From Pastor Rod.

Well it’s that time of the year again when people think of New Year resolutions and of course, high up on the list is to loose weight and exercise. People start to think about “what” they eat so let’s see if the Bible can tell us what kind of diet folks in biblical times had as they seemed to live a long time. We might get some ideas.

Esau, being a man of the field who enjoyed hunting, liked venison, while his father, Isaac, really preferred wild goat (Genesis 25:27-28; 27:6-9).

Shortly before the Exodus, the Hebrews were instructed to prepare and eat roasted lamb, bread without yeast, and bitter herbs (Exodus 12:8-9).
While on their way to the Promised Land, the Hebrews longed for the fish, fresh vegetables, and melons they had left behind in Egypt, while their wilderness diet consisted mainly of manna, except for one entire month when they had nothing but quail (Numbers 11:5-9, 18-20, 31-34).

Samson ate honey out of the carcass of a young lion he had earlier killed (Judges 14:8-9).

The high priest Eli and his sons made themselves fat by ripping off the people who came to worship, eating the choicest portions of the offerings they had brought as sacrifices to the Lord (1 Samuel 2:29).

Abigail catered a large meal of mutton, roasted grain, raisins, bread, and wine to

David and his men in the field (1 Samuel 25:18, 27, 35).

The prophet Elijah drank from a brook and ate bread and meat, brought to him each morning and evening by ravens (1 Kings 17:5-6).

Young Daniel turned down the King of Babylon's choice food and wine, preferring a diet of only vegetables and water (Daniel 1:8-12).

John the Baptizer limited his diet to locusts and honey (Matthew 3:4).

Jesus and His disciples ate fish cooked over an open fire (John 21:9).

Peter was instructed to eat "all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air" (Acts 10:12-13).

Obviously, there is no single dish or preferred food that people ate in the days of the Bible. And, frankly, some of the things they did eat would make us gag if we tried to choke them down! If you doubt that, imagine munching on an appetizer of locust and wild honey, followed by a sandwich made up of a few slabs of some crawling creature placed between a couple slices of manna (which, by the way, was like coriander seed and, when you baked it, it tasted like oil, according to Numbers 11:7-8). Sounds pretty yummy, huh? I don’t think I’ll bother – just bring on the fish and chips.