Today's Scripture Reading (June 12, 2023): Ezekiel 4
Where
do you draw the line when it comes to food? Are you a picky eater, or are you adventurous
and willing to eat anything? I admit I am on the picky side, but I am also a
bit defensive about my food choices. I have several life-threatening food
allergies, so I have become cautious about what and where I eat, and I tend
toward food and restaurants that have not made me sick in the past. I usually
don't try anything new, although I have been known to surprise some companions
with my eating.
And
I have a list of things that I would never eat, whether I am allergic to them
or not, and admittedly, to most of the foods on that list, I do have an
allergy. What kind of food makes that list? Tuna Eyeballs; usually sold in a
package of two. It is unsettling to consider eating something that is staring
back at me. In my defense, I am allergic to fish, so I assume that fish eyes
would also be deadly. Stinkheads are also on my list. If you have never had
stinkheads, they are the head of a king salmon that has been buried in the
ground for a few weeks and then eaten as a pungent, putty-like mush. Am I
making you hungry?
What
about Jing Leed (Grasshoppers)? Here is one food on my nope list that isn't
actually on my allergy list, although I am also not sure I have ever been
tested for bugs. Jing Leed is fried and then seasoned with salt and pepper with
maybe a bit of chili. I am told that it tastes a little like popcorn husks,
except that Jing Leed sometimes squirts liquid into your mouth. Yum. One more
food on my never list is wasp crackers. Think of chocolate chip cookies with
wasps instead of chocolate chips. I wonder what they would taste like dipped in
milk?
Regardless
of how adventurous or picky we might be, if we were stuck somewhere and Jing
Leed or wasp crackers were all you have to eat, our decision of what we are
willing to eat might change. Outside of my allergies, so would mine. It might
be surprising what we might be willing to eat when we are hungry.
God
instructs Ezekiel to cook some bread over human excrement. Ezekiel objects
because he feels the human manure would make the food unclean; go figure, and
he has never eaten anything unclean. God relents and allows him to substitute
cow dung for the human excrement. It is a concession on the part of God, but
not much of one. Cow dung was used as fuel for a fire or to get a good fire
going, but no obedient Jew would ever cook bread on top of such a fire. But
that is also God's point. A time is coming when you will be so hungry that you
will be willing to eat food you would never have typically eaten. God wants to
warn people that there is a time when even the Jewish food laws would be
skipped because all there was to eat was what was unclean.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 5
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