WHAT IS FOOD? Did YHVH Change His Mind About What Humans Should Eat?

FULL MEETING WITH MIDRASH HERE

NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORDING.

YHVH, our God and King, is said to have changed His food laws after the flood. The alleged change was from eating plants to now including all animals. This statement, then, proves our God and King is fickle and a liar and that His word cannot be trusted even though He said He never changes. Which is true: That YHVH changed His commandment about man’s food in Genesis 1 or that His word is always true?

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?

Malachi 3:6 “For I, Yahweh, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Given what YHVH says of Himself, how are we to view Genesis 9:3?

Two issues present themselves. 1) Did God change His food instructions from Genesis 1 which instructed humans to eat plants to now our food includes animals after the flood? 2) Did God give ALL animals to humans for food? I will address #2 first.

Genesis 9:3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

What is “every moving thing” from verse 3? The one Hebrew word which is translated as “every moving thing” is ‘remes’, reptile.

H7431
remes´
reh’ mes

From H7430; a reptile or any other rapidly moving animal: – that creepeth, creeping (moving) thing.

Reptiles! And some say ‘remes’ include small fast-moving animals like mice. Wait! The word for mouse is:

H5909
עַכְבָּר
‛akbâr
ak-bawr’

Probably from the same as H5908 in the secondary sense of attacking; a mouse (as nibbling): – mouse.

So, a ‘remes’ is a reptile and does not include a mouse! Genesis 9:3 has an English translation problem. It literally says that God gave mankind every reptile to eat along with every kind of green plant but, later on, He would tell Israel (His people) that eating a reptile is not for them. I will get to that in a little while.

There is a very broad implication here because the serpent in the garden was a reptile called a snake. There are many kinds of reptiles but they all creep or slither on the ground. Both the Greek Septuagint and the Hebrew Masoretic texts say it was reptiles that YHVH gave the ark’s passengers and flood survivors to eat.

Now let’s go back to another place where YHVH gave food to mankind. We find it in Genesis 2. YHVH had provided a tree in the midst of the garden with food which could be eaten– the tree of life (Genesis 2:9, 15-16). This satisfies YHVH’s command in Genesis 1:29 about man eating plants. Neither Adam nor Eve partook of the tree of life. There was another tree in the garden Adam nor Eve partook of, which satisfied the flesh and brought YHVH’s cosmic plan crashing down.

Remember, I have often spoken about John 3:16 in terms of the Greek word, ‘cosmos’, as being what YHVH was restoring. His cosmos was defiled from the beginning of man’s time on earth by the sin of Adam! And now, YHVH retaliates by telling mankind he can have the worst of creatures, reptiles, for food, and only the worst because it was a reptile that infiltrated God’s paradise and tempted Eve to eat what she shouldn’t.

Before you say I am crazy, think about the fact that the Bible is full of words for all the other animals. Each animal has its own name. ‘Remes’ is the one Hebrew word for a specific animal called “reptile”. There is no mention of other animals in Genesis 9:3. The Hebrew words for other animals appear all through scripture. In Leviticus 11, is a whole list of other animals. So when YHVH says in Genesis 9:3 that man can at reptiles, He means it! It is YHVH’s retribution! “You didn’t want my best food, so here! Have the worst!”.

Leviticus 11:29-30 speaks of lizards. They are unclean. YHVH did not give mankind lizards to eat. Lizards are a class within the larger group called “reptiles”. So clearly, YHVH does not want His people to eat reptiles of any kind. There was a greater message afoot which was about the snake in the garden. YHVH might have been getting retribution on Adam’s sin, He was also giving man control over His, and man’s, spiritual enemy. And furthermore, YHVH was forcing the food issue – eat clean or unclean. Eat the best or eat reptiles.

YHVH had tested Adam’s obedience to Him with food. Since YHVH creates patterns for our understanding, we see now that Noah and his seven family members who survived the flood also are being tested with food. But this was not a test for only those flood survivors. It was, and has been, a test for all mankind as was Adam’s food test. The food laws in the Torah were only a formalization of the food laws that existed from the beginning. And here in Genesis 9:3, YHVH made a distinction between clean and unclean, fit and unfit, Him or Satan. This is not only a physical test, but a spiritual one. We know this because of the composition of the animal passenger manifest.

Would mankind have even needed such a distinction if Adam had never taken the fruit from Eve and eaten it? Paul said the law was added because of sin.

Galatians 3:19  Why then the Law? It was added because of transgressions, until the Seed should come to those to whom it had been promised, being ordained through angels in the Mediator’s hand.

Once Adam allowed sin to enter the world, YHVH had to make judgement calls called ‘mishpat’ in Hebrew. The ‘mishpat’ became part of the pre-existent Law of YHVH. And one of His judgement calls regarded a proper human diet to make a distinction between the obedient and the disobedient. The troubles in this world are all, and only, about man’s obedience or disobedience to God’s Law!

We know YHVH was forcing the food issue – the clean/unclean issue – from what happened in Genesis 7.  

Genesis 7:1 Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.

YHVH defines righteousness as both faith in Him and the keeping of His Law which He formally gave to Israel at Mount Sinai when He created His nation on earth, and through which Israel was to govern the world (which they failed to do), just as will be done in the 7^th Millennium. YHVH’s Law existed before the foundation of the world and it was through His Law, AKA “The Word”, that Yeshua created the world we live in. Noah fit YHVH’s definition of righteous because he had faith in YHVH and kept the Law of YHVH.

Genesis 7:2 You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.

Seven pairs of clean animals – fourteen; and one male and one female of the unclean animals – two, went into the ark.

Genesis 7:3 Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth.

Scientists express amazement at the places where the birds have ended up and how they carried exotic seeds to every corner of the earth, and then they attribute that to evolution. No, it was YHVH’s command to the birds! And they did their duty.

Why did God instruct the ark’s passenger manifest this way with fourteen clean animals and only two unclean, one pair of animals? Well, let’s consider the condition the earth would be in after the flood. Conditions of life would change.

No plant life survived the flood (Genesis 7:22), and it would take several weeks, months or even years for plants to grow to maturity and produce food. What could be done to help the survivors survive? Include in the ark enough clean animals to sustain life until plant life regrew.

Genesis 6:21 tells us Noah took the food they were to eat, for themselves and for the animals, into the ark. This would have been plant foods like grains, nuts and even grasses, but this was a finite supply. It was probably enough for the year that the passengers were still inside the ark, but what about their food supply after they disembarked?

When the ark finally rested and the ground was dry enough so that YHVH opened the door to let them out, there were still seven pairs of clean animals on the ark and only one pair of unclean animals. Fourteen clean animals were enough to not only sacrifice to YHVH, but to sustain them while the plants grew.

Pre-flood humans ate meat. We know this from the account of Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:21 says God made coats of skins for Adam and Eve in preparation for removing them from the garden. There was a sacrifice to atone for their sins, but sin sacrifices were burnt outside the camp. So, the skins God used to make clothing were not from the sin sacrifice. The skins of the animals likely came from the accompanying peace offering. According to the Law of YHVH, Adam, the first King-Priest (Melchizedek), was not only entitled to the skins of the peace offering animals, but also the meat from it. Peace offerings were eaten by the offeror at YHVH’s table, at His Altar, or the peace offering was not accepted by YHVH. Thus, Adam and Eve ate meat that day because they had rejected the fruit from the tree of life in favor of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that satisfied their flesh.

This answers the first question: Did God change His mind about humans eating only plants? God did not make the change in diet from green plants (Genesis 1:26-27) to meat. Sin did that. The first bite of meat came from the burnt offering, the peace offering, eaten by both Adam and Eve, the skins of which clothed them both. So, the answer to the first question which is ‘no’. But here’s the problem. Adam made that choice for all the rest of humanity. When Noah offered sacrifices to YHVH before the flood, which he would have done in his worship of YHVH, he ate the meat of those offerings.

We should note that our food in New Jerusalem will be the fruit of the tree of life, a tree that bears twelve different kinds of fruits every month.

Revelation 22:1  And he showed me a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Revelation 22:2  In the midst of its street, and of the river, from here and from there, was the Tree of Life, which bore twelve fruits, each yielding its fruit according to one month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 

However, we will still eat meat in the 7^th Millennium, before New Jerusalem arrives, because there will still be sacrifices. The Law also says that we are permitted to eat meat whenever we want.

Deuteronomy 12:15  Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the deer. 

Rather than YHVH giving a negative commandment to Noah and the ark’s passengers – “thou shalt not eat”, YHVH gave mankind a choice which for many of us is disgusting (the eating of reptiles). However, there have always been humans who eat every kind of animal on the earth. The Chinese who are descendants of Canaan eat anything and everything. So do the Japanese and many other cultures on earth. For Noah, his family and anyone who calls themselves by YHVH’s holy name, such was never, and should never, be the case.

The test of food, of what we put in our bodies to sustain us as God’s creation in health (not destroying ourselves with what we put in us) and obedience to Him (which is the most important thing) versus what we put in us that defiles us and causes ill health, doing so in disobedience, is the first test of mankind, both at the creation and the restoration of creation, Noah’s flood. YHVH’s food laws are among the first to be discarded by those in rebellion.

If the ark’s passengers had insisted on eating the reptiles, it would have constituted deliberate and intentional sin against YHVH. Indeed, some chose, and still choose, the unclean and the “not food” diet of the rebellious over the better and real, proper human food diet of YHVH’s royal priesthood which now does include eating meat whenever we want and as much as we want. The Prodigal Son found himself in a pig pit which he voluntarily left when he decided his Father’s way is better.

In our time, the beast – ha Satan himself – is still tempting man with food and most people don’t even see it. Satan’s minions of the United Nations, as led by the United States with their food pyramid and their introduction of addiction-causing substances in the food supply, has broadened the definition of “food” to include natural and synthetic chemicals that slowly poison YHVH’s creation – man. And that is Satan’s plan. He knows YHVH created man to replace the cherubim and other angelic species who rebelled against YHVH with him. We, as individuals, have a choice to make about this, about the food we eat. Does it sustain us while simultaneously being what God wants us to eat?

Let’s return for a moment to Deuteronomy 12. There is another command in the eating of clean meat.

Deuteronomy 12:16  Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. -WEB

Genesis 9:4 states: But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat. -WEB

See? The Law was the same from the beginning. James, the head of the Jerusalem Council after the ascension of Yeshua, proclaimed:

Acts 15:19  “Therefore my judgment is that we don’t trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God,
Acts 15:20  but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood. 

You shall not eat the blood of animals. YHVH told Noah this; He told us this in His Torah; and James of the Jerusalem Council reiterated it. There was never a change in YHVH’s Law. He keeps His word! His word is always true, constant, never changing.

No! YHVH made no changes. Man made the changes and YHVH is letting mankind live with man’s problems created by man! YHVH turned mankind over to a reprobate mind where food was concerned. “You wanna eat snake food which comes from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Then eat reptiles!” Remember, we ARE what we eat! “Reptiles” became symbolic of Satan, so think about that for a little while!

Folks, eat clean – eat what YHVH has told us to eat – or eat reptiles and prove that you are of a reprobate mind!