Eating and Drinking

Will we really eat and drink?

This may sound ridiculous as some consider eating and drinking to be unspiritual. After all, our resurrected bodies will be imperishable. Why would we need to eat?

However, this is not as ridiculous as it sounds. Eating itself is not a sin. God allowed Adam and Eve to eat fruits from the trees before the Fall(Gen. 1:29-30). They even ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge(Gen. 3:6).

The Bible has other examples of eating by those we would not expect to eat. Angels and God ate when they took on human form to meet Abraham(Gen. 18:1-8). Jesus ate fish in a resurrected body(Luke 24:41-43; John 21:4-14).

The Bible also gives hints of eating and drinking in Heaven or at least the Millennial reign of Christ. It talks about a rich feast of food and wine on the Lord's mountain(Isa. 25:6). Jesus talks about drinking new wine in the kingdom of God(Mark 14:25). He also mentions eating and drinking at the table in His kingdom(Luke 22:29-30) and reclining at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven(Matt. 8:11). An angels says blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb(Rev. 19:9).

What will we eat and drink?

If we do eat, what will we eat? One possible type of food is bread. Jesus says to the church of Pergamum those who overcome will get the hidden bread(Rev. 2:17). The Bible also says man ate the bread of the angels(Psa. 78:25).

When the Israelites were in the desert they grumbled from being hungry, so God rained down bread in the morning and quail in the evening(Exo. 16:13-16). This bread was white like coriander seed and looked like resin(Num. 11:7-9). It tasted like wafers with honey(Exo. 16:31).

Another type of food mentioned is fruit. We will eat fruit from vineyards on New Earth(Isa. 65:21). We may also eat from the tree of life(Rev. 2:7; 22:14,19) that was originally in the Garden of Eden. It yields fruit each month and grows in the city of New Jerusalem(Rev. 22:2).

What about drinking? Scripture mentions aged wine(Isa. 25:6). Jesus talks about not drinking wine until the kingdom of God(Luke 22:18) and famously turned water into wine at the wedding of Cana(John 2:8-10).

Also mentioned is water. The Lamb(Christ) is described as leading his flock to springs of living water(Rev. 7:17). The heavenly city of New Jerusalem has a river flowing from the throne of the Lamb and God(Rev. 22:1). The Bible talks about drinking from the water of life(Rev. 22:17).

Other considerations

Those who had a vision of God and Heaven on two occasions describe eating scrolls. The prophet Ezekiel ate a scroll to symbolically accept God's message(Eze. 2:8-10; 3:1-3). The scroll was described as tasting sweet. In the Apostle John's vision of Heaven, he eats a scroll that is also described as tasting sweet but made his stomach bitter(Rev. 10:9-10).

There will be no more hunger or thirst in Heaven(Rev. 7:14-16), and we won't need to eat or drink. However, lack of hunger doesn't mean we will have no desire to eat. We like to eat now. The difference is we just won't have any heartburn, indigestion or any food spoiling.

Last updated 4/20/2012