Is God Concerned With What You Eat?

Do you think God is concerned with what you eat?

Consider this. Does God care about...

• Where you go?

• What you say?

• Why you do the things you do?

• When you worship Him?

• How you think?

Then maybe, just maybe, He cares about what you eat too!

Doctors, nutritionists, dieticians, health experts and researchers spend an awful lot of time trying to figure out what is healthy for us to eat, and what isn't. But, God gave us instructions in this area, if we just choose to follow them.

Consider His instructions in Leviticus.

I know, I know... many of you are probably now moaning, sighing or rolling your eyes. But, don't leave this page, just yet!

Keep reading if you truly care about submitting your life to God.

In Leviticus 3:17 God tells us not to eat fat or blood. But, in Chapter 11, He does give us a list of animals & fish we are permitted to eat. He also provides a list of 'unclean' animals. These are instructions from God.

Read Isaiah 65:3-6 and Isaiah 66:15-24 - God really does care about what we eat!

Of course, many will argue with me saying that God "changed His mind" about food and that Jesus gave us permission to eat anything we want.

But, does Jesus ever teach against God's instructions for us? Or, do Paul or Peter?

Acts 10: Commonly used to justify eating 'unclean' animals. In this Scripture, Peter has a vision. In his vision were all kinds of four-footed animals, reptiles and birds and a voice told Peter "Get up Peter; kill and eat." And Peter responded by saying "No, Lord. I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." The voice responds to Peter, saying: "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

While Peter was thinking about this vision and its meaning, three men arrive at Peter's home and asked to see Peter. The Holy Spirit told Peter, "Three men are looking for you. Get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them." Peter invited the men into his home as guests. The next day, Peter travels with the three men to Caesarea to see a man named Cornelius [a righteous, God-fearing man... but a Gentile]. When Peter arrived to Caesarea, he entered Cornelius' home [Cornelius had gathered his family and close friends there]. When Peter entered Cornelius' home [full of Gentiles] he said to them, "You are all well aware that it is against our Law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean."

God was not telling Peter it is okay to eat whatever he wants, He is teaching Peter that whoever fears Him and does what is right is accepted by God [Acts 10:35].

1 Timothy 4:1-5: Another argument used by many to denounce that God still expects us to confirm our will to His (including in the food we eat).

Paul starts by saying "the Spirit expressively says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons..."

Paul is not talking about God's Word, which is perfect in all ways. The context of this Scripture has nothing to do with God's Word or His instructions how we should live.

The next part of this Scripture says "commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the Truth."

God did not create bats, or pigs, or eagles for us to receive with thanksgiving. He gave us specific instructions as to which animals we should eat as food and to receive those 'clean' animals with thanksgiving.

In this Scripture Paul is speaking about deceivers: those who will try to tell us that it is OK not to eat the food that God gave us, and those who will tell us that it is OK eat foods that God told us are 'unclean'.

Paul goes on to say, For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified [set apart as pure; "clean"] by the word of God.

Mark 7:17-19: Many have interpreted this Scripture to mean that Jesus set aside food laws. By doing that, though, he would have contradicted himself! His critics had just accused him of not observing their traditions, and he responded by saying they did far worse... they did not observe the commandments of the Torah (verses 9-13). For Jesus to have said that the food laws of the Old Testament were not valid would have undercut his whole response and show him to be inconsistent.

So what exactly did Jesus mean when he said "there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him?"

All Jews would have been very careful only to eat food that was 'clean', therefore the food coming into their bodies did not defile them, or make them ritually unclean. Literally nothing that one eats could technically make a person ritually unclean.

In verse 19 of Mark 7, the gospel writer appears to have added his own commentary reading "Thus He declared all foods clean." Many translations have these words in (parenthesis).

But, this is not in the original Greek text. A literal translation of verse 19 in the Greek text is: because it does not go into the heart, but into the colon, and into the latrine, purging all foods.

The obvious point of Jesus' words, as they are written in the Greek text, is that it is not the food that goes in, but that which comes out, which has the ability to make a person 'unclean'. This forms a perfect basis for Jesus on the whole matter: teaching that sin, which renders the soul 'unclean,' and defiles others as well, comes from within us.

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With this said, we do believe that God exempted Gentiles from the requirement of keeping dietary laws. In Genesis 9:3 God told Noah, “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you.”

Since Noah was the father of all mankind, Jew and Gentile alike [after the Flood] this suggests that God did not make dietary laws mandatory for all people. Noah was a vegetarian before the Flood; it wasn't until after the Flood that God allowed humans to consume meat. While Noah didn't eat meat before the Flood, he did understand the concept of offering sacrifices (Genesis 8:20), and to Noah the difference between "clean" and "unclean" did not mean edible and inedible, but rather what could be sacrificed and what could not.

When God told Israel to eat only "clean" animals, He was essentially saying to His nation: Don’t take into the temple of your bodies that which would not be proper to bring before My temple/tabernacle altar.

That is a spiritual principle we can all learn from today!

At Eating Eden, we believe it is good to keep dietary laws [if we have the ability to] for the main reason of being like our Savior Jesus Christ, even in what we choose to eat.

We can each come up with our own personal list of things we will and will not eat. But, doesn't it makes sense to line our list up with that of our Creator?

Remember that long ago in a beautiful garden, the serpent convinced Eve that God really didn't mean what He had said concerning food!!

There is an incredible blessing that comes from obeying God even in simple things like our food choices!

"I worship the God of my fathers, believing in all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets."

Acts 24:14

“Jesus through Jewish Eyes,” quoted by Brown, Objections Vol. 4, 276