Episode 34 Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to your daily bread with co hosts, Abbie Stasior and Hannah Calhoun. We're here to be your weekly source of spiritual nourishment, guiding you to find food freedom in a deeper connection with Christ.
Hannah: As we explore the intersection of faith and nutrition, these bite sized episodes will help you heal your relationship with food and your body through practical advice, biblical wisdom, and heartfelt encouragement.
Abbie: And as a disclaimer, we are not pastors, but passionate registered dietitians and sisters in Christ, offering our insights to support you on this faith filled journey to a healthier, more fulfilling life. Join us by taking a seat at our table as we break bread and allow God in to break the chains of diet culture.
Hello, hello. We are back for another episode today. We are going to be walking through 1 Samuel 14 verses 24 through 30. Um, and our theme today is that food is fuel and it is okay to eat. We need to eat. All right, so let's dive in. At this time, um, Saul is our king and he is fighting the Philistines.
They're the bad guys in this scenario. Um, and Jonathan is Saul's son. Okay. Verse 24 says, and the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day, so Saul had laid an oath on the people saying, cursed, be the man who eats food until it is evening. And I have avenged on my enemies. So none of the people had tasted food.
Now, when all the people came to the forest, behold, there was honey on the ground. And when the people entered the forest, behold, the honey was dropping. But no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. But Jonathan had not heard his father's charge the people with the oath. So he put out the tip of his staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth and his eyes became bright.
Then one of the people said, Your father strictly charged the people with an oath saying, Cursed be the man who eats food this day. And the people were faint. Then Jonathan said, My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted of this honey? How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies that they found.
For now, the defeat among the Philistines has not been great.
So, um, in this scene, they actually, Jonathan ends up defeating the Philistines. Um, and he goes on to kind of get, well, God gets the glory of the day, but God was working through Jonathan and was able to strengthen him for providing this food. But literally Jonathan had the strength and endurance to do this all on his own because he was fueled.
And because the other, um, Israelites They were faint. They weren't, they were, they were just following these restrictive food rules that were made by man, made by Saul. God didn't tell Saul to, to curse his people for eating. God provided that honeycomb. God provided that, but it was man that was saying, don't eat that, and just these arbitrary food rules that left people feeling super weak.
They weren't able to go after the calling and the assignment. on their lives. The current assignment that was in front of them to defeat the enemy. But Jonathan took advantage of what God provided. Thank you, Jehovah Jireh, our provider, uh, took advantage of that, fueled himself, and then was able to execute the calling God put on his life.
And, um, I just, uh, I just hope that this encourages people to not fear hunger. I hear so often that people will avoid eating as long as they can, because they're, they're like, once I start eating, I can't stop eating. And it's kind of like, well, that's. That's the point. That's, that's what we're going for. Um, I know this sounds so bad, but like, like, not in a gluttonous way.
Like, I think a lot of people think that they're going to be out of control with food once they start eating because they wait so long to eat their ravenous, their primal hunger takes over. They eat more than what they actually need at that time. And. At that point, your primal hunger takes over. You can't slow down with food and your body is just so ravenous, urgently hungry, and all those things, and you eat so much in one sitting.
But if you were to eat earlier on and fuel yourself consistently, you're more in control over your intake. You end up eating more. Eating an appropriate amount for you, not overdoing it. And it's easier for you to honor your, your, and respect your fullness once you start to sense that. So a lot of people think like, oh, if I just delay being hungry, I'm going to eat less.
That's actually leading you to eat more and being weaker during the day.
Hannah: Mm hmm. Yeah. No, 100%. Like, everybody has had that moment where they've let themselves get past the point of hunger. And, I mean, you are ravenous at that point. Like, you're opening the pantry, opening the fridge, and you're grabbing everything in sight that wouldn't even go together on a plate, and then you feel disgusting afterward.
And this is, this is like normal people just letting themselves get That's the point of, um, hunger. This is not like, you know, a binge, uh, a person who struggles with binge eating disorder per se. Um, but yeah, so it's, you know, sometimes people will be like, how long can I hold off? Um, or they'll, you know, They'll feel so inconvenienced by the fact that they're hungry and it's like, um, this is literally a cue that God created us with.
There's a specific hormone in our body that says, Hey, I'm hungry. And then, you know, this cues us to eat. And then there's another hormone that comes in and says, Hey, you're full. And that cues us to stop. Um, and God literally designed us like this. And he also designed us to need food. In the Bible, there's so many instances in the Bible where, where food is there, people are eating food, Jesus is providing food, you know, performing a miracle, and multiplying the food, right, uh, and wine too, but we're talking about food.
Amen. Um, and even in, First Kings 19, you know, the whole Elijah treatment that we love that we also have an episode about where the Angel you'll have to go back and listen to the episode to get the full story if you don't know it But there's a part where after Elijah has the food and the water the food was baked bread by the way, which sounds delicious So basically an angel told him to Eat, and drink water, and take a nap, and then he ate again.
And it says, strengthened by the food, he traveled 40 days and 40 nights. Now, I don't know if I could travel 40 days and 40 nights after a loaf of baked bread and a jug of water, but Elijah did. I'm sure he ate some other things along the way. Um, you know, but the Bible literally says, strengthened by the food that he ate.
You know, like, food strengthens us. And then there's the flip side, where people are like, food is fuel, food is fuel, food is fuel, don't eat cupcakes, cupcakes are useless, they're empty calories, you're wasting your calories. My, you know, rebuttal to that would be God gave us taste buds. He did not have to give us taste buds.
We have taste buds that can taste sweet things. You know, because people are like, well, that's because bitter things were poisonous and it was so we wouldn't eat them, but We have taste buds that taste sweetness, so, you know, and the Bible also talks about like sweetness and things being sweet, and there's nothing wrong with that, with tasting something sweet and, you know, having a cupcake and enjoying it, because food is fuel, it strengthens us, we need it, it's a blessing to have food in our home, and so, please enjoy it and Food is pleasurable as well because God gave us taste buds, you know, so there's and people say like, well, if I eat one cupcake, I want to eat the whole thing and then I would say, well, are you getting enough carbs throughout your day with your meals with your lovely balanced meals that you should be having?
Abbie: And enough protein. Are you eating regularly? Are you eating enough throughout the day? Yeah, there's a lot of reasons why that is. And I think that's why it's helpful to maybe like work with someone individually on that. Yeah. So somebody can look at how are you eating in your day and help you out with that individually.
But yeah, you're probably not getting enough fuel if you're like constantly still like grabbing or wanting food. Um, uh, and I just feel like Saul in this scenario is like the mean boss that doesn't let you. take a lunch break and just like create a culture in your office, at your job, where like, you can't take a break because you need to, you need to keep working.
But God put such an emphasis on meals. Jesus was very intentional about taking time away from ministry, which meal times were a time where he could actually minister to people and talk about stuff, but taking time, like away from preaching away from traveling to come away and sit and dine. And. Meals are a time of consecration.
And we've talked about this in previous episodes, especially our Sabbath episode where we need to take time away so that we're spending time with God, we're making that holy and then God will bless the rest. So like, because Jonathan in this story took time to fuel himself and take advantage of what God was blessing him with and take time to eat, refuel.
then he was the one that was able to carry the victory. It wasn't Saul or any of the other Israelites that, that didn't, that didn't feel themselves that didn't listen to God. And they were actually putting more trust in man with these crazy food rules in this, in this curse. that like God would never say that or do that.
Like that was not from God. Um, so I think it's important that if you have like a toxic work environment where they're not allowing you to like take breaks, I feel like I hear this a lot coming up with like my patients and clients, like that's something that you really have to work through. I've even written like notes.
for different patients being like, hi, like my patient needs to eat. Like I know by law you have to give them a break, but like, because of XYZ conditions or whatever, it's like, they need to balance blood sugar. Like they need to be given a break. And it's actually helped a lot of my patients if they struggle to advocate for themselves.
Um, but I think we need to, you know, not be like, we're called to be in the world, but not of the world. And. So this is a time where you can really stand up for yourself. Like, no, I need to eat. I need to refuel. I need to treat my body like a temple and honor the Holy spirit that dwells within me and treat my body right.
And nourish myself so that I can reapproach, approach my work with greater productivity and energy. And God will bless the work of your hand if you take that time away. And it's not that you're lacking productivity. Um, We're like losing time. It doesn't, taking the time to eat doesn't have to be burdensome or an obligation.
Um, when it's time that you're spending with God to refuel so that you can go kind of attack the, the calling on your life and your work afterwards, you're going to have more blessings because you took that time with God and you're modeling Jesus. Um, he did his whole ministry in three years, walking three miles per hour.
He wasn't in a rush. Like God has it all worked out for you and it's okay. Like time is nothing to God. God can speed things up. Like even if you have deadlines, like he can speed things up. Like he'll make sure that you hit everything that you need to do. If you're doing everything. Onto the Lord and honoring him.
Um, and in this scenario, I just feel like people were putting way more trust in their like mean boss and following human made food rules versus honoring God.
Hannah: Yeah, yeah, and if you're interested in learning more about because Abby mentioned how just like the Sabbath is a sacred day eating, you know, our meals is can be a sacred time that we spend, you know, with God.
And if you're interested in learning more about how Jesus actually modeled how we should be eating, uh, we talked about that in our very first episode, which feels like a long time ago, and it's literally titled, Jesus Models How We Should Be Eating. So you might want to go check that out if you haven't heard it already, or if you need a little refresher.
And it's actually quite beautiful what we, um, uncover in that episode.!
Thank you for joining us on this episode of your daily bread. We hope you found inspiration and practical guidance to nourish your body and soul. Remember the journey to a healthier relationship with food and a deeper connection with Christ is ongoing and we're here to support you every step of the way.
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As we conclude today's episode, we encourage you to take what resonated with you into your quiet time with God, allow God to reveal to you any changes that you can make for his glory, trusting that you are fearfully and wonderfully made in his image. Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll continue to explore how God's word helps us heal our relationship with food in our bodies Until then may you find both physical and spiritual nourishment and may you be filled with his peace and joy.
God bless
