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Chapter 24—Flesh as Food
The diet appointed man in the beginning did not include animal
food. Not till after the Flood, when every green thing on the earth
had been destroyed, did man receive permission to eat flesh.
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 nonflesh 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
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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 pro-
nounced unclean. Of the meats permitted, the eating of the fat and
the blood was strictly forbidden.
Only such animals could be used for food as were in good condi-
tion. No creature that was torn, that had died of itself, or from which
the blood had not been carefully drained, could be used as food.
By departing from the plan divinely appointed for their diet, the
Israelites suffered great loss. They desired a flesh diet, and they
reaped its results. They did not reach God’s ideal of character or
fulfill His purpose. The Lord “gave them their request; but sent
leanness into their soul.”
Psalm 106:15
. They valued the earthly
above the spiritual, and the sacred pre-eminence which was His
purpose for them they did not attain.
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