Chapter 41—Flesh Foods
God gave our first parents the food He designed that the race should
eat. It was contrary to His plan to have the life of any creature taken.
There was to be no death in Eden. The fruit of the trees in the garden,
was the food man’s wants required. God gave man no permission to eat
animal food until after the flood. Everything had been destroyed upon
which man could subsist, and therefore the Lord in their necessity gave
Noah permission to eat of the clean animals which he had taken with
him into the ark. But animal food was not the most healthful article of
food for man.
After the Flood the people ate largely of animal food. God saw
that the ways of man were corrupt, and that he was disposed to exalt
himself proudly against his Creator and to follow the inclinations of
his own heart. And He permitted that long-lived race to eat animal
food to shorten their sinful lives. Soon after the Flood the race began
to rapidly decrease in size, and in length of years
In choosing man’s food in Eden, the Lord showed what was the
best diet; in the choice made for Israel He taught the same lesson.
He brought the Israelites out of Egypt and undertook their training,
that they might be a people for His own possession. Through them
He desired to bless and teach the world. He provided them with the
food best adapted for this purpose, not flesh, but manna, “the bread of
heaven.” It was only because of their discontent and their murmuring
for the fleshpots of Egypt that animal food was granted them, and this
only for a short time. Its use brought disease and death to thousands.
Yet the restriction to a non-flesh diet was never heartily accepted. It
continued to be the cause of discontent and murmuring, open or secret,
and it was not made permanent.
Upon their settlement in Canaan, the Israelites were permitted
the use of animal food, but under careful restrictions which tended to
lessen the evil results. The use of swine’s flesh was prohibited, as also
of other animals and of birds and fish whose flesh was pronounced
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Counsels on Diet and Foods, 373
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