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Why didn't the Israelites eat their livestock?

Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2004 1:48 pm
by _Anonymous
Hi Steve Gregg!

We were talking yesterday in class about the Israelites complaining about their lack of food in the wilderness. Upon considering this I thought about the large amount of livestock that they probably had when they left Egypt. (Shawnee commented on how I "stumped the pastor".) Why didn't they just eat the animals that they had? Did they still have livestock when they left Egypt? Did God command them not to eat the animals?

Thanks
JEn

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2005 2:16 am
by _Steve
Hi Jen,

There are reasons that I could imagine that they did not eat their livestock. I don't know if these were their actual reasons, or only ones I can imagine.
Even if they had a lot of cattle, they might not have had enough to feed 3 million people for 40 years (Num.11:21-22). If they had killed animals indiscriminately whenever they craved meat, they might deplete their entire flocks and herds, so as to have no livestock left to start their lives off in the promised land. They actually did eat and sacrifice some of their animals as they wandered about, but they might have wished to be very conservative in their consumption of the resources until they reached their future homeland.