "They appeared to have been saved, but by returning to the vomit and mire of the world, they demonstrated that they were never truly regenerated." [1]

Whenever a professing Christian "apostatizes" it is a revelation of the true heart -- the true nature of that person.  When a person is "born from above" God gives them a new heart. God says,"And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me." [2] 

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1. Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 2421). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

2. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Je 32:40). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.