Lesson 4: What Shall We Eat?

 A Healthy Lifestyle for Your and Your Family

Lesson 4: What Shall We Eat?

Part 1: God’s Diet Plan

1. When God made Adam and Eve and placed them in Eden, what food did He give them to eat? Genesis 1:29

2. After they ate of the fruit from the forbidden tree and Adam and Eve were evicted from Eden, what was added to their diet? Genesis 3:17,18

3. To whom was the herb of the field originally given for food? Genesis 1:30

God did not make the animals carnivores (meat-eaters) at creation. It came about later as a result of sin.

4. What had God forbidden Adam and Eve to do? Genesis 2:16-17

5. When they were tempted, what did they do? Genesis 3:6

Adam and Eve fell on the point of appetite.  The fruit looked so good, and they decided that God had been keeping it from them unfairly.  They doubted what God said, and they allowed their appetites to overrule their minds.

6. On what point did Satan first tempt Jesus? Luke 4:3

Jesus had been fasting in the wilderness for 40 days communing with His Father.  By the time Satan came to tempt Him, He was very hungry.  He picked the time when Jesus would be most susceptible to his suggestions.

7. How did Jesus reply to the devil? Luke 4:4

Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3.  Remember that Jesus was famished, literally starving for food.  It would have been easy for Jesus to change a stone into bread and feed Himself, but He resisted the temptation.  Where Adam fell, Jesus triumphed.  Adam brought sin into the world by giving into appetite, and Jesus showed that appetite can be overcome, even in the most trying of circumstances.  “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”  Romans 5:19.

8. Why was flesh food permitted in man’s diet and when? Genesis 7:21-22

The flood had destroyed the entire world and every living thing on it.  When Noah and his family left the ark there were no gardens from which to gather produce.  They would have to be planted, grow to maturity, then harvested.  In the meantime, they must eat.

God permitted flesh for food for yet another reason.  “The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”  The longer men lived, the more evil they could think of to get into.  

9. With the permission to kill animals for food, God also said that He would require what from man for the animals he killed? Genesis 9:5

10. How was man’s life span affected after meat-eating was introduced? 

Before the flood:

Adam (Genesis 5:5)

Seth (Genesis 5:8)

Jared (Genesis 5:20)

Methuselah (Gen. 5:27)

Noah (Genesis 9:29)

After the flood:

Shem (Genesis 11:10-11)

Arphaxid (Gen. 11:12,13)

Peleg (Gen. 11:18-19)

Terah (Gen. 11:32)

Abraham (Gen. 25:7)

David (2 Samuel 5:4; 1 Kings 2:11)

11. What was the size of the people who lived before the flood? Genesis 6:4, first part

Men were of great stature, or height, before the flood.

12. What people did the children of Israel find in the land of Canaan? Deuteronomy 2:10-11

13. About how tall was one of them judging by the length of his bed? Deuteronomy 3:11

A cubit is 18 inches which makes King Og’s bed 13 feet long.  That is more than twice the average height of man today, several feet taller than the tallest basketball player.  The Anakims were destroyed by the Children of Israel until only a few were left in the region of the Philistines who lived along the Mediterranean coast.

14. Who did David kill in battle and how tall was he? 1 Samuel 17:4

A span is half a cubit or 9 inches.  Goliath was 9 feet 9 inches tall.  His brother, also a giant, was later killed in a battle with Israel (2 Samuel 21:19).

As man partook of a flesh diet, he shrank both in age and in size.  Even the Anakims, who were still giants 1000 years after the flood, were getting shorter.  King Og was about 13 feet tall, but a few hundred years later one of the last of the Anakims was barely in the 10 foot range.

15. What directions did God give regarding what animals could be used for food and those that were not to be eaten? 

Mammals: Leviticus 11:3; Deuteronomy 14:6:

Fish and seafood: Leviticus 11:9-10; Deuteronomy 14:9-10:

Fowl (birds): Leviticus 11:13-21; Deuteronomy 14:11, 12-20:

The unclean animals listed in these verses are the scavengers of the earth. They feed on decaying and rotting matter, garbage, and refuse including the carcasses of other dead animals. They are primarily carnivores. The clean animals which God permitted for food are primarily herbivores or plant eating animals.

16. When was man aware of the difference between clean and unclean animals? Genesis 7:1-2

Seven of each of the clean animals were taken into the ark, while only two of each unclean animal were taken into the ark. Had Noah and his family commenced eating the unclean animals when they came off the ark, those animals would have become extinct for there was only one breeding pair (one male and one female) with which to reproduce themselves.

17. What parts of the animal did God forbid man to eat? Genesis 9:4; Deuteronomy 12:23-25

Noah lived several generations before Abraham who was the beginning of the Jewish race. Yet Noah knew and observed the difference between clean and unclean animals for food.

18. What other parts of the animal were not to be used for food but were burned? Leviticus 1:8-9; 3:3-4

The priests were permitted to use the meat of the sacrifices for food for themselves and their families (see Leviticus 7:22-38) except for the parts that God specified were to be burned. Some parts of the sacrificial animals were to be burned on the altar and some by being carried out of the camp and burned with fire (Leviticus 3:14-15; 4:11). Notice that all the fat was to be burned.

19. What does the New Testament say about the eating of blood? Acts 15:28-29

20. Why was blood forbidden to be eaten? Leviticus 17:11

“Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.” Leviticus 7:26-27.

The animals used in the tabernacle sacrifices represented that Jesus would come and die for sinners and shed His blood when He died for us on the cross. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. The blood of the animal sacrifices was sprinkled before the veil to represent the blood of Jesus washing away our sins. Because Jesus has come and died, we no longer need to kill animals for sacrifice, for those sacrifices only pointed forward to His death. He has now shed His blood for us, and is pleading that blood for us in heaven.

21. What methods of death prevented an animal being used for food? Leviticus 22:8; Acts 15:20.

An animal killed by another animal or strangled or dead on its own could not have the blood properly drained from its body. The only way to butcher an animal was to cut it’s throat and hang it up and allow the blood to drain out.

22. What particular animal did God expressly forbid man to eat? Deuteronomy 14:8

23. How much of the animal is unclean? Leviticus 11:7-8

24. How does God feel about those who use swine’s flesh for food? Isaiah 65:4-5

Next Lesson: What Shall We Eat? 

Part 2: Food From the King’s Table