|
Are What You Eat
Eating and Drinking “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Michael Nekora Good health requires one to do many things right, not the least of which is to eat and drink intelligently. In an 1826 book Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote: “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” It was his way of saying that the food one eats affects one’s state of mind and health. A recent dramatization of this claim occurred in 2004 when filmmaker Morgan Spurlock vowed he would eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at only the outlets of one fast-food chain, to eat everything offered on the menu at least once, to eat everything on his plate, and, if given the option to “super-size” the meal, he would do so. He filmed what happened during a thirty-day period as he went from 185 pounds and good physical health to 210 pounds and several health problems. His film was nominated for an Academy Award. (It took more than a year for him to lose the weight he gained during this experiment.) Eating is like putting fuel in a car. It gives us the energy to keep going. Deprive a body of food and it soon loses its ability to function properly. This does not mean immediate death: a young, healthy individual might live as long as five or six weeks without food. But all food is not created equal. Although the calorie count in a can of ordinary soda is about the same as the calories in an equivalent amount of fruit juice, the nutritional benefits are vastly different. If one persists in filling the body with “empty calories,” there will be consequences.
Spiritual Food It is the same for spiritual new creatures. Jeremiah wrote: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jeremiah 15:16). The reaction when he ate God’s “words” was one of great joy. There are words from other sources that might momentarily attract us, but like “empty calories,” they provide no nutrition or “rejoicing” for the soul. Only the word of God can do that. In Revelation, John is told to ask for a “little book” and then eat it. So John, “took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter” (Revelation 10:10). As Bible expositor Charles Russell (1852-1916) explained: “This message concerning Michael’s Kingdom, gradually opening from 1829 onward, is symbolically represented in the book of Revelation as a ‘little book,’ which the ‘wise’ of the ‘holy people,’ represented by John, are instructed to eat. John’s experience ... is the experience of all who receive these truths. They bring wondrous sweetness: Oh, the blessedness! But the after effects are always more or less a blending of the bitterness of persecution with the sweetness” (Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 3, page 89). The prophet Ezekiel had the same experience, but without the bitterness in the belly: “He said unto me, Son of man ... eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. ... Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness” (Ezekiel 3:1,3). “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103). In these texts “eating God’s words” means the prophet was to meditate upon what was written and “digest” those thoughts well enough to communicate them to others. Likewise all who look to God for his direction should deeply meditate upon his word as it is written in the Scriptures, thoroughly digest what is there, meditate upon it, and then communicate it to others. Food is equated with teachings in the book of Hebrews: “For though you should in fact be teachers by this time,you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. You have gone back to milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant” (Hebrews 5:12,13, Net Bible). This is a similar thought to what Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “I fed you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready” (1 Corinthians 3:2, Net Bible). There is, of course, nothing wrong with milk. God promised that he would lead his people out of Egypt into “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). Although milk is a wonderful food, it supplies no iron or Vitamin C which a body needs. Paul used the word “milk” in a derogatory way, implying that the Corinthians were the equivalent of spiritual babies who could not handle anything except the simplest truths. Not only can God’s words be “eaten,” Jesus, the spokesman for God, said that he could be eaten: “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:53). What made this statement so perplexing is that when Noah left the ark, God told him: “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you ... but flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat” (Genesis 9:3,4). Later the law given by God specifically prohibited the drinking of blood: “Ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people” (Leviticus 7:26,27). It is no surprise to read that after Jesus said this, “many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:66). If any of these had more than a superficial interest, they might have asked Jesus, “We know you can’t mean this literally, so what do you mean?” If they had done that, Jesus might have explained. Essentially God told Noah, “If you drink the blood of a lamb, the life of the lamb enters into you. Don’t do it!” Now Jesus was saying, “If you drink my blood, my life will enter into you. Do it!” It is not just his life and death that are so valuable to us; he is the continuing source of our life (John 6:48- 51,53-58). Jesus used a different metaphor the night before his crucifixion when he said: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). As physical life is sustained by the circulation of blood, and a branch lives because of the circulation of sap, our spiritual life survives only if it is constantly nourished by Christ.
Fasting If proper eating is important to good health, can anything be said for not eating, or fasting? Long before Christ, Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, said: “Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food. But to eat when you are sick is to feed your sickness.” It is said that he refused to accept students until they had completed a fasting experience for themselves. Many testify to the personal benefit they received when they fasted to purge their body of some of its accumulated toxins. Many religions incorporate fasting for short periods as part of their practice, including the Jews. On the annual Day of Atonement, the people were told: “This shall be a statute forever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all” (Leviticus 16:29). The phrase “afflict your souls” meant they were to fast (see Psalm 35:13; 69:10; Isaiah 58:3). It was an outward sign of self-deprivation and humility, and sometimes it was even done to boastfully advertise one’s piety. In the parable about a Pharisee and a publican (Luke 18:9-14), the Pharisee said, “I fast twice in the week,” implying to himself and others that he was better than those who did not do that. Jesus told his followers that if they decided to fast, they should not do it openly: “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance. ... But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast” (Matthew 6: 6-18). Generally speaking, it appears Jesus’ disciples never fasted, and this concerned some of the disciples of John the Baptist: “Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?” (Matthew 9:14). Jesus answered their question, but perhaps not in a way they completely understood. Whether one fasts for the physical or spiritual benefits, it is entirely a personal decision. Nothing in the New Testament directs those who are walking in the footsteps of our Lord to fast at any time.
Thirst The wise man wrote, “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country” (Proverbs 25:25). Nothing quenches one’s thirst better than water. At one point when David was fighting the Philistines, he talked about how good the water was from a Bethlehem well near that city’s gate. Three of his warriors heard him say this, so they quietly left the safety of David’s camp, broke through those defending Bethlehem, drew water from that well, and brought it to David. He was so struck by their willingness to risk their lives just to get this specific water for him, he refused to drink it: it was too “expensive.” So he poured it out as a drink-offering to the Lord. (See 2 Samuel 23:15-17.) Life cannot exist without water. One can live for weeks without food, but only a few days without water. Most of the world’s great cities were established on rivers which, at least at one time, were unpolluted and able to provide for the needs of the community. The story is told of people of various ages discussing what they most appreciated today. Usually the younger ones mentioned electricity as the benefit they prized most. But when it was the turn of an old woman to speak, she said, “Well, I sure am glad I don’t have to go down to the creek and bring back water!” As Jesus was resting by the well of a Samaritan village, he spoke with a woman who came to draw water. He asked for a drink, and she was surprised he did so because Jews generally had no dealings with Samaritans. Then he spoke about the water he had to give: “Everyone who drinks this water [from the well] will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water” (John 4:13-15, NIV). Here is what the Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary says this about this text: “The contrast here is fundamental and all comprehensive. ‘This water’ plainly means ‘this natural water and all satisfactions of a like earthly and perishable nature.’ Coming to us from without, and reaching only the superficial parts of our nature, they are soon spent, and need to be anew supplied as much as if we had never experienced them before, while the deeper wants of our being are not reached by them at all; whereas the ‘water’ that Christ gives — spiritual life — is struck out of the very depths of our being, making the soul not a cistern, for holding water poured into it from without, but a fountain ... springing, gushing, bubbling up and flowing forth within us, ever fresh, ever living. The indwelling of the ... Spirit of Christ is the secret of this life with all its enduring energies and satisfactions. ‘Never thirsting,’ then, means simply that such souls have the supplies at home.” On the last feast day of the year Jesus used the phrase “rivers of living water” as a metaphor for truth that could only be obtained from him: “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37,38). But where in the Old Testament do we read that out of the belly of a believer rivers of living water shall flow? It is not there. The Companion Bible suggests that Jesus is saying the “water” comes from him, not believers, and that the original Greek text, which contains no punctuation or verse identification, has been incorrectly punctuated in our English Bibles. It should be rendered: “(37) Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and let him drink, he that believeth on me. (38) As the scripture hath said, out of his [the giver — Messiah — not the receiver] belly shall flow rivers of living water [which become available for believers to drink].” And Scripture does say this: “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness” (Zechariah 13:1). Jesus is that “fountain.” We must “drink” the “living water” that comes from him and receive God’s holy spirit if we are to have abundant life (John 10:10). Turning Enemies into Friends In his letter to the Romans, Paul quoted Proverbs 25:21,22 when he wrote: “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head” (Romans 12:20). “Coals of fire” is from the Greek anthrax, a word that appears only in this New Testament verse. Everyone understands that providing food and drink (and other gracious acts and words) to those antagonistic to us is a good way to turn them into our friends. But the latter phrase is puzzling since literal coals of fire on another’s head seems likely to turn friends into enemies. Whatever the meaning, it has to square with the next verse: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Kenneth Samuel Wuest (1893-1962), a Greek scholar and one of the translators of the original New American Standard Bible, offered this explanation: “In Bible times an oriental needed to keep his hearth fire going all the time in order to insure fire for cooking and warmth. If it went out, he had to go to a neighbor for some live coals of fire. These he would carry on his head in a container, oriental fashion, back to his home. The person who would give him some live coals would be meeting his desperate need and showing him an outstanding kindness. If he would heap the container with coals, the man would be sure of getting some home still burning. The one injured would be returning kindness for injury.” The noted British Methodist theologian Adam Clarke (1762-1832) viewed the phrase differently: “It is very likely that the latter clause of this verse, Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, is a metaphor taken from smelting metals. The ore is put into the furnace, and fire put both under and over, that the metal may be liquefied, and, leaving the scoriae and dross, may fall down pure to the bottom of the furnace. This is beautifully expressed by one of our own poets, in reference to this explanation of this passage: So artists melt the sullen ore of lead, By heaping coals of fire upon its head. In the kind warmth the metal learns to glow, And pure from dross the silver runs below. “It is most evident, from the whole connection of the place and the apostle’s use of it, that the heaping of the coals of fire upon the head of the enemy is intended to produce not an evil, but the most beneficial effect.”
Eating
as a Social Activity Though eating is required to sustain life, it is also one of our most important social activities. On the first day of the week the disciples met together to “break bread” (Acts 20:7) and speak of those things that were dear to their hearts. They could have eaten privately at home, then come together, but they did not. The last meal Jesus had on earth was taken in the company of those closest to him. It was then that he mentioned a future time of great joy when he would drink the “fruit of the vine” new with them in his Father’s kingdom (Matthew 26:29). Speaking of his second advent, Jesus spoke of himself as a host who served his guests: “Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them” (Luke 12:37). This beautiful word picture describes servants of the lord meeting together and feasting on what the returned lord is serving them: the truth. “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness (or truth) are all welcome at this table, and they will be filled (Matthew 5:6)! Eventually the world itself will feast at the table provided for them in the kingdom: “In this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And he will ... swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces ... for the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 25:6-8). How blessed we are to eat and drink at the Lord’s table now, and by faith see the blessings of the kingdom when all who desire may “take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17). . |