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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

Health and the Major Prophets

God, bless us today as we look at your word and as you try and get our attention, just like you used Ezekiel to get the attention of your people by laying on his side in front of them for 390 days.

Maybe help us here for not 390 days, but maybe 39 minutes.

The major prophets and their message of help.

This is not talking financially, this is in the Bible, prophets, who are the major prophets?

I hear some muttering, I don't hear anything specific.

Daniel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, I mean we're talking about Ezekiel, right?

You have Isaiah around 700 BC, you have Jeremiah around 600, You have Daniel and you have Ezekiel.

And this is the time period of these major prophets.

And as I studied Ezekiel, I realized he had kind of like a health message.

But I realized that these other prophets also had a message of health.

In the midst of trial and tribulation, especially, God wanted to communicate a message concerning health and longevity, which I think is kind of interesting.

How many think that's somewhat interesting?

All right, this is gonna be a long sermon for you then.

But basically, God's plan of health started out with eating foods as grown, plant-based foods, then vegetables were added in.

Then after the flood, you had clean animals and you couldn't eat any blood or fat and no unclean animals.

So clean animals but you couldn't have blood in them or fat and unclean animals that were spelled out.

I'm not going to go through all that right now.

And then on the Exodus, God, when he was in charge of the diet, he gave them water and plant-based diet again.

Manna, they were so unused to it, they said, what is it?

And then again, God being in charge during, of some people who listened to them when Daniel and his friends were taken captive, they ate water and things grown from seeds.

And then Isaiah also had a health message.

I'll cover just briefly in our message today.

And then Ezekiel, we had Ezekiel bread, which we're gonna talk about today.

And then Jeremiah, he also had a health message.

Actually, I should have Jeremiah before Ezekiel.

Jeremiah, We'll talk about that in a little bit.

And then we'll talk a little bit maybe about the New Testament.

This is going to be a very quick survey of these things, so don't worry too much.

If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land.

So he wanted people to eat the good of the land.

How many of you have been tempted to eat some mice today?

I was in Thailand 1 day watching people eat mice and they were dipping them in honey and then they were putting their mouth and I thought, I don't think I would do that.

Don't drink old wine, but new wine, Isaiah says.

Look, the wine that's in the cluster in the grape.

Don't partake of alcoholic beverage, says Isaiah, but the new wine, the cluster that's in the grape, and actually they even know that that has a great benefit, or resveratrol, It's available not only in alcohol, alcoholic wine, but also grape juice.

So you can get the benefit of the grape without being intoxicated.

Cry aloud, spare not, tell my people they're transgressions, a Day of Toba message.

If you turn your foot away from the Sabbath, but right in the middle there's a health message that says, look, this health message is going to help you out.

But don't, don't eat the pigs, don't eat the mice, and drink new wine.

Katamata was helping me with the series and I looked at his slides today to see if I could remember what he sent me.

Now I could go through all the unclean foods and there's all kinds of them and basically scavengers and carnivores have all kinds of bacteria and parasites that if you eat them you're going to get sick, much more readily sick.

But This is especially true with the pig.

Cause of hepatitis E, fever, fatigue, jaundice, liver failure.

1 out of every 10 pig livers test positive for hepatitis E in the United States.

Linked to multiple sclerosis, liver cancer has also been implicated, and your sinea bacteria causes fever, pain, bloody diarrhea, reactive arthritis, and Graves' disease.

And then trichinosis, basic round word, grows in the intestines and travels through the bloodstream and can then get into your system as well.

How many think this might be something that would be good to avoid?

It's like the Bible's kind of smart because it was written by who?

Jeremiah said, I will restore health to you, I will heal your wounds, you know.

I will bring health and healing to you, I will heal my people, I will give them abundant peace and security.

Save me and I will be saved for you are my praise.

So Jeremiah has a health message as he's reaching out.

Return you backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings.

But perhaps the message that gripped my attention the most in Jeremiah was his message concerning the Rechabites.

How many of you have ever heard of the Rechabites?

All right, how many of you have never heard of the Rechabites?

All right, the Rechabites are now coming recommended to you at this point.

God commanded Jeremiah to gather the Rechabites into the house of God, into 1 of the chambers, and set wine before them and invite them to drink.

Jeremiah did as the Lord commanded him, but they said, we will not drink, for Jonadab, the son of Rechob, our father, commanded us, saying, you shall not drink wine.

They're being tested about whether or not they'll drink wine and what they say.

Jeremiah said to them, "'Because you have obeyed the commandment "'of Zonadab your father and kept his precepts, ' "'henceforth, ' says the Lord God of hosts, "'the God of Israel, "'Rechab shall not want for a man to stand before me forever.

In other words, because you're not drinking wine, you're not drinking alcohol, you're able to come right next to God and be close to him as a leader.

And by the way, In the Old Testament, priests never could drink wine or alcohol of any kind.

In the New Testament it says we're the priesthood of all believers.

We should all be priests and think like we are coming very close to God.

Now notice what we're told by a pen of inspiration about these Rechabites.

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Health and the Major Prophets

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