3rd John1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers.
Before we do this particular Bible study, we have to issue a disclaimer, so that no one would be led into paths that are contrary to what their doctor or their dietician recommends in specific circumstances. All can, and should consult with their doctors, or other medical professionals, before adopting the habits or practices referred to later on in this study.
We do understand that there are persons who may not be able to follow the script, as laid out later on, because of ongoing medical, or physical conditions.
However, as a general rule, those who can make the necessary changes will be benefitted greatly, when their efforts are coupled together with faith in God.
The Bible is filled with instructions which pertain to every facet of life. In some cases, such knowledge may be apparent, while in other cases it might have to be dug up or excavated in order to find the many jewels hidden beneath the surface.
In all of the Christian’s efforts to gain knowledge, we should be careful not to leave God out of the picture, for He is the source of all true wisdom and His ways and means have always proven to be the very best for the human family.
This is also the case when it comes to burning, and losing excess fat in the human body, a problem that has dogged us for millennia, and with the solutions being elusive in so many instances. But the word of God does have multiple instructions, and a wealth of knowledge on this issue, so that we may tackle it and subdue it successfully and permanently.
There are certain problems that are associated with strictly man-made efforts on this issue. For instance, many of the fad diets are simply not sustainable and because of this, persons might have started to lose the pounds, but then later they became frustrated; and understandably so, since the suggestions given in some diet plans cannot be practically carried out for any length of time.
Other diets, are just too plain and bland, and thus, for a person to eat their meals is almost like doing penance. Eating food is supposed to be one of the more enjoyable aspects man’s existence, and thus we are to look forward with eager anticipation to having our meals, instead of dreading them as if it were medicine.
Some years ago, our little family went out to eat at a Vegetarian restaurant, and we ordered what was supposed to be a healthy sandwich. It turned out to be healthy indeed, but there was so much greens in the sandwich, that I had to exclaim in dismay, why was there so much bush on the plate, as if it was a cow that was being fed!
God desires that our meals not only be healthy, but tasty too, because eating one’s food is supposed to be an enjoyable experience. Then again, some diets are anathema, as far as the Bible is concerned.
The Atkins, the South-beach, the Keto, and others like unto them are questionable at best, for in some of them are to be found guidelines and instructions which conflict with what is written in the Bible.
Some of these diets and methods could mess up our metabolism, and throw the body’s delicate systems out of whack and the end result is often worse than when persons had first begun.
Of special concern is the practice of eating six small meals throughout the day. There is nowhere to be found in the scripture, where God either advises, or encourages any person to eat six meals per day.
Two or three meals at the most is what is necessary in most cases, except persons may be dealing with a specific medical or dietary condition that requires a different intervention. That being said, the scripture gives us the wisdom that comes from God, so that if folks desire to lose fat permanently, it can be done. Let’s read:
Exodus 16:8 And Moses said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.
11 And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,
12 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At evening ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.
[Healthful Living pp 84] It is quite a common custom with the people of the world to eat three times a day, besides eating at irregular intervals between meals; and the last meal is generally the most-hearty, and is often taken just before retiring.
This is reversing the natural order; a hearty meal should never be taken so late in the day. Should these persons change their practice, and eat but two meals a day, and nothing between meals, not even an apple, a nut, or any kind of fruit, the result would be seen in a good appetite and greatly improved health.
In order to discover the scriptural knowledge, and wisdom on the issue of losing fat permanently, we would have to study the ancient sanctuary system of the Hebrews, where is to be discovered, a good understanding of the issue we are addressing. Let’s read:
Psalms 77: 12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?
In the sanctuary system, the priests were given the food that remained from certain sacrifices, and this would be eaten after they had finished doing their due diligence, as per the offering of such sacrifices to God.
So, to begin with, we must find out from the Bible, when the morning and evening sacrifice took place, and then we would have some guidance as to the approximate time that the priests had their first and second meals.
To discover this information, we will need to go to the sanctuary, and then to Calvary, because Jesus was typified by the morning and evening sacrifice; and then we will better understand how those two situations are synchronized.
Exodus 29:38 Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year, day by day continually. 39 The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening.
This instruction, given to the Hebrews, was better known as the morning and evening sacrifice. Jesus Christ was hung upon the cross around 9:00 am, or as the writer, Mark put it, the third hour of the day, and therefore, we could conclude that the morning sacrifice would typically take place around the same time of the morning. Let’s read:
Mark 15:1 And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate.
25 And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.
26 And the superscription of his accusation was written over, The King Of The Jews.
Question: What hour is the third hour of the day in Hebrew time reckoning?
Answer: The Jewish daylight time began at 6:00 am and it ended at 6:00 pm for the purpose of counting hours. The first hour is therefore 7:00 am; the second hour is 8:00 am; the third hour is 9:00am, the sixth hour is noon or 12:00 pm; etc.
The next obvious question would be: When did Jesus actually lay down His life for us, as in Him finally dying?
Answer: Christ was hung upon the cross at around 9:00 am, He remained there for about six hours, and then He yielded up the ghost at about 3:00 pm the same day. Let’s read:
Mark 15:33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
Thus, we have it from the scriptural record, that the third and ninth hours of the Jewish day represented the times when the morning and evening sacrifices were administered by the priests and therefore, the elapsed time between those two sacrifices would be approximately six hours.
As we will show from the scriptures later on, the priests would have their meals at around the time of the morning and evening sacrifices, putting their breakfast in the ballpark of approximately 9:00 am to 10:00 am, give or take varying periods of time, because of their administrative duties. And their second meal would follow suit at approximately 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm.
Therefore, the following statement coming from the servant of The Lord cannot be coincidence, because The very same Holy Ghost who inspired all the Bible writers also inspired her too. Let’s read:
[Ministry of healing pp 304] At least five or six hours should intervene between the meals, and most persons who give the plan a trial will find that two meals a day are better than three.
It isn’t a coincidence either that the prophet Elijah was fed only twice a day by the holy angels of God, because he too was being guided by the same script which had guided the priests, as they administered the sanctuary services.
On a more serious note, for those who would live to pass through the final phases of this earth’s history, the two-meal plan continued after the death decree was issued by Jezebel, and in prophecy, the woman represents a church.
This is a dark utterance, but the wise in heart would understand because those who will be translated to heaven without seeing death, must study intently, the history of Elijah, as detailed in 1st kings, chapters 17> 19. Let’s read:
1st Kings 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
5 So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.
1st Kings 18:26 And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, (from about the 3rd hour to the sixth hour, sounds familiar?) saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.
27 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleeps, and must be awaked.
29 And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.
41 And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. (That’s around the ninth hour, after Elijah had offered the evening sacrifice)
1st Kings 19: 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. (Revelation 13:15)
3 And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life and came to Beersheba which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
5 And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
6 And he looked and behold there was a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.
7 And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.
Leviticus 6:24 And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,
25 Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord: it is most holy.
26 The priest that offers it for sin shall eat it: in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Leviticus 7:35 This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the Lord in the priest's office;
37 This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings. (Explain the whole burnt offering).
Now that we have established from the scriptures, that the morning and evening sacrifices, with the accompanying meal times took place between the hours of 9:00 am and 3:00 pm approximately, let us calculate the elapsed time from the second meal to the first, on the following day.
From 3:00 pm on one day, to 9:00 am the following morning will give us an approximate elapsed time of 17 hours. The human body generally enters its fat-burning mode after about 12>14 hours of fasting, a fact that can be verified from various studies done by prominent universities such as Harvard and some others. This would put us squarely in the fat burning zone.
Thus, with 17 hours of down time for the stomach, as far as eating goes, persons who adopt this wise strategy would be well within the fat-burning range, and because the wisdom originated with God, there would absolutely be positive and permanent results for the better.
The problem is that we have challenges and hurdles to surmount, in getting to that desired place. One of the habits we will have to cut out is that of snacking between meals, because it interrupts that delicate balance between eating, and rest for the digestive system.
Of grave concern for us is the practice of late-night snacking, or eating in the middle of the night. Those who engage in such practices will ultimately have a very hard time losing the pounds, because the body will become confused, as to the cycles of ingestion and rest.
Even yours truly had to pull up my boots on this matter, for there were times when, because of the extended hours required to prepare Bible studies, I would get hungry in the wee hours of the morning. So, I began eating a little healthy snack, just to keep chugging along and excused myself with the reason that it was because of the Lord’s work.
But like with any indulgence, it starts off small and gradually morphs into a habit that becomes firmly entrenched in one’s psyche, and thus, those little healthy snacks became bigger and bigger, until one morning my wife got up early, and found my hands filled with the forbidden fruit.
Therefore, we are preaching to the choir, as well as to the congregation, for most of us have our list of dos and don’ts that we will need to address. To put it plainly, persons would have to fast between their last meal and breakfast for at least 12 hours for the efficient fat-burning to begin to take place.
One’s glycogen level will play a role in this process, for it has to be burned off first before the body will begin to burn fat; but as a general rule, we should be shooting for the sanctuary timeframes of eating and rest, so as to experience the best of health, and there are other factors which contribute positively to our endeavors.
Closely associated with the issue of snacking, is the fact that many of us go to bed too late at night, and this raises the possibility that we might get hungry before we sleep. If the down time for fasting were to occur while we are sleeping, it would make it so much easier to implement, but if we are awake, the temptation to snack goes up significantly.
If persons were to feel those hunger pangs coming on at those graveyard hours, drinking cold water is the best way to squish those feelings, without folks having to ingest any food. The implementation of the plan will call for stern discipline, and some will find it necessary to put away their cell-phones, in order to have restful sleep.
The blue light emanating from these gizmos often do a whole lot of damage and interference, and it is true that in some cases, persons may have become addicted to their phones. Good restful sleep does not come naturally for some persons, therefore a deliberate and well -directed effort will have to be made to achieve one’s goals.
Another issue persons will have to address at some level is that of having regular exercise, whether it be walking, running, cycling, weight lifting, or any other form of aerobic, physical activity. Physical exercise was instituted in Eden, and throughout history, God has always instructed us to incorporate it as a main- stay on our agenda.
Especially would this be the case for individuals who do sedentary work. Sitting down behind a computer all day long, staring at a screen, will call for definite efforts in the area of regular exercise, because the plan to lose fat permanently has to be holistic in its nature, for it to work.
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, God immediately set about addressing two main areas of the lives, so as to achieve good health. Diet and exercise were addressed, and they walked a whole lot, as they traversed the deserts. In our day, once the ball gets rolling, it can become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, because when good habits begin to be formed, they have the tendency of encouraging other good habits, especially when the desired results begin to come true.
Great benefit will accrue to those who could adopt the information given and with God’s grace, the sky is the limit. Avoiding processed foods as much as is possible will also help, and adequate hydration each day, will go a long way in sealing the deal. Initially, our bodies might rebel against the changes that are being made but if we were to stick with the plan for a few months, it can become entrenched as a lifestyle habit.
Bowel movements will become regular, the body’s metabolism will become much more efficient, the workload on the digestive organs will diminish, folks would sleep better and deeper, the burning and the losing of fat would continue uninterrupted and with prayer, nothing shall be impossible.
We therefore end with a passage of scripture which should encourage us, wherever we can, to do that which is instructed by God, for He desires the best for all of His children. Let’s read:
Psalms 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgives all thine iniquities; who heals all thy diseases;
5 Who satisfies thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
God Bless!