Disobedience is not without consequence

DIET
A Demonstration of Depravity or Devotion
pdf
Dr. Paul Manuel—2013

Once a person establishes a relationship with God (through repentance and faith), he must maintain that relationship by obedience to God. For many Christians, obedience is a nebulous process, marked by uncertainty about what He expects. For Jews, there is little ambiguity, because God has issued clear commands to His people covering many aspects of life. To what extent these commands are relevant also for gentile Christians is a separate matter that depends on several factors.¹

This brief study will consider an issue that is clear for Jews, involving a matter common to all and one that appears several times in scripture as it recurs in the nation's history: food, specifically what constitutes the proper fare for God's people. Although His commands are clear, His people's compliance has not been consistent. There have been periods of gross disobedience with serious and far-reaching consequences. While not the most important matter, diet can be a demonstration of depravity or devotion.

Disobedience can be manifest in different ways, and one common way it has appeared among God's people is in their diet.² The prophet Isaiah condemned the pagan practices entrenched in Judah, including what they were eating.³

Isa 65:2 All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good...4b who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat....

Contra Deut 14:8 The pig is also unclean.... You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses.

Isa 66:17 "Those...who eat the flesh of pigs and rats and other abominable things—they will meet their end together," declares the LORD

As with other areas of disobedience, Isaiah warns there will be a price to pay.

That price came, at least in part, when Babylonian forces besieged Jerusalem. Food became so scarce in the city that people resorted to cannibalism. It was the fulfillment of a warning God had made hundreds of years earlier.⁴

Lev 26:28b I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.

Through Jeremiah, God repeated the warning before the siege and confirmed the result after the siege.⁵

Jer 19:9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh during the stress of the siege imposed on them by the enemies who seek their lives.

Lam 4:10 With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food when my people were destroyed.

Cannibalism may have been a solution to their present difficulty, but it was God's judgment for their persistent disobedience.⁶ Moreover, He did not force them to eat one another;⁷ resorting to cannibalism was their decision and not their only option. Surrender and deportation would have been preferable.

Contrast Daniel's experience in Babylon, which also concerned diet. His situation was not as dire, but his response demonstrated a measure of faith absent from those back in Jerusalem and showed a commitment to abstain from what God has prohibited.

Dan 1:8 ...Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.

Although restricting what he ate might not provide adequate nutrition for his role in the Babylonian administration, the greater concern for Daniel was that he not violate God's commands.⁸ It was a commitment God honored with success.⁹

God set His people apart from other people and called them to be holy, a condition they show by various means, including by what they eat.¹⁰

Lev 20:25 You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground—those which I have set apart as unclean for you. 26 You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.

While not the most important matter, diet can be a demonstration of depravity or devotion.

Bibliography

• Manuel, Paul (@ http://paulwmanuel.blogspot.com), 2000, Theology Excursus 3: "The Difference in God's Will" in A Reader's Digest Approach to Theology.
• Manueal, 2007, "The Sinaitic Law and the Gentile Believer."

Endnotes

[1] For an extended discussion, see Manuel 2007.

[2]For people the Northern Kingdom of Israel, their disobedience in the land affected their diet in the exile.

Hos 9:3b Ephraim will...eat unclean food in Assyria.

[3] Ezekiel notes how this penchant for what God abhors would follow the people and become their fare in exile.

Ezek 4:13 ...the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.

[4] He reiterated this to the new generation about to enter Canaan.

Deut 28:53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you.

[5] Ezekiel, already in Babylon, anticipates the same fate for those besieged.

Ezek 5:10a Therefore in your midst fathers will eat their children, and children will eat their fathers.

Through a "sign act," the prophet predicts yet further dietary change.

Ezek 4:12 Eat the food as you would a barley cake; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel." 13 The LORD said, "In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them."

Ezekiel pleads for an acceptable alternative.

Ezek 4:14 Then I said, "Not so, Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth." 15 "Very well," he said, "I will let you bake your bread over cow manure instead of human excrement."

[6] When people insist upon charting a course away from God, He may allow them the freedom to do so. This is Paul's observation about the unrighteous.

Rom 1:28 ...since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

Pharaoh illustrates the point. In response to repeated requests to free Israel, he hardened his heart and refused. Eventually, God confirmed the Egyptian leader's recalcitrance.

Exod 14:4 And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD....

Later, when the Israelites complained about their limited diet in the wilderness, God confirmed their rebellion by making their own desire His judgment against them.

Ps 106:15 So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

[7] Cannibalism is also not an example of God's permissive will as apposed to His perfect will, whereby He allows something less than what He approves. For legitimate illustrations, see Manuel 2000.

[8] The objection was probably either eating forbidden items or eating otherwise permitted items contaminated by association with idolatry.

[9] This decision extended to a small group of captives.

Dan 1:15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.

[10] God makes the connection clear in His commands.

Exod 22:31 You are to be my holy people. So do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts; throw it to the dogs.

Lev 11:44 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground.

Deut 14:21 Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to an alien living in any of your towns, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.