WHAT DO ANGELS EAT?

 (Excerpted and condensed from our upcoming book The Kingdom by Rudi Schwartz and me.)

Picture from Web

Perhaps we would immediately think of that verse of Scripture calling manna “angels’ food”? “Yet He had commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven, had rained down manna on them to eat, and given them of the bread of heaven. Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food to the full” (Psa. 78:24-25). Bread poured out from heaven, baptismal blessings! Whether the angels ate the manna themselves or were its agents of delivery, we’ll let the reader decide. It’s hard to know. However, there is a place in Scripture where we see a trinity of angels eating. “So he [Abraham] took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate” (Gen. 18:8). So, angels like a good steak!

These three angels that came to Abraham as he was sitting in his tent door are referred to as “men” (Gen. 18:2). It turns out that at least one of them was Jehovah Himself. Maybe even the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as each of the three angels? This sounds a bit too much like modalism. Clearly two of the men were angels and one was the Lord because we are told, “Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord” (Gen. 18: 22). “Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground” (Gen. 19:1). He is, after all, the One who dwells between angels, “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth” (Isa. 37:16)  NIV). So, we see then that the preincarnate Jesus ate beef and butter (the word is for curdled milk, so maybe cheese), and had some milk to drink. So did the angels. Now, the point here is that none of the three had to eat lest they die of starvation. They ate for a different purpose – as will we when we are resurrected and dine with the resurrected Lord in His not yet Kingdom.

Now here’s the thing. Will we need to ask that awkward question, “May I use the bathroom?” Clearly angels eat food. Clearly Jesus eats food. Clearly there is going to be a great wedding supper for the Lamb. Therefore, clearly Jesus, angels and all those present will be eating and drinking. But how will we manage if our stomachs have been destroyed? The answer surely lies in how different things will be when we live in a place where there is no curse, like Adam pre-Fall, and the King’s Kingdom come. We take it then that toilets are a sign of a fallen world, part of the curse on creation that is going to be fully lifted when the Master returns from the far country (Mark 13:32-37).

Sometimes while out in the field on army exercise there would be a mix-up with the “Port-a-Loo” delivery. Sometimes there would be a few hundred people needing to use that single outhouse. In tropical Queensland weather you can imagine how quickly the cubicle would fill with flies! As part of our army kit, we used to cart around an “entrenching tool”, which, due to environmental protection regulations, would only be used in “break glass” in case of emergency situations. Notice the purpose of the “entrenching tool” in the following,

Also you shall have a place outside the camp, where you may go out; and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you (Deut. 23:12-14).    

Therefore, our “refuse” or “excrement” (ESV) is unclean and is therefore part of God’s curse on creation that will be removed. The main purpose being that the King doesn’t want to be stepping on anything unclean. So, foods and stomachs being destroyed simply means that there will be major changes to our dietary systems and to the foods that we eat. It is so hard for us to imagine things on earth without seeing the effects of the curse everywhere.

Having briefly noted what Jesus and the angels eat, before we move on to ask what animals eat, let’s remind ourselves that the already of the Kingdom is progressively moving towards the not yet. Jesus gives us a brief description of how our present digestive system works while declaring that the Mosaic diet restrictions have been abolished or done away with or, if you will, “destroyed”.  “And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled? [Greek: goes out into the latrine].” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)” (Mark 7-18-19 ESV). Therefore, eating and drinking is not an unclean thing. It has nothing to do with sin. We get to eat whatever the King allows us to eat. And so it will be when His Kingdom has fully come. We will eat, drink and be merry forever without any fear of death.

We’ve already mentioned that the Lord had shown Peter that He had done away with the temporary Mosaic dietary restrictions. It is interesting to note how Jesus did this. When we looked at baptism, we have already mentioned what the apostle John saw descending from heaven. “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’” (John 1:33). Luke in his Gospel says, “And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him” (Luke 3:22).

God had appeared to Abraham as a man and now He appears to John as a bird. Both were temporary bodily appearances. When it comes to Christ, however, He is the eternal Word who became permanently flesh. He came from heaven, and He returned to heaven, and He will come back again. He received His kingly crown in heaven, and He received a Kingdom (Dan. 7:14). Christians on earth when He comes, will meet Him in the air as He is descending, just like the Avian Spirit, just like Peter’s sheet, and just like John saw in His vision recorded in Revelation, “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev. 21:2-3). A voice from heaven accompanied the descending Holy Spirit, the descending sheet, and the descending Kingdom/bride. Therefore, each descension was a message. Something has taken place, is taking place, and shall take place. He has brought His Kingdom with Him. His Kingdom is progressively expanding; (now no dietary restrictions, animal sacrifice has been “destroyed”, females as well as males are now also to receive the sign of the covenant, i.e., water baptism etc.). In short, the church was coming of age – conception, birth, infancy, adolescence, adulthood. Yes, and then marriage – marriage to the King, complete with a wedding supper.

Now, to give us a bit of an idea as to how Peter must have felt when he was told to eat those things that had been declared unclean for centuries. He must have found things in the sheet revolting. You and I probably are hoping too that a lot of these things are not going to be on the great Wedding Feast’s menu! Let’s see what was in that big sheet.

Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. (Acts 10:10-16).]                      

This cancellation of the Old Covenant dietary law was also a New Covenant reiteration of an aspect of the Cultural mandate: “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs” (Gen. 9:2-3). No fear of pork now Peter! No fear of any of the fish, birds, or animals, especially if you are going to eat them.

In relation to culture and the Cultural Mandate, Scottish haggis has been on the banned list of imports to the USA since 1971. It seems that Americans are afraid to eat it because it contains livestock lungs! I like American hotdogs, but who really wants to know what the Americans allow in them? Of course, as haggis is to Scottish culture, so hotdogs are to American culture. Yes, Canadian culture too! I watched the Toronto Blue Jays play the Boston Red Sox with mustard and ketchup dripping off my hotdog and onto my shirt!

Culture is food and drink, song and dance, language and dress, art and architecture, and all of the other multifarious things included in the Cultural Mandate. The Mosaic dietary laws were part of humanity’s cultural progression towards and until the renewal of the Cultural Mandate as per the promulgation of the world-changing Great Commission. Christ’s law and gospel does not destroy culture. It simply Christianises it, as the nations and the people therein progressively apply all of God’s Word to all of life. Haggis and hotdogs, along with kilts and baseball caps, are part of the adiaphora (things indifferent) aspect of the Great Commission.

Brussel sprouts and broccoli were not my favourite vegetables when growing up. They’re still not. Neither, it seems, are they the traditional Eskimo favourites, whose diet consists mostly of meat, fish, and blubber with a 2% smidgin of fruit and vegetables. Could you imagine a Seventh-day Adventist advancing Christ’s Kingdom gospelizing the Inuit people? “If you want to become a proper Christian, you’ll need to change 98% of our diet. You guys need to become vegetarian, repent and believe in the gospel. Oh, and Saturday, not Sunday, is the Sabbath.”

The advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on earth has been hampered (humanly speaking) down through the ages by all sorts of isms. From Judaism (which attacked Christ when He walked on earth), the Judaizers (who Paul battled, especially in Galatians), all the way down to Seventh-day Adventism, that tells you that you must eat only vegetables.

A nation’s culture is influenced by its climate and its food supply (or lack thereof). Again, Christ’s law and gospel only destroys those aspects of a nation’s culture that are sinful. Eating and drinking is not sinful. It’s obsessive gluttony and habitual drunkenness that involves sin. Spreading Christ’s gospel of the Kingdom among the Eskimos does not include old administrations of the covenant of grace, such as Mosaic Sabbath and dietary prohibitions, but freedom that the shed blood of Christ has brought, for “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).

Mankind’s diet menu, at least for those believers and their children with whom God has covenanted, has been increased to include whatever food and drink our own fickle tastes desire. Our own cultural traditions influence our preferences. Who knew what a pangolin was, never mind that they are edible, until the advent of COVID 19?

Inherited from the British military, there is a tradition in the Australian army of having ‘dining-in nights.’ Donning one’s finest uniform dinner-suit attire, a.k.a. ‘mess dress’, a meal was enjoyed in the Officers’ Mess with keynote speakers. The menu is for a fancy three-course meal, usually with beef and chicken for the main course. The servers would plop a full plate in front of each diner alternating between chicken and beef. Then there would be a whole lot of meal-swapping going on to suit personal preferences among the diners. Cultural awareness meant that there would also be vegetarian and pescetarian dishes available. And, as with weddings, there would be a head table with many other tables looking on. Among other things, the idea would be that the diners got to eat and drink with other members of the army that they don’t normally in their daily business interact with. A social gathering.

Lamb is a big favourite in Australia, and sometimes the roast beef or steak would be exchanged for lamb chops (which seemed to be huge!). When it came to accompanying wines, the old cultural tradition of ‘white with white meat and red with red meat’ was followed (sometimes!). Sometimes in the army there would be ‘mixed’ dining-in nights, whereby the members had their spouses accompany them. On one special evening my wife and I attended a Burns Night in the officers’ mess. Yes, haggis was the main course meal with whisky to wash it down. Some Christians would be aghast at the mere thought of whisky, never mind wine. However, the teaching of the Bible is that we are as free to drink as we are as free not to drink alcohol. Yes, sometimes like Noah and Lot Christians over-drink, and who hasn’t overeaten? We have already noted that some erroneously referred to Jesus as a glutton and a drunkard. Could Noah and Lot also be called drunkards? What about all the guests at the wedding in Cana? “When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine” (John 2:3). Were the guest pouring the wine down their throats (or down the drain as they did in the great American Prohibition?) They were drinking the stuff as they celebrated the couple getting hitched. Did Jesus cry out, “Time! Gentlemen please!”?

Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” (John 2:6-10).      

Yes, there is lot going on in these verses of Scripture. But we must at least see that Jesus is no killjoy. He didn’t lecture the wedding guests on the evils of gluttony and drunkenness. It’s when these have become obsessive and habitual that the riot act needs to be read. However, at His great wedding supper, when He as groom and we as His bride get married to Him forever (with absolutely no possibility of divorce), we will eat, drink, and we will be merry! We will rejoice in Him and with Him in His Kingdom.

The truth of the matter is that angels and humans eat and drink the same things, i.e., whatever the King permits us to eat. We will sit down to dine with the Lord at His table as is repeatedly pictured every time we have the covenant meal of Communion. We will be rubbing shoulders (wings?!) with angels but not with fallen angels. “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons” (1 Cor. 10:21). Yes, it is difficult to imagine what this may be like, but we should be mindful of the following verse, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (Heb. 13:2).

In the case of Samson’s parents, Manoah and his barren (but nameless wife), though she thought she was seeing a man, she was on the right track when the preincarnate Christ appeared to her as a temporary Christophany, “So the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A Man of God came to me, and His countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name. And He said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’ ” (Judg. 13:6-7). Christ told her what to eat and drink for a specific purpose. Manoah too didn’t know he was entertaining an angel, the Angel. “Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain You, and we will prepare a young goat for You.” And the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Though you detain Me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord.” (For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the Lord.)” (15-16).

It was the same with Gideon who offered the Angel goat-meat, bread and broth thinking he was a man. “Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.” (Judg. 6:21-22).

We shall see the Lord face to face at the head table when we sit down with Him at the wedding supper. The Angel of the Lord dined with Abraham, eating what Abraham had prepared and set before Him. We dine with Him as His Spirit enables us at during Communion. Angels eat and drink whatever we eat and eat, which is whatever our Lord provides. “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Mark 12:25). We would do well to remember that as Christians we are the bride of Christ and that our resurrection is our transportation to that wedding, dressed in our best, to say a collective, “I do.”