Category Archives: Food

Those pesky chapter numbers!

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01_Ge_08_13_RGOK, I let it happen again. Or, at least, I think I did. I let one of those big numbers printed in between the words of my Bible get in the way of my seeing something that’s obvious in the text.

It’s not a major theological point. But it’s worth looking at.

You remember when Noah got off the ark. After months of listening to animals, smelling animals, dealing with animals, Noah finally did what he’d been wanting to do. He took his knife to them.

Not just one animal. A bunch of them. The Bible says, “Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” (Genesis 8:20)

Then the chapter ends with God promising never to destroy the earth. The rainbow is given as a sign of that.

Then we get that big number 9. New chapter. New context, right? Another day maybe. Another setting.

I don’t think so. What God says about Noah being allowed to eat meat is directly related to the fact that Noah has just butchered a bunch of animals and has them cooking on an altar behind him. (If you haven’t read John Mark Hicks’ Come to the Table, I highly recommend it. He is the one that showed me the obvious: many sacrifices in the Old Testament were designed as a fellowship meal between man and God.)

God is saying, “That sacrifice you made… eat any of it that you wish.* And feel free to do so in the future.”

*yes, I know, with certain guidelines about not eating blood, etc.

And I never caught that simple fact because I let the chapter number get in the way.

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5 Appropriate Christian Attitudes Toward Food

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So what are some proper attitudes toward food? Here are my suggestions:

  1. Thankfulness toward God: I think this needs to be present every time we eat. I also think this goes beyond merely saying “Thank you for this food” at the beginning of a meal. I know that we won’t be conscious of God every time we take a bite (though that would be a nice goal), but we should be aware that everything that we have received is because of him.
  2. Thankfulness to those who made it possible for us to eat: This can be the one who cooked the food. Or set the table. Or gave us the job to earn the money to buy the food. Or any of a number of people. Our primary gratitude is to God, but we should also be thankful for the people in our lives.
  3. Awareness of what we’re eating: I’m a terribly fast eater. It’s a bad habit that I’d like to overcome. I want to learn to taste what I’m eating. To think about the flavors that God put in the food. I want to learn to savor and enjoy food, not because of quantity but because of what it is.
  4. Awareness of who we’re eating with: This goes back to Tuesday’s blog. We need to recognize the significance of eating with other people. And we do this by being aware of them as we eat.
  5. Awareness of those that lack: That’s one’s tough, and it might even cut into my enjoyment a bit. Hopefully it will curb my overeating a bit! I live in a country with an abundance of food, both in quantity and variety. Many would love to have either of those, let alone both. As I eat thankfully and thoughtfully, may I be aware of those who go without.

Those are my top five. Any comments on those? What would you add?

Thou shalt eat all you can eat

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One attitude toward food that is not Christian is that of abuse. There is nothing godly about gluttony. In fact, the Bible condemns gluttony in various places. We should show appreciation for God’s blessings of food, but not by overeating.

My brilliant wife shared some insightful thoughts on Monday’s post. Let me quote from her comment:

I believe that Colossians 2:20-23 describes our world today very graphically, sadly enough. There’s so much around us that has to do with human regulations on eating, dieting, harsh treatment of the body (mind, spirit, and soul I might add) , seeing some foods as evil when in reality what is evil is the fact that we eat more of them than our bodies actually need to function in a healthy manner.

The two words that I think hold the key in this passage in Colossians are at the end of verse 23: restraining and indulgence. That’s where the problem is, at least for me, learning how to restrain my desire to indulge in unhealthy *amounts* of food, any food. Eating 6 plates of salad, righteous as it might sound, is the same problem of lack of restraint and overindulgence as eating half a pan of chocolate cake. It’s covetousness, wanting more than your body actually needs.

Restraint and temperance are the key concepts. God has blessed us with an abundance of food in this country. The proper response is not to eat anything and everything we can get our hands on. The proper response is to do what we can to see that everyone has enough to eat.

We often seem to avoid the subject of gluttony; is that only because it makes us uncomfortable? Or is it that the Bible doesn’t have a lot to say on the topic? What do you think?

Table companions

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I’ve written before about the significance of sharing a meal in the ancient Middle Eastern culture. It seems appropriate, however, as we talk about food that we consider the significance of the act of eating.

In our modern world, we often sit down and eat with strangers. We may not really be aware of the fact that we are eating with them, but we sit down in a restaurant where we are often sharing eating space with people we don’t know.

That would have been unheard of in ancient times. Meals were shared. People shared meals with one another. And they were aware of sharing meals with God. The book of Deuteronomy often talks about eating in the presence of the Lord. 1 Chronicles 29 also uses this expression.

During Jesus’ ministry, people were often offended by his choice of table companions. “He eats with sinners!” The early church is pictured as eating together on a regular basis. Sharing the Lord’s Supper with others was seen to be a means of establishing fellowship ties (1 Corinthians 10). By the same token, Christians were not even to eat with fellow believers who persisted in immorality (1 Corinthians 5:11)

The word “companion” comes from Latin roots meaning “with bread.” It’s the idea of the person that you share food with. As we think about our attitudes toward food, we need to recognize that there is more to eating than merely nourishing our bodies. Who we eat with is as important as what we eat.

Can you think of other texts that speak to this idea? Any examples from your own life?

[Edit, 10 a.m. CDT: I forgot a couple of critical texts that speak to this issue. I’ll merely include them here—

“So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”” (Acts 11:2-3)
“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.” (Galatians 2:11-13)]

A theology of food

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I have to admit that studying Ecclesiastes last year affected me in a number of ways. One of the lasting effects was a changed attitude toward food.

In the past, I looked at food as sort of a necessary evil, at least in terms of my Christianity. Eating was done for nourishment only, although fellowship as a “byproduct” was something I valued.

I’ve changed my mind. I think that food was meant to be enjoyed. Not abused. Enjoyed. Isn’t that why God filled our foods with such a wide variety of tastes and textures? Isn’t that one of the reasons why we find pleasure in certain foods?

Evolutionists would say that our bodies crave things like fat, calories, etc. out of a sense of survival. This sort of fits my old view of things, but it doesn’t go with what the Bible says. In the Old Testament there are many times when God’s people come together to eat “in the presence of the Lord,” drawing near to God by enjoying what he has given.

Ecclesiastes is full of verses that talk about enjoying our eating and drinking:

Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 5:18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot.
Ecclesiastes 8:15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 9:7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do.
Ecclesiastes 11:9 Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

In Paul’s day there were some who taught that not only was food not to be enjoyed, but it was to be abstained from to try and please God:

“Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” (Colossians 2:20-23)
“They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4:3-5)

So what do you think a Christian’s view toward food and eating should be? Are there “good foods” and “bad foods”? Are there proper ways of eating and improper ways of eating?

Help me work on a theology of food.