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“Bible Vegetarians”
Bible Vegetarians
Wade Webster
Paul Harvey, the great radio personality, once quipped, “Vegetarian is an old Indian word for ‘doesn’t hunt well.’”[i]
I like vegetables, but I am no vegetarian. I like meat – all kinds. I like beef, pork, chicken, fish, and squirrel. You didn’t expect the last one, did you? Did you forget that I grew up in rural Alabama?
I’m convinced that there are many Bible vegetarians today. There is no meat in their diet. As you know, the Hebrew writer spoke of the meat of the word. We read, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:12-14). There is no meat in their diet because they don’t hunt well. They do not search or hunt through the Scriptures as they should. Jesus declared, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). Had the Pharisees truly searched, they would have known that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah (John 7:52).
In contrast to the Pharisees, the Bereans were great hunters. Of them, Luke records, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).
What about us? Are we Bible vegetarians? How well do we hunt? To Timothy, Paul wrote, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).
If we are searching the Scriptures as we should, there will be plenty of meat in our diets. In fact, there might even be some squirrels. Don’t knock it until you have tried it! It tastes kind of like chicken.
[i] Wait, Marianne. Laughter: The Best Medicine. Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest Publishing Company, Inc., 2006, p. 204.
