Flesh Foods
137
Their cup of iniquity was full, and God cleansed the earth of its moral
pollution by a flood. As men multiplied upon the face of the earth
after the flood, they forgot God, and corrupted their ways before Him.
Intemperance in every form increased to a great extent.
The Lord brought His people out of Egypt in a victorious manner.
He led them through the wilderness to prove them, and try them. He
repeatedly manifested His miraculous power in their deliverances from
their enemies. He promised to take them to Himself, as His peculiar
treasure, if they would obey His voice, and keep His commandments.
He did not forbid them to eat the flesh of animals, but withheld it from
them in a great measure. He provided them food which was the most
healthful. He rained their bread from heaven, and gave them purest
water from the flinty rock. He made a covenant with them, if they
would obey Him in all things, He would preserve them from disease.
But the Hebrews were not satisfied. They despised the food given
them from heaven, and wished themselves back in Egypt, where they
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could sit by the flesh-pots. They preferred slavery, and even death,
rather than to be deprived of meat. God, in His anger, gave them flesh
to gratify their lustful appetites, and great numbers of them died while
eating the meat for which they had lusted.
The Ministry of Healing, 311-312
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 flesh-pots 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.