Eating Meat is Worldly not Heavenly
An all-creatures Bible Message

Eating Meat is Worldly not Heavenly
 
A Sermon Delivered to
The Compassion Internet Church
 
13 March 2016
 
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor

Scripture References

Genesis 1:29-31
Genesis 6:19-21
Genesis 8:20-21
Genesis 9:4
Daniel 1:11-16
Matthew 5:9
Romans 8:19-22

Eating meat is worldly not heavenly, for from the beginning God wanted us to eat only plant foods.
 
People try to find all kinds of excuses to justify their “pound of flesh”, even distorting the Bible to say that God wants them to eat meat.
 
So, today we are going to take a journey through the Bible to look at God’s heavenly will which has not changed from the time He created the heavens and the earth.
 
Note what we are told in Genesis 1:29-31…

29. Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

The use if the word “shall” makes this a commandment, which reflects God’s creation and heavenly intent; there was to be no eating meat, or eating any other animal product.
 
In fact, even the animals were to eat only plant foods.

30. and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food "; and it was so.
 
31. And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
NASB

And since God considered everything He had made to be very good, we also have the confirmation that this is the way God wanted the world to be.
 
Eating meat is worldly not heavenly; but things began to fall apart when Eve and Adam disobeyed God (the time of the Fall).
 
From reading Genesis 4 we learn that people began to keep flocks of animals, and even kill their fellow human beings.
 
And since killing had entered the world, it seems obvious that people were also eating meat.
 
This also seems to be one of the main reasons that God called upon Noah to build the ark, for He wanted to wipe out all the evil humans who had corrupted the world, including most of the animals.
 
God told Noah in Genesis 6:19-21…

19. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
 
20. Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind shall come to you to keep them alive.
 
21. And as for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them."
NASB

Since in those days there was no refrigeration to keep animal products fresh for this very long voyage, and that there were only to be two of every species of animal, it could never have been God’s intent to have any living being eat anything other than plant foods.
 
And we strongly believe that this was God’s way of bringing the world back to His original intent of having all living beings eat only plant foods.
 
But even with “righteous” Noah, evil crept in, for God seems to have understood Noah’s intent, for in the beginning of Genesis 7, God now tells Noah to bring into the Ark seven of every clean animal.
 
The term clean animal also seems strange, for that term only came with the Law of Moses many years later.
 
All other indications are that those on the ark ate only plant foods, that is, until after the Flood as we are told in Genesis 8:20-21…

20. Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
 
21. And the LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.
NASB

God may have accepted Noah’s repentance, but at the same time God realized that He could never eliminate the evil in humans, for as He says, “the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth”; so He seems to have reluctantly allowed humans to eat flesh with the following caveat, Genesis 9:4…

4. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
NASB

This is nearly an impossibility, for the blood is in the flesh even if the excess is drained out and the flesh is salted; rather this seems to be a way of limiting eating flesh and bringing about a curse for eating it, for humans get all kinds of chronic diseases from eating animal products.
 
But, alas, people used this as an excuse to continue eating meat and other animal products.
 
Once again God tried to stop the world from eating animals in the wilderness, when He gave the people manna (vegan bread from heaven).
 
But the people grumbled against Moses and the Lord about the manna, for they didn’t want to live in the heavenly will of God.
 
The Lord kept silent about not eating meat and living in His heavenly will until the time of Jesus, with only a few reminders along the way.
 
One of these reminders was Isaiah’s prophecy about the peaceable kingdom (Isaiah 11:6-10; an Eden and heavenly type of existence upon the earth), and he concluded that this would only happen when the people returned to God.
 
Then we have the example of Daniel and his three friends who refused to eat any animal products, and ate only plant foods, as we are told in Daniel 1:11-16.

11. Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,
 
12. "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.
 
13. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see."

These young men knew what God’s heavenly will was for their lives and everyone else in the world.
 
They knew that eating meat is worldly not heavenly.

14. So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
 
15. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.
 
16. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
NIV

This is the way the Lord wants all of us to eat.
 
Now let’s skip ahead in time and look at some things that Jesus said, such as in the Sermon on the Mount, as we are told in Matthew 5:9…

9. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
NASB

Paul picks up on these peacemaking sons or children of God in Romans 8, and notice specifically what he says in Romans 8:19-22…

19. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

Why would creation be anxiously longing for these children of God that Jesus tells us about?
 
Because, these children of God are charged with freeing creation from its present corruption, which includes the raising and killing of animals for food and other things.
 
Eating animals is worldly not heavenly, and it’s a major contributing factor in corrupting this earth.

20. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope
 
21. that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
 
22. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
NASB

This agonizing pain was and is human caused, and it will be other humans, these peacemaking children of God, who will help free creation from the corruption caused by the other corrupting human beings.
 
But Jesus tells us even more, such as in Matthew 5:48 when he commands us to be prefect as our Father in heaven is perfect, and goes on to teach us to pray for His heavenly will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
 
And if we go on to Revelation 21:4 we are told that in heaven there is no pain or mourning or death, which is God’s heavenly will that can only exist in a vegan world.
 
This is the reason why creation needs to be freed from its present corruption back into the heavenly will of God and the glory of His children.
 
This is also why we contend that eating meat is worldly not heavenly.
 
We need to stop our warring madness and killing of more than 100 billion animals every year.
 
We need to stop living in the ways of this corrupt world.
 
We need to live in the heavenly will of God, all the time, and be an example to the world around us.
 
We can do it.
 
Amen.

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