“All a man's labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not satisfied.” (Ecclesiastes 6:7) For the gut growls within us like a dog, and it is never satisfied; as it says, “They return at evening, they howl like a dog, And go around the city. They wander about for food And growl if they are not satisfied.” (Psalms 59:14-15) Our appetite is like a dog which is never satisfied.
Oh, the power of food! Is not a roaring lion tamed with even a little bit of food? And a crying baby pacified with milk? And when an animal is trained, is it not because of food? And God, Himself being a consuming fire, is pacified, or appeased, by the smell of sacrifice; as it says, “The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.” (Genesis 8:21) And is not the sacrifice on the altar considered food? As it says, “Then the priest shall offer it up in smoke on the altar as food, an offering by fire to the LORD.” (Leviticus 3:11)
Or what about Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal? (Genesis 25:29-34) Was he not overpowered by food? And did not his father Isaac love him more because of his cooking? As it says, “Now Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.” (Genesis 25:28) Can’t it also be a stumbling block? As for the Israelites in the wilderness, craving food, said, “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna." (Numbers 11:4-6) Or Rachel who sold her husband to Leah for mandrakes; as it says, “But she said to her, "Is it a small matter for you to take my husband? And would you take my son's mandrakes also?" So Rachel said, "Therefore he may lie with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes."” (Genesis 30:15) Or what about the atrocities that happened in Israel when they were in famine and besieged by an army? “So we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, 'Give your son, that we may eat him'; but she has hidden her son." (2 Kings 6:29) For they ate their own children because of hunger.
Did not sin come into the world through eating forbidden food? As it says, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6) As the Proverb says, “To show partiality is not good, Because for a piece of bread a man will transgress.” (Proverbs 28:21) But in this case, a piece of fruit. And can’t our appetite even be a god to some? As Paul warns, “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.” (Philippians 3:18-19) And earlier he says, “Beware of the dogs…” (Philippians 3:2) And then in Romans, “For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.” (Romans 16:18)
Just as some of the early disciples came to Christ, following Him, but not for Him, but their appetites; as He says to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” (John 6:26) And what good comes from this? As it is written, “Outside [the city] are the dogs…” (Revelation 22:15) For nothing unclean can enter into the kingdom of God; and a dog is declared unclean by the Law of Moses (Leviticus 11:27) Remember Esau? Who “When he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.” (Hebrews 12:17) And outside the City, it is said, “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” For Esau sought the blessing, but did not obtain it and wept; and so it will be in the end: outside the city there will be weeping. And all these things are written in the Word of God so that we would fear and not be among those who do not enter the City of God, but among those who do enter by perseverance.
So knowing that God’s kindness works repentance (Romans 2:4), and that godly sorrow works repentance without regret (2 Corinthians 7:10), and that the fear of the Lord is to depart from iniquity (Proverbs 16:6), we can be encouraged by the Word of God which leads us away from godlessness to Christ. For we have great encouragement through the Holy Scriptures concerning our needs; as Christ promises, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) For Elijah was fed by the Lord God, even by ravens; as it says, “The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.” (1 Kings 17:6) And the angel, sent by God, later appeared to him, feeding him; as it says, “Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.” (1 Kings 19:6) Or even Obediah, who feared the Lord, who “Took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and provided them with bread and water.” (1 Kings 18:4) Did he not provide for them in the fear of the LORD? Or even the widow, who God provided for, so that she should provide for Elijah (1 Kings 17:9).
What about the 600,000 men fed by God in the wilderness in the days of Moses? As it says, “Now there went forth a wind from the LORD and it brought quail from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp…” (Numbers 11:18-35) Or Christ feeding the multitudes of people with a few loaves of bread and small fish; as it says, “And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.” (Matthew 15:38) For God can use even our little for big works. So, as Jesus says, “Do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things.” (Luke 12:29-30) And since He knows our needs, He will provide for us, considering we seek not them, but His kingdom first. For His work is truly our food indeed. For our stomach can never be satisfied, but in regard to righteousness, He says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)
For this is the greater food; as He also says, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” (John 6:27) But later, He says, “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:48) And, “For My flesh is true food, and My blood true drink.” (John 6:55) For Jesus gives Himself for us to eat as Food by the will of the Father; as He says, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:54) For by the Father’s will, He became Food for us to partake. For in the time of Moses, the sacrifices on the altar were consumed by God through fire and also eaten by the offerer; so the sacrifices were shared by God and man; so the sacrifice mediated between God and man through consumption. Likewise it is today, for Christ is our Sacrifice, He is our Mediator. By Him we have reconciliation with God, for He is our Peace Offering, making peace between us and God.
As He says, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” (John 4:34) The will of Him was to make atonement on the cross for us; as He says, right before the hour, “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” (John 12:27) “That by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:9) This word “Taste” also means to eat, for He tasted the bitterness of death for us by the grace of God so that we wouldn’t have to. And He is received by us through faith for our strengthening in righteousness.
For He was sent by the Father bearing the Message of His death, foretelling His death, before the cross many times; and for this reason He came into the world. Just as Uriah was sent by David with the letter of his death in his own hand (1 Samuel 11:14), so the Father sent Christ into the world bearing the Message of His death. But it was impossible for Christ to bear bad news, but only good; for Christ is good through the Father, who alone is Good. As He says, “Why do you call me good? There is no-one good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18)
And so, by this Good News we have reconciliation with the Father by the death of His Son. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:10) For He was raised from the dead and now lives, for God raised Him from the dead. This is why He says, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” (John 6:51) For although He seen His death beforehand, He also seen His resurrection and exaltation.
You see, those who consume the things of this world, which are necessary for the body, eat death. For an animal is first slain, then eaten; and a plant is first plucked from the soil, which is its life, then eaten. For that which no longer grows undergoes decay; and decay is death. And we eat such dying things for nourishment for the body. How much more do you suppose we live who eat Christ, who lives forevermore? If we eat death and die, how much more do we eat Life and live? As He says, "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” (John 6:49-50)
But you may ask, “How do we eat Him?" As they asked, ”What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." (John 6:28-29) And if it is by faith, then it is counted as grace; as it says, “For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace.” (Romans 4:16) And, “If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” (Romans 11:6) So we consume Him through faith, hearing the Word about Christ.
As it also says, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) And Christ is the Word of God (John 1:1-3); even, “The Word of Life” (1 John 1:1) “For the word of God is living and active…” (Hebrews 4:12) It is the Word of Christ that we eat for strength; so, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
Those who eat, do so for strength, that they might do work. And so do we eat God’s grace so that we might be strengthened in spirit to do His will. As Paul says, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10) For when we eat food, it abides with us for some time; and by the strength of it, we labor. How much more God’s grace, which is true food, which is for our hearts, and His love, which builds us up, strengthen us for the good work which He has for us to do?
For we consume grace through faith; as the apostle says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;” (Ephesians 2:8) And food works best when hungry and weak; as it says, “A full man loathes honey, But to the hungry man any bitter thing is sweet.” (Proverbs 27:7) So He says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) And also, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6) So our hunger and weakness is turned to fullness and strength in Christ Jesus, our Lord, by the grace of God.
Therefore, Be weak! “Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” (James 4:9-10) Fast from physical food, abstaining for a little while, for the men of old, while doing so, found true food from God; as it is written about Elijah, “So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.” (1 Kings 19:8) And we know the revelation he received by God’s grace at that time.
And what about Moses, who went to the Mount of God and fasted twice for 40 days and 40 nights? Did he not live by God in those times? A man can go some time without food, but without water, he is sure to die. But he lived thereafter, eating and drinking Christ. And as Jesus Christ was in the wilderness for the same amount of time, He found strength in God, even enduring temptation from the enemy. And these things are written in the Word of God so that we would be weak in the flesh and be strengthened in the spirit by God’s grace.
“Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.” (Hebrews 13:9) For Christ came to us in love, which edifies; however, the Pharisees judged Him in regard to trivial food: the disciples picked grain on the Sabbath, and they said, "Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" (Luke 6:2) So they judged when they prepared food and ate. And then they said, “This man receives sinners and eats with them." (Luke 15:2) For they judged who He ate with. And, “When the Pharisee saw, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal.” (Luke 11:38) For they even judged how He ate. And then they asked, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?" (Mark 2:18) For they judged why He even ate in the first place. But, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)
Therefore, it says, “I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.” (Romans 14:14-15) And again, “Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:20-23)
Eating is sin, if we eat food sacrificed to idols, which is fellowship with darkness (1 Corinthians 10:14-22), or if we consume blood, which is the life of the body (Leviticus 17:13-14), or if we eat the Lord’s supper unworthily, which is sin against His Body and Blood (1 Corinthians 11:27), or if our eating is not from faith, which is sin (Romans 14:23), or if our eating causes another brother to stumble, which is not acting in love (Romans 14:15), or if our eating is in any way corrupted by sin, for food is a good and pure gift given from above. “Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility and whose princes eat at the appropriate time—for strength and not for drunkenness.” (Ecclesiastes 10:17)
Therefore, “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth.” (Luke 21:34-35) “For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe one with rags.” (Proverbs 23:21) Drunkenness is a friend to sleep, and both dwell in darkness; as it says, “For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.” (1 Thessalonians 5:7) Now, the sleep mentioned is unawareness; for a man may sleep even while awake; so the opposite of drunkenness is soberness, and the opposite of sleep is alertness; as the apostle says, “For you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:5-6) So that we may overcome the devil; as Peter says, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)
If we be of the day, we will not be surprised by the coming of the Lord Jesus; for that day will come like a thief in the night; as the Proverb says, “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest— Your poverty will come in like a vagabond And your need like an armed man.” (Proverbs 6:10-11) “But if that evil slave says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 24:48-51) And then it says, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;” (Ephesians 5:18-20) For if we are alert and sober, we are made good unto prayer; and prayer is our weapon in which we may overcome temptation, with thankfulness.
Therefore, we ought not to be like the disciples who could not watch in prayer for even an hour; as it says, “And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."” (Mark 14:37-38) And fasting is often accompanied with prayer; and what is more sober than fasting? Nor should we be like the church who was asleep; as Christ says to the Church, “Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.” (Revelation 3:2-3)
For sleep is akin to death; “For this reason it says, "Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you."” (Ephesians 5:14) And as Christ says to her who died in the Lord, “Leave; for the girl has not died, but is asleep.” (Matthew 9:24) So let us escape from the snare of spiritual sleep, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11)
Hear the promise of the Lord Jesus! “Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them.” (Luke 12:37) And by the angel, “Then he said to me, “Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" And he said to me, "These are true words of God." (Revelation 19:9) And, "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.” (Isaiah 55:1-2)