VALUE MORE THAN FOOD

If we just knew. Job knew.

“I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food."  It is about God’s wisdom and  discernment, which in the end is the most secure, safe, and satisfying thing on earth.

Food highlighted in Scripture does not give Protein, Vitamin and Mineral value. We can be sure of its potency because it is figurative wisdom right in the context of the passages: The Holy Spirit includes certain food like milk and honey because of its value for our health.

Job wrote that the value of spiritual food, God’s wisdom, was his highest priority. God’s wisdom leads to everything else in our lives that is the best for us. Food throughout Scripture is often figurative examples of spiritual truth. It is up to us to meditate on the meaning. “I have brought you into a land flowing with milk and honey” is memorable. It is encouraging because of its truth.

This example: “And wine that makes glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart.” Psalm 104:15. Who does not want to be glad, have joy and a face that shines? A strong heart means the rest of you benefits from its power.

 "But he knows the way that I take: when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." Job 23:10-12. 

Reading the Bible “the words of His mouth” every day, and obeying it, is like “walking with God:” your guarantee for a successful life. A good diet alone may not contribute to a successful life.

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 I Thessalonians 5:23.

 

YOUR CENTER

A temple is the center of everything. A Holy place. The place where God desires to dwell. When you know Jesus, your center, your spirit, soul, and body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Feed your whole self. “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." John 6:35. As sure as a loaf of whole grain bread is food, so is the “bread of life” that came down from Heaven. This truth is available to you in Scripture. "For the word of God is quick (to live literally or figuratively), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit (heart, life, mind, soul), and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12. Even the soul and spirit are divided asunder by the power of the Word of God.

Naturalists cannot understand this. What is life? What is the mind? They are at a loss to comprehend your soul and spirit. What is the soul? What is the spirit? What is creativity? Imagination?

God created you: He understands you because He made you. His provision to feed your spirit, soul and body is all provided. Start with the Bible.

Food is within the stories, Psalms, and doctrine throughout Scripture. Look for many, varied foods as you read every day…look for literal food and figurative food. “And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart.” Psalm 104:15. You know, bread with the bran, endosperm, and germ! Unbleached. No chemical additives. Good ingredients added to wholesome bread: yeast, honey or natural maple syrup, salt, and water.

Whole grain

A whole grain is a grain of any cereal and pseudocereal that contains the endosperm, germ, and bran, in contrast to refined grains, which retain only the endosperm. As part of a general healthy diet, consumption of whole grains is associated with lower risk of several diseases. Wikipedia

YOUR BODY: A TEMPLE

 Learning about health in the Bible is exciting and very, very rewarding because it is about you, about now. About the future. The intricacies of your amazing body are brought into the spiritual realm: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.”

It is more than about you and me; caring for our bodies has to do with pleasing the LORD,

When you are in charge of your personal temple (and if you are a Christian) it is the temple of God, then eating, exercise, personal interactions with others, even your thoughts, and good deeds (like serving others) are all part of treating your temple with care and love and knowledge.

How much can you and I know about caring for our health? Not much: the more chemists study the tiny cell the more intricacies the cell reveals. So how can we be knowledgeable to know how to care for this personal temple, which is you and me? 

Look for food mentioned in Scripture.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9

Today there are scientists who claim they are near creating life: they are not. According to Dr. James Tour, (American synthetic organic chemist, jmtour.com) we will never come near to creating life in our lifetime. The more scientists know the more they realize they do not know.

But we, as created in His own image, are privileged to be the most powerful and hopeful creation of God.

Taking care of this “Spirit, Soul and Body” is more than a responsibility, it is a calling. Where are the answers? Everything you need to know can start in the Bible. From there, go, research where He leads. The Holy Spirit of God will guide you: "…when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will shew you things to come." John 16:13.

THE FOURTH CHANGE...GIVEN BY GOD

 The fourth change was when Jesus came to earth as a man, the Son of God. Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Matthew 5:17. God's plan to include Gentiles with the Jews into His plan of Salvation came in Acts ten when "Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spoke unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven." Acts 10:9-16. Some think one way and some another about the correlation of this trance with the freedom God gives with food today. What do you think? 

"For one believes that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eats herbs. Let not him that eats despise him that eats not; and let not him which eats not judge him that eats: for God has received him." Romans 14:3, 4. 

We have freedom today. What we eat can be guided by wisdom, and if the Bible is the bottom line, your understanding will grow, but you will never have to eat according to the current fad. Realize that a food threat is around today: harmful chemical additives, processed food, highly processed seed oils, deceitful “Natural Flavor” and bioengineered additives. We are free but neglecting what is whole and good for us will eventually hurt us.

  “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8,9.  Eating well has nothing to do with our Salvation: eternal life is a gift by the grace of God and grace alone.

 

FOOD ERAS IN THE BIBLE

There are four food eras in Scripture. They began with the creation of mankind. God said to Adam and Eve, “…God blessed them...Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." Genesis 1:28,29.were  

It must be important…food instruction changed right after Noah and the global flood.

Our interest in the importance of what we eat will increase when we understand what was created for our health and wellbeing. Look closely: it also has a deeper spiritual lesson. Look for a figurative meaning to the food mentioned in the Bible.

Within the health qualities of the food are profound messages: Jesus said, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John 6:51. Bread made from grain grown by God from creation is for our health and vibrancy. Look closely, "And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart." Psalm 104:15.

1.    Vegetarian

2.    After the Global Flood

3.    The Law of Moses

4.    When Jesus Came

FOUR FOOD CHANGES IN THE BIBLE

Four times in Scripture, food instruction is changed by God Himself.

It is simple but important...

In the beginning God said to Adam and Eve, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." Genesis 1:29. 

Then a change in dietary requirements was given to Noah after the global flood. When Noah and his wife and family emerged from the Ark after the flood, God told them, "Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have, I given you all things." Genesis 9:3.

Later God gave the third dietary instruction to Moses. They were Laws for the Children of Israel. In it was strict “clean and unclean” food laws. This had me intrigued as I grew up. 

My father was the first influence I had of a strict food diet as my five brothers, two sisters and I grew up. It would have been in the fifties and sixties and on. He pleaded with my mother to buy real butter, not margarine, and to buy only whole grain bread. He called soft, degermed, bleached white bread “Allenpuff”…sitting on a loaf to demonstrate how flat it would become, how much air it had.

He was an athlete all through Wheaton College, going into each new season eating at the “training table” as he described it. I became (though he never knew) his follower in health and healthy food habits.

Years later Eric and I took our young twelve-year-old Granddaughter to a restaurant. She ordered Octopus for dinner. I was disturbed. I had not yet realized the freedom in the fourth food designation in the New Testament. Octopus was part of the “unclean food” dietary law under Moses. After realizing I was wrong, we again took Lilly, (now fifteen) out for dinner. She ordered her octopus surprise and gave me a taste … which I accepted.