God’s Provision of Food
Why do people make money? They earn money to
eat food, wear clothes, and dwell in a place. Nobody can live without food.
Food is indispensable for people’s economic activity. God provided his people
with food at the very beginning of creation. He also provided every living
creature with food. The initial food that God provided was green plants but not
meat, yet.
God in Genesis 1:29-30 says:
“29I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face
of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them
food. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the
air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath
of life, I have given every green plant for food.” God in Genesis 9:3-4
extended food for his people and included meat for Noah and his family: “3Every
moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green
plants, I give you everything. 4Only you shall not eat flesh with
its life, that is, its blood.” God did not allow his people to eat flesh with
blood as blood means life that belongs only to God.
When the Israelites marched
in the wilderness after they left Egypt, they ran out of food. The Israelites
grumbled and complained against Moses and Aaron. Then, God provided them with
manna and quail – food that came down from heaven. God in Exodus 16:12 says to
Moses: “I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel; say to them, ‘At
twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning, you shall be filled with
bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’” God in Leviticus 11
gave Moses and the Israelites a dietary law (a law on food), telling them what
they can eat and what they cannot eat. God distinguished clean food from
unclean food and let his people eat only clean food which seemed to be
healthier food from today’s medical perspective.
Scott Munger points out that
food shows our dependence on God and makes us humble before God.[1]
Deuteronomy 8:3 states: “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with
manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you
know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything
that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” That is, God provides us with food
not only for our body but also more importantly for our spirit – the spiritual
food, the word of God.
God’s Invitation to Life
God in Isaiah 55:1-2 invites people to the
waters, the source of life: “1Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the
waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. 2Why do you spend your money for
that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” We
can get food and drink when we come to God with our humble mind even without
money and without price. God is willing to provide food and drink to them who
come to him, the source of life.
Jesus the Bread of Life
Jesus also teaches the Lord’s prayer to his
disciples, in which we ask God, “Give us today our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11;
Luke 11:3). Jesus proclaims that he is the bread of life. Jesus in John 6:32
says: “For the bread of life is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to
the world”; in John 6:35: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will
never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty”; in John
6:48-51: “I am the bread of life. … I am the living bread that came down from
heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”
As we read in Matthew
14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, and John 6:1-13, Jesus fed five thousand
men (besides women and children) with five loaves of bread and two fish. After
they all ate enough, Jesus’ disciples gathered the pieces that were left over
and filled twelve baskets. In another occasion that is recorded in Matthew
15:32-39 and Mark 8:1-10, Jesus fed four thousand men (besides women and
children) with seven loaves of bread. After they all ate and were satisfied,
the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. Jesus
the bread of life fed people who came to him. Although earthly resources are
limited and scarce, God the source of life provides food to his people
sufficiently.
Food is essential in our
daily living, but, Jesus tells us not to worry about food, drink, and clothes. Jesus
in Matthew 6:25 says: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,
what you shall eat or what you shall drink; nor about your body, what you shall
put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”; and
repeated in 6:31: “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or
‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ When we belong to the household
of God, God as the head of his household provides us with food. As we saw in
Chapter 2, providing or feeding food to his people is a very important God’s
governing or economic activity.
Debate on the Dietary Law
In the early Christian community, there was a
debate on the Jewish dietary law which God had provided for the Israelites in
the Old Testament (Leviticus 11) as the Gentiles joined the Christian community
although the Jews and the Gentiles lived separately. So, a resolution for the
Gentile Christians who did not observe the Jewish dietary law was necessary and
a letter from the Jerusalem Council was sent to Gentile believers in which
Gentile believers were to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood,
from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality, as James, the
head of the Jerusalem Council and Jesus’ physical brother, suggested (Acts
15:20 & 29).
Unclean Food and the Gentiles
Peter in Acts 10 saw a vision three times
while he was falling into a trance. Peter saw the heaven opened and something
like a large sheet came down. It contained all kinds of unclean animals and
reptiles and birds of the air. And a voice told him, “Get up, Peter, kill and
eat.” (Acts 10:13). Peter replied, “Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten
anything impure or unclean.” (Acts 10:14) The voice told Peter, “Do not call
anything impure that God has made clean.” This happened three times, and then
the sheet was immediately taken back to heaven. Unclean food that were
contained in the sheet in Peter’s vision was referred to the Gentiles,
particularly Cornelius and his family in Acts 10. And this is the beginning of
Peter’s and other Jewish Christians’ association with the Gentiles for the
purpose of gospel.
Food Offered to Idols
Although the resolution that was made by the
Jerusalem Council prohibited the Gentile Christians from eating food that was
offered to idols, the Gentile Christians could not distinguish the food that
was not offered to idols from the food that was offered to idols in the market.
So, some Gentile Christians would eat food which they purchased in the market
with a guilty feeling (Romans 14:23; 1 Cor. 8:7). Paul further clarified on the
matter of food for those weak Christians. Paul in Romans 14:17 says: “For the
kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit.” The kingdom of God is not about food and drink, so it is okay
that you can eat anything that is purchased in the market, without knowing
whether or the food was sacrificed to idols. However, if your eating becomes a
stumbling block to weak Christians, “it is right not to eat meat or drink wine
or do anything that makes your brother stumble.” (Romans 14:21). Paul in 1
Corinthians 8:13 goes one step further regarding food: “Therefore, if food is a
cause of my brother’s falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother
to fall.” This is our love for our brothers and sisters whom God loves and
accepts.
Food in Holy Communion
Jesus in his last supper with his disciples
took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to his disciples,
saying: “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me”
(Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24). In the same way, after the supper he took the cup
(of wine), saying: “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in
my blood” (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25). Every time Christians participate in holy
communion, they are aware that Jesus Christ’s body was broken and his blood was
shed to provide them with eternal food.
[1]
S.
Munger, “The Bible and Food,” All About
God. Retrieved from https://www.allaboutgod.com/the-bible-and-food.htm.
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