Food and God

A Theological Approach to Eating, Diet, and Weight Control

Soza

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN: 9781498274807
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The central thesis of this book is that Western culture, and American culture in particular, needs an immediate change with regard to food and eating. Western over-indulgence is exacerbated by hunger and deprivation in the world. Learning to think theologically, and not just medically or psychologically, about one's eating habits will lead to positive personal and communal changes. In Food and God, Joel Soza offers readers a deeper understanding of Christian faith, one that will help them learn to think of eating as not merely a physical act, but as a spiritual exercise. Readers will become more aware of world need and preference for others while also learning how to improve their own health, control their own weight, and develop greater spiritual awareness and sensitivity in the daily and routine activity of eating. This book evaluates both Old and New Testaments, as well as some theology in the history of the Church, to arrive at an understanding of how one should think about food and eating in relationship to God and the world. The reader will learn of the key role food plays in the biblical creation and temptation narratives. They will learn of the enormous labor that went into food preparation in the ancient world, and what sages have had to say about food indulgence throughout time and many cultures. Finally, readers will encounter Jesus's invitation to think about food in spiritual ways, gaining an understanding as to what it means that Christianity is a movement with table fellowship at the forefront of its faith expression.

1

Food and the Beginning of God’s Revelation

It is significant to note that food and eating play an important role in the opening pages of the Bible. This chapter will focus on the role of food and eating in two of the most critical and discussed narratives within the early Bible story: creation and temptation.

The role of food and eating in creation

The biblical creation account as recorded in Genesis 1 and 2 has long been a topic of great interest and debate. Chapter 1 in particular paints the picture of God’s creative work with a broad brushstroke, leaving out many possible details that we the readers would love to have access to but simply do not. Basically, Genesis 1 is not written to answer all of our how questions but rather to provide an answer to the who question. The God of Israel alone is God, and he alone is creator of all. The point is obvious and direct. Yet there are a few details given that, when carefully considered, provide valuable insight into the nature of God. There is a point of detail about the third day provided that uses selective word choice to indicate that God had already prepared in advance for humankind’s need for food. This is seen in 1:11–12 where vegetation is mentioned, but only such kind as afforded by the Hebrew word that indicates food-producing vegetation.

Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good (Gen 1:11–12).

God was not merely creating the earth; he was already furnishing it with food for living beings that had not yet been created. Food was not an afterthought! He furnished the earth with the necessary vegetation, as he would also do in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:8­–9).

In order to prepare the earth for its task, however, God first had to separate the dry ground from the waters, which had fully covered the earth (Gen 1:2). The Ancient Near Eastern world is replete with stories of watery chaos. There are numerous flood accounts, some of which parallel the Noah flood, and many of which indicate that the so-called gods of the ancient world were incapable of controlling the waters. Genesis 1 demonstrates, however, that the God of Israel does not find the powerful waters to be problematic to control. In fact, he is in perfect control as he simply speaks the word to separate out the waters from the dry land (Gen 1:6–10). It is well attested that the Israelites themselves were a people who had great fear and respect for the sea and were not a naturally sea-going people. The sea represented for them, as for other ancient peoples, a place of mystery, intrigue, and chaos, which is likely some of the background behind the Leviathan creature of Job, who probably represents that which Israel fears the most in life (Job 41:1). Many of us have similar trepidations when it comes to venturing into the sea. I for one am content to wade in waist-deep off the beach, but as soon as I sense I can no longer see what might lurk below or move fast enough to get out of the water, I begin to retreat toward land. The point is, the power of water, be it the mighty seas or the terror of flood, continues to hold a place in the imagination of many as that which is to be avoided and feared. In fact, some of the most important parts of the grand narrative that follows throughout the Old Testament are the devastating flood of Genesis 6 through 8 and the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea (Exod 14). In both places, God is in control of the mighty waters. This transcends into the New Testament accounts of Jesus walking on water (Mark 6:45–52) and calming the sea (Mark 4:35–41). In so doing, Jesus demonstrated himself to be God.

We should know, then, that the portrait of God easily distinguishing dry land from the waters in early Genesis is a statement of his greatness, and all the more so because he has in effect “set the table” for humankind to be able to eat the food of the dry land, something that could not have happened if God were incapable of setting apart the water from the land. Therefore, the dry land and its ability to produce food is a gift from God! It is interesting to note that the sea does not produce fish to eat, in the sense of “growing fish,” nor does the sky produce birds, in the sense of “growing birds,” to eat, but the land is special; it can produce crops and vegetation and as such should be well attended and cared for. The Hebrew word for ground is a feminine noun,1 so perhaps the concept of a “mother-earth” is not that farfetched after all, as long as it supersedes a humanistic concept that does not give ultimate glory to the creator God, who in his provision and care made the earth to be a life-sustaining force. Those who would remind us of a responsible ecology in doing theology provide a necessary service for us all. Some traditions of Jewish synagogues and prayer books have included a prayer of thanksgiving for meals along the lines of “Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the world, who causes to come forth bread from the earth.”2 This is a prayer worth incorporating into our personal lives.

The creation account includes other facets of God’s handiwork, of course, such as the creation of sun, moon, stars, birds, fish, mammals, and humans. The climax of creation is clearly humans, whom God has fashioned after his own image (Gen 1:26–27) and given other life forms to rule over (Gen 1:28). Interestingly enough, the continuation of the narrative in verse 29 returns back to a theme of the third day, which is vegetation, this time with the particular mention of its usefulness as food. The animals are also given food (v. 30), but it is a slightly different word in the Hebrew. This suggests that the food preparation of the third day was for humankind only, implying that human beings were indeed foremost in God’s great creative plan and that a food supply was foremost for human provision. Simply stated, the creation of humans and food holds a significant place at the very beginning of God’s grand narrative.

Ancient Mesopotamian accounts of human origins depict a worldview where humans are created to serve the gods and supply them with food. Genesis 1 contradicts this notion, putting forward in clear terms that the one true God did not create human beings to be his slaves, nor are they expected to supply him with food. Instead, thankfully, it is the opposite; God created human beings special, in his very image, and he has provided food for them before they even existed. It is likely that the ancient Israelites at times confused their God with the influences of surrounding pantheons in this matter. For instance, the prophet Micah, living some seven hundred years before Christ, challenged the Israelites about their thinking that the animal sacrifices they brought to the temple were to satisfy God’s hunger. They may have been perplexed at his seemingly endless appetite as he devoured up to “thousands of rams” (Mic 6:7) in one sitting and yet was not satisfied. Micah sets the record straight by putting forth what really satisfies God’s hunger, which is “to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God” (Mic 6:8).

Next time, if ever, we feel hunger pangs, perhaps we should think about what causes God to feel, metaphorically speaking, hunger pangs. This important text from Micah alone is enough to get one thinking theologically about food. God hungers for a certain kind of human action that has the interest of what is right in mind. Our natural desire for food should be overshadowed by a greater desire to see a society and culture that has the practice of justice, kindness, and humility at the forefront. Tom P. Hafer, in his book Faith & Fitness (Diet and Exercise for a Better World), has put forth a thesis that Americans need to transform their thinking from a “need to lose weight” mentality, to a “need to feed” mentality.3 Rather than changing our eating habits merely for ourselves, we should gain awareness of the problem of global hunger and demonstrate such awareness by our own streamlined and responsible eating habits. This is the kind of human action God hungers for: a justice, kindness, and humility that we can put into practice every day by the choices we make when we eat. Hafer’s book is quite useful in spelling out some practical ways that we can practice a “need to feed” lifestyle.

Genesis 2 puts forth a creation account in its own right, which scholars have long recognized as a distinct account supplied from a source differing from the chapter 1 account. Once again, food is at the forefront of the narrative. The vegetation mentioned in 2:5 is not so much a look back to the vegetation of 1:11–12 and 1:29–30 but rather looks ahead to the “thorns and thistles” of 3:18, which are a result of the sinful fall of humankind in the Garden of Eden. The landscape of the earth is about to change, and this is the direct result of human disobedience to God. Even the statement “the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth” of 2:5 is probably anticipatory of 7:4, “I will send rain on the earth . . .” There apparently was no need for rain before the flood because God’s provision for water came from the earth itself, rather than the sky. This is seen in 2:6, “But a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground . . .” and in verse 10, “A river flows out of Eden to water the garden . . .” God had not only provided for the land to be self-producing as concerned food supply, but he also planned it so that even the water would come forth from the earth to supply the necessary liquid needed to sustain vegetation. I am reminded of a time I was standing in the produce section of a grocery store and leaning in to closely inspect the fruits and vegetables for purchase. As I leaned closer over the produce, I was surprised and nearly showered by a sudden sound and a spray of soft water that came on by a pre-set timer, implemented to provide consistent water nourishment to the array of fresh fruits and vegetables. It did not take much thinking to determine why there is not such a sprinkling system in the candy or processed food aisles. Water is life-giving. Fruits and vegetables are life-giving foods, and candies and processed foods are not. It is as if God in his earliest (pre-fall) design for the world had his own automatic sprinkling system to take care of his garden.

In fact, gardens in the mythology of the ancient world were viewed as places where the gods dwelt. In Genesis, the Garden of Eden most certainly represented a place where God would dwell and have fellowship with humankind (3:8). We have already seen that it was a place of abundant food (2:9, 16), thereby suggesting that the garden was a place where God was to be found, and in that place where God was to be found, there was food present. To a great extent, then, as will be seen throughout this study, the presence of food suggests the atmosphere of fellowship. To anticipate ahead to the book of Exodus, we see that Moses, Aaron, Aaron’s sons, and seventy of the elders of Israel saw God in great glory, and that as they were beholding his majesty, they “ate and drank” (Exod 24:9–11). It is also of interest that when Israel was formed as a nation as recorded in Exodus and beyond, that part of their sanctuary worship would include what was known as the “Bread of Presence” (Exod 25:30), bread that was placed weekly before the Lord to be consumed only by the priests. It clearly teaches that one aspect of being in the presence of God and having fellowship with him involves eating. Adam and Eve enjoyed this sort of freedom in the garden, but some restrictions were applied (Gen 2:17). We may consider that today God has given us much freedom in what we can eat, but perhaps, and probably for different reasons than Adam and Eve, we should put some restrictions upon ourselves for what, when, why, and how we eat. Food, the very substance that gave our first ancestors life in God’s garden, became the very object that led to their death.

The role of food and eating in temptation

The temptation account of Genesis 3 is certainly one of the most significant stories in the Bible, and it records for us how humanity realized mortality. Leaving aside debates about the historicity of the event, the story belongs to the human family as a portrait of how humankind lost the paradise of the Garden of Eden, and more importantly, proper relationship with God. It is noteworthy that not only are food and eating the starting points of the conversation between Eve and the serpent, but a form of the word “eat” also appears seventeen times in Genesis 3. Food, it has been demonstrated from the first two chapters of Genesis, was perhaps the greatest gift of God to humanity, humanity itself being God’s crowning achievement of creation. Yet it is this very gift, food, that becomes the object of debate and discussion between the serpent and Eve, leading to the inaugural act of human disobedience. The first inkling of temptation is that “the tree was good for food” (Gen 3:6). This sort of appeal to the eyes is what continues to allure us toward that which we should not do, be it capital crimes or lesser acts of putting our hands in the proverbial cookie jar. The framework for the entire collapse of humanity in the all-important narrative of Genesis 3 is humans not resisting food. It is certainly a metaphor for the challenge of human life to not go and do what God has told us to not go and do. Perhaps there is no better way of explaining the human conundrum other than to put it in everyday, and usually two to five times a day, terms, that of eating food. Without it, we die. With it, but out of its proper context, we die.

The result of the temptation to eat and the eating of the forbidden fruit led to God’s indictment against the serpent and humankind. The serpent is judged first for his part in initiating the event (Gen 3:14–15). Of the three indictments, the first against the serpent, the second against the woman, and the third against the man, only the serpent is actually cursed. The woman is not, and the man is not, but the ground is (Gen 3:17). The curse on the serpent is directly related to eating, “and dust you shall eat” (Gen 3:14), a motif followed throughout the Old Testament (Mic 7:17; Isa 65:25). The man will not h...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Food and the Beginning of God’s Revelation
• Chapter 2: Food and Eating in Ancient Israel
• Chapter 3: Food and the Wisdom of Sages
• Chapter 4: Food and Eating in the Life and Teaching of Jesus
• Chapter 5: Food and Eating in the New Testament Church
• Summary
• Appendix
• Bibliography