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Counsels on Diet and Foods
so corrupt that God could bear with them no longer. Their cup of
iniquity was full, and God cleansed the earth of its moral pollution by
a flood. As men multiplied upon the face of the earth after the flood,
they forgot God, and corrupted their ways before Him. Intemperance
in every form increased to a great extent.—How to Live 1:52, 1865.
Israel’s Failure and Spiritual Loss
641. The diet appointed man in the beginning did not include
animal food. Not till after the flood, when every green thing on the
earth had been destroyed, did man receive permission to eat flesh.
In choosing man’s food in Eden, the Lord showed what was the
best diet; in the choice made for Israel, He taught the same lesson.
He brought the Israelites out of Egypt, and undertook their training,
that they might be a people for His own possession. Through them
He desired to bless and teach the world. He provided them with the
food best adapted for this purpose, not flesh, but manna, “the bread of
heaven.” It was only because of their discontent and their murmurings
for the fleshpots of Egypt that animal food was granted them, and this
only for a short time. Its use brought disease and death to thousands.
Yet the restriction to a nonflesh diet was never heartily accepted. It
continued to be the cause of discontent and murmuring, open or secret,
and it was not made permanent.
Upon their settlement in Canaan, the Israelites were permitted the
use of animal food, but under careful restrictions, which tended to
lessen the evil results. The use of swine’s flesh was prohibited, as also
of other animals and of birds and fish whose flesh was pronounced
unclean. Of the meats permitted, the eating of the fat and the blood
was strictly forbidden.
Only such animals could be used for food as were in good condi-
tion. No creature that was torn, that had died of itself or from which
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the blood had not been carefully drained, could be used as food.
By departing from the plan divinely appointed for their diet, the
Israelites suffered great loss. They desired a flesh diet, and they reaped
its results. They did not reach God’s ideal of character or fulfill His
purpose. The Lord “gave them their request, but sent leanness into
their soul.” They valued the earthly above the spiritual, and the sacred