Health Department by James White

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 10, 1875

Health Department.

By James White

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." 3 John 2.

Bible Hygiene.

BY ELD. JAMES WHITE.

IN the records of God's providential dealings with the race the Hebrews hold a high rank. These descendants of the worthy patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were proud of the blood in their veins, and, in the days of Christ are heard to say boastfully, "We have Abraham to our father."

Abraham was a truly grand character in his day. "I know him," says the great God, "that he will command his children and his household after him." Gen. 18:19. He is made the father of all the faithful. Rom. 4:11, 16. The reason his children were to be in number like the dust of the earth. Gen. 13:16, or, as the sand upon the seashore, chap. 15:5; 26:4, is given thus: "Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Verse 5. The secret of his moral greatness lay in the fact that he was true to principle and possessed unlimited faith in God, and in his providential dealings with the faithful.

There is much of thrilling interest in the sacred sketches of Isaac, of Jacob and his twelve sons, the slavery of Joseph, his elevation, the subsequent slavery of the Hebrews, and their miraculous deliverance. God designed to do great things for them; hence his prohibitions which restricted appetite, and provided for them the most healthful food.

During four hundred and thirty years of slavery in a heathen land, the habits of the Hebrews became more or less corrupted. And as their moral power became weak, in the same degree appetite and passion grew stronger. With an outstretched arm, God brought them from the land of servitude into the wilderness, where he purposed to reform them. Their wrong habits in Egypt had made them irritable, and had disqualified them to endure the pangs of thirst, or the gnawings of perverted appetite.

Their wrong habits were such that a change to the simple manna was a great one. But this change, God being judge what was best for them, was necessary to their physical, mental, and moral good. God well knew that unless they could control appetite, they could not be controlled by law; hence the test in restricting them to the manna. "Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no."

God designed to bring a whole nation near to himself, and give them opportunity to develop a perfect character before him. He tested them on appetite, as he did our first parents in Eden, and with about the same results. Had they stood the test, God would have taken them through the wilderness in the brief space of eleven days, and would have triumphantly planted the hosts of Israel whom he had borne on eagles' wings from Egypt to the land of promise.

But the Hebrews failed to endure God's test. Appetite dethroned reason, and reigned in childish murmurings and rebellion. And as a consequence of yielding to the clamors of corrupted appetite they wandered forty years in the wilderness, and strewed their carcasses all along the way, so that only two of the adults that left Egypt were permitted to reach the good land of promise. Let the sacred records be carefully searched, and see if the murmurings of the children of Israel, which are made very prominent in both the Old Testament and the New, may not be traced back in every case to restrictions, or to their fears, as to what they should eat and drink.

The waters of Marah were bitter, and a general cry of murmuring rang through the host of Israel, and reached the ear of Moses, "What shall we drink?" A certain tree cast into the waters made them sweet. This quieted their murmurings for the time. And the Lord, "made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee." The gracious God of the Hebrews regarded the health of his people as a matter of first importance. He promised them health if they would obey. Indeed, no fact appears more distinct upon the sacred record than that, in the great work of reforming them, and restoring them from wrong habits contracted in Egypt, God commenced with the appetite.

And the Lord does not propose to work miracles for the health of his people while they indulge in habits injurious to health. He designs to make them healthy and happy by restricting their diet, and thereby restoring natural appetite and mild temper. He was soon to take his people to the land of promise, a second Eden, marred somewhat by the curse, and establish them there a healthy, holy people. But before doing this, he would reform them in their dietetic habits, by taking them back, step by step, as near as possible to the purity of his original purpose when he provided the simple fruits, grains, and vegetables, as the best food for man.

Thirty days after the departure from Egypt, the Hebrews were encamped in the Wilderness of Sin, and there the circumstances of their position tested their trembling faith. It was evident that the chances for food were against them, unless God should work a perpetual miracle. And the infidel question was murmured through the camp, "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" And the whole congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, "Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Ex. 16:3.

The case was an urgent one. Something must be done. The people must have food. And the necessity of his people was God's opportunity there to send them supplies from Heaven. It came in abundance, and lay round about the host. The God and Father of his people most certainly gave them food which was best adapted to their wants. Well, did he send down to them cattle, sheep, swine, lobsters, oysters, clams, eels, and the like, tea, coffee, and tobacco? This he could have done, and would have done, if these were necessary to life and health. But none of these were given. What did the God of Israel provide as food for that vast host? The simple language of the Sacred Record gives the following interesting facts:—

"Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from Heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no." Ex. 16:4. God was about to repeat his law in the ears of all the people. Would they obey? Their appetites and passions were such that the matter was one of doubt. This, however, seems to be established in the Divine Mind, that unless they could control appetite they could not be controlled by law. God proposes to prove their moral powers, and he does this by testing them in the matter of appetite.

From the description of the manna given in Num. 11:7, 8, one might safely conclude that it would be quite as disagreeable to morbid taste as graham bread. Its shape, color, taste, and the manner in which it was prepared for food, are thus given: "And the manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof as the color of bdellium. And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and the taste was as the taste of fresh oil."

It appears from the record that the people were not at first restricted to manna alone. In the morning they were to eat of the manna, and in the evening they were to eat of the flesh of the quails. Whether flesh was given them once a day at first, that the change of their habits might be more gradual, or because of their frenzied murmurings, may be a matter of debate. But at a later period they were restricted to manna alone, as the following statement of their frantic murmuring shows:—

"And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting; and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all besides this manna, before our eyes." Num. 11:4-6. God gave them flesh—not because it was best for them—but to teach them that he best knew their real needs. As other means of instruction had failed, he let them have their own way this time to humble them and bring them to submission.

The leader of murmuring Israel was instructed to say to his people, "And ye shall eat flesh; for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt; therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days nor twenty days, but even a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and it be loathsome unto you; because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?" Chap. 11:17-20.

We are sometimes gravely informed by those knowing gentlemen who give their influence on the side of indulgence of morbid taste, that the appetite indicates that which is best adapted to the wants of the system. And tens of thousands are acting the glutton and hastening to a premature, wretched end over this miserable untruth. How terribly false in the case of the Hebrews! On the same ground men may justify the drunkard, the opium inebriate, and the tobacco slave.