For The Voracious Eater

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Sep 20, 2017 No Comments ›› admin

Someone remarked the other day that he was so hungry that he would eat anything that was placed before him. This statement, which we make often as humans when we get to that point of hunger reminded me of Daniel and his friends when they were captured and taken to king Nebuchadnezzar’s palace in Babylon (Daniel 1). Like all other young nobles that were captured with them, they were offered choice meals from the king’s table. Let’s consider the conditions they were in. These young noble men like the other captives were captured from their homes and traveled several kilometers in presumably several days or weeks, put in slave camps, prisons or dungeons, starving. Later, the guards, on the orders of the king came and selected the nobles, fittest and finest amongst them. These were then brought to the palace and a table filled with assorted choice foods was set before them. If you were in their shoes, having gone hungry for a very long time, what would be your reaction at that very moment? However, all but four sat, threw caution to the wind because of their hunger and thoroughly engorged their bellies with the food that was set before them as starving men would! They forgot the God they serve (if they truly were serving Him) and where they were coming from. Friend, those days are similar to these present times, where people are not too sure about the requirements of the God they claim to serve on one hand and are very hungry for the niceties of the world on the other hand!

This present food is not physical but spiritual. A food that defiles the body, dulls and deadens the senses and makes it receptive to the evil manipulations of the ruler of the atmospheric domain, the spirit that works in the disobedient (Ephesians 2:1-2) which is the devil. The enemy just like king Nebuchadnezzar had a plan and an outcome in mind when he ordered young men without physical defect and good looking to be brought into the palace, the food was just the route to actualizing his plan: “suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace – and to teach them the Chaldean language and literature” (Daniel 1:4). Today, messages (food) from some pulpits hardly address sin, salvation or the Return of Jesus Christ in judgment; they are more concerned in teaching the congregation how to line their pockets with wealth on earth with no direction on how to get to the mansion God is preparing for them in Him! In some cases, salvation messages are added at the end of their sermons as an afterthought and maybe a precondition to get the nice things they preached about. No wonder those that give their lives at this instance are unable to leave their past lives and live a life that is worthy of the Person they gave their life to.

Daniel understood that the food that was presented to them was not God’s but from the storage and table of demons. It may look like food but it is designed to put the eater to sleep, to deaden the senses to the ways of God! If truly we are preparing for the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, then: “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord’s Table and the table of demons. Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He” (1Corinthians 10:21-22)? There is so much spiritual hunger in the land, as most food being offered does not satisfy. As a result people voraciously gobble down whatever they are being presented with, without going back to the Lord to verify as the Berean Christians did in the days of the Apostles if what they are eating is of God and will help them on the path of righteousness and holiness (Acts 17:11). The sad part of this debacle is after getting all the wealth, there still remains a huge question as to where all these fit into in eternity! The result is lives are not impacted or prepared to function for the Kingdom of God rather they are on their way to becoming earthly millionaires with no clue as to where they will spend eternity. These have been so cauterized to the things of God that any statement or action that looks, feels and sound right is godly and must come from God. No wonder such can collaborate with the world and see nothing wrong with it.

Beloved, we are in the world but we are not of the world! We must take heed to what is being placed before us and to only eat that which is of the Lord ’s Table: It is real food and real drink designed to equip us to live glorious and victorious lives in Jesus Christ here on earth and in eternity. The greatest part of it all apart from the fact that it satisfies no matter how hungry you are, it is free! “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost! Why do you spend money on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods” (Isaiah 55:1-2). May you grow in discernment even as we see the DAY draw nearer in Jesus Christ name. God bless you!

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