What can the Bible teach us about food?

Noted author and editor Leslie Leyland Fields has compiled a thoughtful reflection on food and faith in her book, The Spirit of Food. She shares a biblical perspective on the essential elements of food and a glimpse of Heavenly cooking.

“In some ways we are sort of gluttonous about food; we can’t seem to watch enough cooking shows or buy enough kitchen appliances. I understand that food is interesting; it is fascinating and it’s one of our primary appetites – in fact we would die without food, God made us that way.”

Leslie says that there is one essential element of food that cooking shows and cook books fail to mention.

“We’re missing the most essential element of all and that is that food really is holy. It’s a gift from God to every one of us and it’s holy, it’s sacramental.”

The book of Zechariah gives us a fresh perspective of our cooking wear.

“On that day ‘Holy to the Lord’ will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them.” Zechariah 14:20-21

The very pots that we cook in are holy to the Lord in Heaven.

“I think it is my contention that our pots, right now in our kitchen cupboards, are meant to be holy to the Lord.”

Feasting is a central theme throughout scripture. It has been talked about from the beginning in the Garden of Eden.

“One of the very first words that God speaks to Adam and Eve is about food. ‘All of this is for you, for food…dress and keep the garden.’ The garden was also a supplier of food to them and God gave them everything that He had created.”

Although Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden, we have the choice to honor God by feasting and fasting as scripture encourages us to do.

“We all have a choice…we can eat like Adam and Eve or we can eat like Christ.

Highlight: An essential element of food

A biblical perspecive on food and faith