PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 146: GOD LOVES FOOD
FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 146: GOD LOVES FOOD
Rashida (The new Trim Healthy Mama author) joins me again today, and we talk about marriage, mothering little ones, and the joy of food. We discover how much God is all about food. Did you know there are 22 food twins in the Bible? God links 22 different things in life to food! Check them out.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies! I have with me again today Rashida. Rashida Simpson, that is Evangeline and Howard's daughter, my granddaughter, and the author of the latest Trim Healthy Mama, which is called Trim Healthy Future. So it's the next generation.
Some of you will have this book. If you don't have it, go to TrimHealthyMama.com, or go to Amazon, and get this book. You will love it! I mean, I don't know what recipes to talk about, because every recipe is so wonderful! You're just going to have to find out for yourself.
Rashida was with us last week. Here she is again! We're going to find out a little bit more about Rashida, and then we'll perhaps go on, and talk more about food, because we didn't exhaust talking about food in our last podcast. We could do ten podcasts about food because, did you know, there’s so much in the Bible, about food!
You know, the Bible is not all doctrines. It's, well, it's all doctrine, yes, but it's not all just something that's out there. No, it's right down to where we're living, and how we live, and eating every day in our normal lives. God wants to be involved in it.
So anyway, Rashida, just want to find a bit more out about you. Now Rashida is this young wife. They have three young children. How long have you been married now, Rashida?
Rashida: Almost six years.
Nancy: What
Rashida: Yeah...
Nancy: When did that? I cannot believe it. It was like yesterday, your wedding.
Rashida: I know.
Nancy: I still just see it out there in that beautiful field, with a beautiful wedding day. Wow! So after six years of marriage, which you know, that's pretty good. I mean, just a little way to catch up to Granddad and me. We've been married 58 years! Hey, and you know what, when you brought me my Christmas present the other day . . . (laughter)
Rashida: I know, such a rotten granddaughter! (laughter)
Nancy: Oh goodness me, we're like that. We rarely give presents on the right day!
Rashida: Yeah...
Nancy: Somehow, the Christmas, I don't know, we just didn't even get to it. Oh, I have to say to you, Rashida is the most amazing, amazing gift giver! Oh, I can't tell you how I am blessed by Rashida's gifts. Oh, birthday, Mother's Day, Christmas. Oh, Rashida just comes, and pours all over me these beautiful gifts, and clothes. And Rashida, I was just so blessed out of my brain!
But do you know, you didn't realize you came and gave it to me on our exact day, on 2nd March. It was our 58th wedding anniversary!
Rashida: I know. I didn't know that until I saw Facebook later on that day!
Nancy: I know! So, it was the perfect day. It was so wonderful! But Rashida doesn't only do that to me, she does it to everybody! She's just a gift giver! Oh, it's amazing! And always just wrapped so gloriously, and so thoughtfully!
I mean, I am not a shopper. I never go shopping. I go get my groceries and that's about all I do. I just don't have time to shop for clothes. But God is so good. Somehow my clothes arrive! Often through Rashida! So beautiful! Thank you so much!
But anyway, after yours ix years, is there something you've found that's so great in your marriage that you could pass on to others?
Rashida: Well, last night, this is kind of funny, I'll just say . . .
Nancy: Yes, yes!
Rashida: I was just telling my husband, I was asking him, “Well, what should I talk about? Nana wants me to talk about something I'm passionate about.” And he says, “Sex!” And so, I would say, actually, I would say that, (Roland yelling) “Roland, honey.” I would say just being excited to make love with your husband has been a big thing. Yeah, I just . . .
Nancy: Yes, well I think that's an amazing testimony, Rashida, because you're not a couple just living life on your own. You have three little children around you. You have . . . Ezzie's how old?
Rashida: She's four and a half.
Nancy: Emory?
Rashida: Three.
Nancy: And little Roland?
Rashida: Eight months.
Nancy: Yes, eight months. So she has got three little children four and under. Sometimes people just say, 'Oh, I'm so tired with these children, and I don't feel like it.” And I think that's a beautiful testimony, because I believe this is such an important thing in our marriage.
Once again, it's God-given and God-intended. Perhaps the most glorious gift that we could ever receive from God, apart from our great salvation, that God should give this glorious blessing and gift to marriage. It's not something to be forgotten about, because I always say, this is how I think, Genesis 2:24, how that, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”
God is just giving the description of marriage, the very first description, and what is it? One flesh. That's it. OK. There's no kind of, “All right, well, this would be just a certain time.” No, one flesh, that's it. That's marriage. If you haven't got that in your marriage, and it isn't a huge part of your marriage, what kind of a marriage have you got?
So I think that's a great testimony, especially these years when little ones are around you. Yes, that's very important. In fact, oh, a while back, and you can go down the list of all our podcasts if you go to the website, AboveRubies.org. You can look for the podcast . . . I did one last year with Serene. It was about, how do you keep intimacy with your husband when you've got all these little children around you? So it's a good one to go back and find that, if you didn't ever listen to it. You will be so blessed. So thank you, Rashida. I think that was good advice.
Now, you're also just a young mother. You've got three little ones. Tell us, there's something you've found that you've had to work out, you know, with mothering these little ones.
Rashida: Um, I mean, my girls, they're pretty wild. They have so much energy. They're like my mom. They have tons of energy.
Nancy: It's amazing, because I always used to feel really put out because I had to raise this Evangeline. She was wild, adventurous, non-conformist! Could never be put into a box. I mean, goodness me, it was, it was a huge challenge to raise her!
And then she had.. . . I thought, “Well, just wait till her children come along. She'll just find out what it's like.” And instead, she had nine, no ten, sorry. She had ten perfect children. Goodness me! Well, they did things wrong, but they were really perfect!
None of them were like her. Oh, goodness me! Oh, goodness me! I mean, why didn't she get one like her? (laughter) But no, they were all just these wonderful, amazing children. But so now she's got two little granddaughters, but they're gorgeous and wonderful too.
Rashida: Yeah, they are. So's my mom.
Nancy: They're so amazing!
Rashida: They're super energetic, and always into things, and always into new things. Yeah.
Nancy: Well, when I go round there, oh goodness me! Oooh! They are changing their clothes into their beautiful princess dresses, and then into this, and then into that! About every five minutes they're coming out with a new one, and they're twirling around and dancing for us! And they're doing this . . . Oh!
Rashida: Yes, they are super high energy. That's why I do two cups of coffee a day! (laughter) They're so fun. They are so fun.
Nancy: They are amazing girls.
Rashida: Yeah, I guess I just let them make a mess and I let them get into things and stuff. Then we all clean it up together. Sometimes it's a few days before I clean their room with them. Because, yeah, I would rather that, than . . .
Nancy: Well, every time I go to your house, it's like, perfect. Spotless, not a thing out of place! And just glorious, because Rashida loves everything glorious and does everything glorious. But I love the way that, even though you are someone who just loves that perfect house, you give the children freedom to play.
Rashida: Yeah, and I let them mess up their room. Literally, it's like a tornado in their room right now.
Nancy: Yes, and I mean I've been into their room. OK, that's a tornado, but you just close the door.
Rashida: Yeah, I'll literally lock the door when we have company, to their room, so nobody can look in there! (laughter)
Nancy: I know! I love that!
Rashida: We do some cleaning up and make it nice, and then 20 minutes later, it's a big mess again!
Nancy: Yes, that's right! But that's the thing. You know, I believe, I'm a great believer in children having opportunity and freedom to play. I believe play is very powerful. Play is preparing children for life. Because you have found, Rashida, that when you allow them to play creatively, not giving them all these little toys and things, but you just let them play creatively, wow, they do real stuff!
I mean, I can remember when my little ones, they would rearrange my house. I'd have all the chairs around the table, but they would get all the chairs and they would become a train. And then they'd get the blankets, and they would become a house. And they would do this. The whole place was rearranged!
And they were so into it, and so concentrating and busy playing and creating this thing that they were doing. In fact, by the time they created it, help! They were so tired and worn out, that they could never actually play the thing! They would eat and go to bed for a rest!
Then, well, we'd have a time, OK, just put it all away. It's not hard to do that. But they had that creativity.
Rashida: Yes, and speaking about that, I wouldn't be able to be creative if I didn't let them have their creative time. If they weren't distracted and playing whatever, I couldn't take the time...
Nancy: So while you're creating recipes, they're just doing their thing! (laughter)
Rashida: I mean, you have to be tough if you want to accomplish stuff while being a mom, like other things. You have to let your children make a mess. Let them play and stuff and think outside the box.
Nancy: Exactly.
Rashida: To be able to do things like that.
Nancy: They learn to be creative. And actually, it doesn't always happen, because sometimes mothers have to wait for their next baby. But I think it's a wonderful blessing when babies come quickly, because they grow up friends and can play together.
I mean, soon as you're . . . when you have your first baby, you are 24/7 entertaining that child. Because there's no one else to entertain it, just you. But when you have another baby, it's not long before that one grows up and they're both toddling around. They can both play with one another. Wow! It's amazing! Suddenly you can do something!
Rashida: Oh yeah, Ezzie and Emory are best friends. They're inseparable.
Nancy: Exactly. And because they're so close together and play together all the time, you're not always having to entertain them every minute. It's amazing, isn't it? You can do other things.
Rashida: Yeah. They are so . . . yeah, they're best, best friends. Even sometimes we have to separate them for nap time because they'll just want to continue to play, and talk, and sleep together and stuff, so . . .
Nancy: Isn't that beautiful?
Rashida: Yeah, it's so sweet.
Nancy: So wonderful. It's so great when children, siblings are best friends. I think that's so wonderful. I find that with our children today, most of my children now are in their 50's. They're still best friends. I mean, they'd rather hang out with each other than anyone else in the world. It's so great.
Yes, so anyway, you'll get to know Rashida more as you read her book. It's all about food. We should talk a little bit more about food because food is just so much on God's heart.
Did you know, ladies, that I actually found, just looking up the Scriptures about food in the Bible, I found 22 different twins about food. Yes, there're lots of twins in the Bible. I love looking for twins, and even for triplets.
You know, we have twins like “love and grace,” and “truth and love,” and “mercy and righteousness”. All these things that go together, they're twins. The Bible couples them together. But then I found, as I said, 22 that relate to food. I don't know whether I'll even have time to tell you them all today. But let's start.
The first one: FOOD AND THE TABLE
God links food and the table. Now it seems so mundane. That's just a statement you would understand. But really, it's a doctrine, because it's in the Word, and it's something we do need to take notice of.
I find that there are people today who actually don't eat food around the table. They eat food just walking around. They eat food in front of the TV. They eat food in the car, just getting some fast food, and coming home from somewhere around. But God associates food with the table.
Like everything, I have many Scriptures about this. Perhaps when we do the transcript, I'll put the Scriptures in. I won't give them to you all here. But there are loads of Scriptures where food is linked with the table. Let me just give you one that we all know: Psalm 128:3, describing the woman in the home. “She is like a fruitful vine in the heart of her home, her children all around the table.”
There is a picture of the family eating together around the table. God wants us, so ladies, that's Biblical. Therefore, try and make it an effort in your home to start the habit of the children sitting at the table. Now it's hard when they're little, I know. But you see, it is possible. And, just gradually, you get that habit, so they know they don't eat food running around the house. They don't eat food in front of the TV. No. Food we eat at the table. Yes.
It's interesting. Oh, so many things about the table. God wants us to sit at, it even talks about sitting at the table. I've got quite a few Scriptures of examples of Jesus sitting at the table. Even about putting a tablecloth on the table and eating our food at certain times. And oh, there's so many things.
Number two twin: FOOD AND ABUNDANCE
God doesn't want us to be skimpy about food, but to prepare it abundantly. I think that's good. That's God's heart, isn't it? God is a God who just loves to give.
Number three: FOOD AND FULLNESS. Yes, it says, eat TILL you're full. Isn't that great? We're allowed to do that.
Number four: FOOD AND COOKING. Of course, we've been talking about that, especially in the last session.
Number five: FOOD AND HEALING
Yes, food, God created food to bring healing. Healing to our bodies, healing to our spirits, healing to our emotions. You know, food is not only healing to the body. When we sit down at a table, a table that's been set and prepared, and we sit, and we talk, and we fellowship, we can have healing. It brings healing to us.
And so God associates food with healing. And, of course, it says that He gives the trees there in Revelation, they were for the healing of the nations. God has got so many healing foods. If we can only just find out what they are for things that we have wrong with us, usually that's a better way to go than even drugs.
Rashida: If you look up the simple things that were used every day, like peppers and stuff, if you look up the benefits of them, they are healing. So many vitamins, minerals, all these different things. We don't even know...
Nancy: Every food, every vegetable, every fruit, has so many things in it...
Rashida: That we don't even know. And it makes you more inspired to eat them once you know what's in them, at least for me.
Nancy: So the more vegetables and fruits we can include in our diet, the better, because that's what God provided for us. He didn't actually provide these packaged foods. I mean, you know, on occasion you'll get something packaged or something.
On the whole, I never even go near that part in the supermarket. I go mainly to the produce side. That's where I buy most of my stuff. And you know, there's other things that you get. You get your dried beans, and you get your this, and you get your that, but packaged foods, I just don't go near the packaged foods. Because, really, when you can eat these healing foods, why eat them?
So what's our next one? Number Six: FOOD AND COMFORT
Seven: FOOD AND CELEBRATION. You can't celebrate without food!
Rashida: No!
Nancy: If you try to have a celebration without food, well, it's not a celebration. I've got three lines of Scriptures about that from the Word.
Number eight: FOOD AND FELLOWSHIP
Nine: FOOD AND GLADNESS
Ten: FOOD AND GOOD CHEER
Eleven: FOOD AND GOOD THINGS. These are all Scriptures that link food and these other things together.
Twelve: FOOD AND JOY
Number thirteen: FOOD AND LAUGHTER. You see, ladies, if we want to bring joy and laughter into our homes, well, let's prepare some good food.
Rashida: Yeah, people get angry.
Nancy: Yes, of course! They get hungry, and we have to prepare food.
Rashida: No, but angry! It's like, when you haven't eaten in a while.
Nancy: When you're feeling hungry, you're agitated, aren't you?
Rashida: Yeah!
Nancy: Until you eat, yes. I must look up here, this Scripture on food and laughter, because, yes, it's food. You may not have realized that the Bible associates food with laughter. It's in Ecclesiastes. Let's see if I can find it. Ecclesiastes 10:19: “A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry.” So, when we're having a feast, or a celebration, or I believe, just even a meal, it's made for laughter.
It's so great, isn't it, when you can sit around the table and laugh together as a family. Or invite friends in and have a good old laugh. There's nothing like it! It's healing, because food, good food, is healing, and laughter is healing, isn't it? Yes. That is so great.
Number fourteen: FOOD AND LEISURE
This is an interesting one. We'd better look it up. Mark 6:31. Let's look this up here: “And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told Him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. And He said unto them, 'Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while;' for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure, so much as to eat.”
Now isn't that interesting? You see, it was time to eat. Obviously, it was lunch time. And Jesus said, “Well, look, we can't just eat here. There's too many people coming and going. We've got to find a leisure place, a secluded place where we can sit down and where we can eat leisurely.” Now isn't that amazing? I am totally amazed of how there's not one thing left out in the Bible.
And even here, Jesus saw the necessity that, when you eat, you don't just eat on the run. Because Jesus was busy. I mean, there were crowds around Him, wanting His attention the whole time, just pulling on Him, needing Him to heal them. But no, it was lunchtime, so He says, “No, we've got to get away, find a little place where it's quiet. We'll sit down, we'll just take a little bit of time and leisure to eat. And then we'll be refreshed to go out and minister again.”
I think it has become the habit of so many, in our day in which we live, to eat on the run. OK, we're so busy, we're just going to grab something. We eat on the run. We eat walking around. We don't take time. Because I see it as Biblical, I have made it a habit now, whenever I eat, when it's time for breakfast, or lunch, or supper, to sit down. I mean, for our main meals we sit together as a family, or whoever is in the home.
But maybe lunchtime, I could be eating on my own. Now, I could just get on the run, keep doing what I'm doing, or I can sit down, enjoy God's food. When you do that, science has already revealed to us that you get so much more out of your food. You don't hardly get anything out of it when you just eat it on the run. So, all biblical. Isn't it amazing?
Food and leisure. That's how food is meant to be eaten. We're not meant to “OK, just eat all the time.” We take time for those leisure times.
Fifteen: FOOD AND MERRIMENT
Sixteen: FOOD AND STRENGTH. We get strength from our food, of course.
And number seventeen: FOOD AND RAISING CHILDREN
That's all part of food. Dear lovely wives and mothers, if you have children, well, that's it. You've got to prepare food! You know that, of course. But let me take you to 1 Timothy 5:10, and we'll just see it here. Just but in Rashida, I'm talking too much!
It says here, of this woman, it's actually the women who were widows. Their husbands had passed away. They needed looking after. Some of them had no way to provide for themselves. And back in those days, it was a real issue. They just had no provision.
And so Paul is writing to Timothy, and he says, “OK families, children, or grandchildren, if you have got widows, older women that belong to your family, grandparents or whatever, you are to look after them. You take them in, and you provide for them.”
Now, if they don't have any family to look after them, then it says: “lived a certain lifestyle.” You can then embrace them into the church fold and the church can provide for them. But they had to have lived a certain lifestyle. Here it is: “Well reported of, for good works.” And then the next thing.
OK. Four things here. The first one is: “if she has brought up children.” First thing. Now, what's the word? Teknotropheo, from two Greek words, teknon, “child,” trepho, meaning “to feed, to nourish with food, to pamper with food.” So it's saying here, has she brought up children? It's saying, has she nourished children? Has she fed children? And it's embracing the fact that mothering is feeding. It's just feeding with food! So, dear ladies, OK, that's it. Don't think, “Oh, I've got to get another meal! Help, I could be doing this, I've got this to do, I don't know!” No, embrace it! This is part of who you are as a mother.
It goes on to say, “if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted,” and so on, all those things, which actually all contain food too. You can't minister to others, and bless them, and reach out to them, unless you are feeding them. So it's all to do with food, ladies! Food!
Rashida: I know a lot of those Scriptures.
Nancy: We haven't even gone into them. I'll put them in the transcript, all the Scriptures. Wow, it's so amazing!
Eighteen: FOOD AND TEACHING
Jesus, most times, where did Jesus teach? At people's tables. He would go to their homes and they'd sit around the table. And He taught. This is the most beautiful place to teach our children. To share the Word with them and others who come to our table. It's a glorious place to teach.
Nineteen: FOOD AND HOSPITALITY
. Oh wow, all these Scriptures! Help, I've got four lines of Scriptures about hospitality! And you can't show hospitality without food. I mean, when you invite people, you've got to feed them! Now I know that takes work. It takes extra work, but God is a hospitable God. He loves hospitality.
I mean, oh, in fact, the Bible says that a man cannot even be an elder, or a pastor of a church, unless he is a lover of hospitality. That is one of the criteria written in 1 Timothy, and in Titus. And yet, there are so many pastors today, wow . . . you know, they don't really, they wouldn't even allow anyone in their homes.
And yet God says, if they're going to be a pastor who shepherds the flock, they have got to be given to hospitality. That's got to be their heart. That is the heart of a shepherd. It's not just someone who can run a big church. No, they have to be reaching out in hospitality.
Number twenty: FOOD AND PROVISION
Yes, God loves to come to our table with His presence. Food is associated with the presence of God. The presence of God is not just for church or someplace where God is really moving, and we feel His presence. No, He wants to come to our tables. He associates His presence with food. Maybe these are some Scriptures we should look at.
Exodus 18:12. Yes: “And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and: Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread (so they were going to eat food) with Moses' father-in-law, before God.” Now, that's King James. If you go to other translations, it was translated as it literally means, the word “before” in the Hebrew, means “in the presence of God.”
So they all came together, and they ate their meal in the presence of God. Isn't that amazing? I just love that. I love it! And they weren't all down on their knees worshipping or being all very religious. No, they were eating! Eating! Fellowshipping! Eating! And God was there with them.
We go over to Exodus 24:11 and see what this says. Yes: “And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.” Wooo. That's unbelievable.
Now, of course, we have other Scriptures in the Bible that say if anyone sees the face of God, they cannot live. But I think if we read back, and you can read back in that chapter, they didn't see the face of God. They saw something of God, and I haven't just got the reference here at the moment. But you can read that. They were in His presence.*
Rashida: Isn't there a Bible verse where it says the Son of God came eating and drinking? It was in Luke.
Nancy: Yes! The Son of Man came eating and drinking (Matthew 11:19). He was into food. He was into coming to people. In fact, there's a book written about Luke's gospel and the writer says that, mostly Jesus in Luke's gospel, we read about Jesus either “going to a meal, sitting at a meal, or leaving a meal.” Yes, it was just all part of eating and drinking. You're so right on!
And the last one Twenty-two: FOOD AND PRAYER AND PRAISE. So many times when they got together to eat, they also had prayer and praise and so on.
So, lovely ladies, I gave you those twenty-two twins! When we do the transcript, I'll give you all the Scriptures. Wow!
Let me leave you with this quote that I wrote but I think it's powerful.
“Cooking and preparing meals for your family is not an insignificant task. It is a powerful part of your divine mothering career.
It holds your family together.
It keeps generations alive.”
Amen?
Well, anything you want to say because we're closing out this session.
Rashida: I don't think so.
Nancy: Oh, it's been so good to have you with us, dear Rashida. You’re just going to love her book. If you've got it, you'll be enjoying it even more after hearing from her. If you haven't got it, make sure you get it from TrimHealthyMama.com, or Amazon.
Dear Father, we thank You again that we can talk about Your Word, to discover that, Lord, You're so involved in life, and in our living lives, in our eating, in our enjoying. We thank You that You have given us richly all things to enjoy.
And, Lord, some of these things are the glorious, beautiful, delectable foods that You created for us to eat. And You want us to enjoy them, and eat them, and not only eat them, but enjoy fellowshipping together.
(Roland talking) And little Roland is saying “Amen!” Now he wants to high-five me! Isn't he the cutest little darling in the world? Yes, so Roland said “Amen,” and we all say “Amen!”
Transcribed by Darlene Norris. If you would like to thank her, her email is: momcat617
I promised I would give all the Scriptures for those who like to dig into the Word or to check out what I am saying. It’s great to be a Berean and search the Word to make sure what I am saying is correct. Here are the headings with the Scriptures. I know you will be amazed as you read them to read how much God speaks about food.
FOOD TWINS
Twenty-two different things God associates with food in the Bible!
We find many things associated with food in the Bible. Food is more than feeding hungry stomachs. Food ministers to the whole person—body, soul, and spirit.
Enjoy looking up these Scriptures and sharing them with your family.
1. FOOD AND THE TABLE
- Tables originate in Heaven: Matthew 8:11; Luke 13:29; 14:15; 22:29, 30; and Revelation 19:9. God told Moses to make The Table of Shewbread after the pattern of God’s table in Heaven (Exodus 25:23, 40; 26:30; Acts 7:44; Hebrews 8:1-5; and 9:8).
- God wants us to eat at the table, not on the run, or anywhere around the house: 2 Samuel 9:7-13 (19:28 and 1 Kings 2:7); 2 Kings 25:29 (Jeremiah 52:32, 33) and Psalm 128:3.
- God wants us to SIT at the table to eat: 1 Samuel 20, especially verses 5, 18, 24-29; 1 Kings 10:4, 5 (2 Chronicles 9:3, 4); Matthew 8:11; Luke 12:37; 14:15; 22:27; and 24:30.
When feeding the five thousand plus Jesus “COMMANDED them to MAKE ALL SIT DOWN by companies upon the green grass” (Mark 6:39). Have you found that you also need to MAKE your children sit down? The word “commanded” is in every gospel (Matthew 14:19; Luke 9:14; and John 6:10 11).
- Examples of Jesus siting at the table: When Jesus came to the table, they not only ate, but he taught, shared stories, and did miracles. The table is a great place for mighty things to happen, but it all starts with food: Matthew 26:6, 7 (Mark 14:3); 6:20, 21 (Mark 14:18); Luke 7:36, 37; 11:37;14;1-4; and John 12:2.
- We should set the table and even spread a tablecloth: 1 Kings 10:4, 5 (2 Chronicles 9:3, 4); Isaiah 21:5; Psalm 23:5; and Proverbs 9:2.
- We should eat food at set times: Luke 12:42 tells us that the steward of the healing household served food “at the proper time.”
- God loves a full table: Psalm 128:3 and Luke 14:23.
2. FOOD AND ABUNDANCE
God delights to give food in abundance: Genesis 1:29; 9:3; Deuteronomy 6:11; 8:9, 10; 10:18; Job 28:5; 36:31; Psalm 103:5; 104;14, 15; 111:5; 136:25; 145:15 16; 146:7; Isaiah 25:56; and Acts 14:17.
3. FOOD AND FULLNESS
Leviticus 26:3-5.
4. FOOD AND COOKING
You cannot enjoy food without cooking. We read of Jesus cooking a meal for His disciples, even after He rose from the dead! A resurrected Christ and yet cooking? It was not too lowly a task for Him. Read the story in John 21:4-17 (v. 9). Genesis 19:3; 1 Chronicles 9:31; and Proverbs 31:14, 15.
5. FOOD AND HEALING
Luke 12:2 (Matthew 24:45); and Revelation 22:1, 2.
6. FOOD AND COMFORT
Genesis 18:5 and Judges 19:5.
7. FOOD AND CELEBRATIONS
Genesis 21:8; 40:20; Exodus 5:1; 10:9; 12:14; Deuteronomy 14:23-26; 16:14, 15; Job 1:4; 1 Kings 3:15; 19:21; 1 Chronicles 12:39, 40; 29:22; Ezra 9:19, 2; Esther 9:20-22; Isaiah 25:6; Daniel 5;1; Matthew 22:2; Mark 6:21; and Revelation 19:9.
Wedding feasts: Leah’s wedding (Genesis 29:21, 22); Samson’s wedding (Judges 14;10); Esther’s wedding (Esther 2:17, 18); Cana wedding (John 2:1-11); and Matthew 22:2.
Reconciliations feasts: Genesis 26:26-31; 31:53, 54; 2 Samuel 3:12-30; Job 42:10-12; and Luke 15:21-24.
8. FOOD AND FELLOWSHIP
Eating at the table should be “face to face table fellowship.” We sit around the table so we can see one another, look at one another’s faces, and dialogue and discuss things together: Acts 2:42 and 20:11. Read also 2 John 1:12 and 3 John 1:14).
9. FOOD AND GLADNESS
Acts 2:46 and 17:17.
10. FOOD AND GOOD CHEER
Acts 27:25, 36.
11. FOOD AND GOOD THINGS
Psalm 103:5; Ecclesiastes 3;13; 5:18; and Ezekiel 24:15.
12. FOOD AND JOY
Ezra 6:22; 9:19, 22; Nehemiah 8:9-12; 12:27, 43; Ecclesiastes 5:15; 9:7; 1 Chronicles 12:39, 40; and 1 Timothy 6:17.
13. FOOD AND LAUGHTER
Ecclesiastes 10:19.
14. FOOD AND LEISURE
Jesus showed us the example of how food should be eaten with leisure, not in a hurry: Mark 6:31.
15. FOOD AND MERRIMENT
Genesis 43:23; Ruth 3:7 and Luke 15:23.
16. FOOD AND STRENGTH (to the heart and body).
1 Kings 19:4-8 and Psalm 104:15.
17. FOOD AND RAISING CHILDREN
1 Timothy 5:10 talks about the women who “brought up children.” The word in the Greek is teknotropheo meaning “to nurture with food.” One of the biggest jobs of raising our children is feeding them!
18. FOOD AND TEACHING
Jesus used the mealtime at the table or teaching time: Mark 16:14, 15 and Luke 24:41-49.
19. FOOD AND HOSPITALITY
It is impossible to show hospitality without feeding your guests: Genesis 18:5-8; Deuteronomy 10:17-19; 14:27-29; Judges 6:18, 19; 13:15-21; 2 Samuel 9:10; 2 Kings 2: 7; Nehemiah 5:17, 18; Job 31:32; Matthew 25:35; Acts 2:44-47; Romans 12;13; 1 Corinthians 16:15; 1 Timothy 5;10; Hebrews 13;2; 1 Peter 4:9; and 3 John 5:8.
20. FOOD AND PROVISION
Deuteronomy 28:4-6; Nehemiah 5:17, 18; 1 Kings 4:17; Psalm 37:18, 19; 78:19-22.
21. FOOD AND THE PRESENCE OF GOD
Exodus 18:12 and 24:11
22. FOOD AND PRAYER AND PRAISE
When the disciples met together to eat, they also prayed and praised God: Acts 2:42, 46, 47; Deuteronomy 8:10; and Joel 2:26.
Love and blessings from Nancy Campbell