Genesis 9:1-3 (ESV Strong's)
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
Food Matters to God
After the flood, God opened up, by a decree from Him, the possibility of man eating any and all meat that roamed the earth. We can only assume, up until this time, that either men did not eat meat (unlikely), or did so without a decree from God. IF man regularly ate meat before the flood, why would God make the above decree? We have to remember that before the flood the earth was a like a green-house. There was a canopy around the earth that was filled with water. When he was created, mankind was supposed to eat the fruit of the garden. When he was created, mankind experienced no death. After the eating of the forbidden fruit, there was death, as God clothed mankind with the skin of an animal God killed to cover them. After the flood, the eating of an animal NOW has God’s blessing. At creation God said the following to Adam:
Genesis 1:28-29 (ESV Strong's)
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
After the flood, God has now decreed His blessing meat for man to eat. This is carried over into the New Testament in the following passage:
1 Timothy 4:4-5 (ESV Strong's)
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
When Peter went into his trance and was being encouraged by God to eat, notice the buffet God prepared for him:
Acts 10:9-12 (ESV Strong's)
Peter's Vision
The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.
We could go on and list verses where Jesus bless the fish and the loaves for 5,000 and 4,000 people. Or, we could read where the priest were to eat of the sacrifice and it was blessed by God. There is no doubt that God blessed man in this manner. Perhaps the take-a-way from this passage might be:
1). God is in control of the world we live in and decrees what we should and should not eat.
2). Eating is a big deal to God. He forbid eating in the Garden of Eating and Adam breaking that oath caused sin to enter the world. God makes laws and rules about eating. Eating is a big deal to God.
3). When we follow God’s decrees, in faith, he produces the benefits He wants. God gave us food for sustainability. He warns us about taking food for mere pleasure and mere desire:
Proverbs 23:20-21 (ESV Strong's)
Be not among drunkards
or among gluttonous eaters of meat,
for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
and slumber will clothe them with rags.
Food matters to God and what we eat matters to God. He blesses us if we obey His decrees about anything ... including food.
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