Wednesday, 4 November 2020

Our worship includes food!

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Our worship includes food! And it does. It is no mere coincidence, although I am sure no one thinks it is, that in Deuteronomy 14 we go from reading about what is a clean and unclean thing to eat to taking the tithe and eating it before God.

Indeed, God desires an intimate relationship with us. So much so, that he gave Yeshua to make that happen. Yeshua's prayer in John was about unity or intimacy and our commission is to go and make disciples, and ... etc.

The point is, food and intimacy are closely related topics. "Research has shown that social relationships not only influence eating behavior, but that eating behavior can also be a reflection of - or even serve to strengthen - relationships." Moreover, [F]ood sharing and feeding are important non-verbal indicators of friendship and romantic involvement. Just as important is that "...people imagining their partner sharing a meal with a potential rival experienced more jealousy than when imagining their partner in a face-to-face interaction with a rival without a meal."

Food and intimacy with God are also closely related. In Exodus, we see that food was heavily involved in the consecration of the priests. Also, think of Yeshua taking the bread and wine with his disciples in celebration of communion with life and death.

It should be no wonder, that the Lord tells Israel to go the place He chooses, bring their tithes and eat there along with the Levite and those who don't have. Or option two, in the event it's too far, sell it and go purchase the celebratory food and drink and then share with those who don't have.

When we read that Israel was to take this tithe and go eat ... we are literally reading God saying I want intimacy.

On a practical level, we should remember that food is a part of worship. Sharing food is an act of worship. Therefore, when we get an opportunity, we should actually share the food we should share the food. This has both natural and spiritual implications and helps us both demonstrate love and grow together in unity.