Eating By The Rules

I will be starting a new series out of my new “Cravings” book. The key to sobriety, weight-loss, and a myriad of other plaguing human problems is deliverance. “Cravings” will give you the spiritual insight you need to get past the “want to” and “will power” and into the true keys to freedom.  -Marjorie Cole 

EATING BY THE RULES

It may sound like “over spiritualizing” to make eating good food an act of obedience, but that is exactly what God did. If God gave a commandment, then breaking the commandment is possible, just like posting a speed limit now makes speeding illegal. Before the posting, speeding was simply the way one preferred to drive and not punishable as a crime. So why did God make a law if He knew people would just break it? For the same basic reason we pass laws in society, to keep people from getting killed, ripped off, and treated unfairly. Does is work? Not usually. Why? Because the law does not bring with it the power to make anyone keep it, in spite of the consequences. We still have the freedom to ignore or disregard it’s protection. Neither does keeping the law justify us. In other words, keeping the law does not make us righteous, because keeping the law, and making more laws, is not the remedy for sin. The curse of sin was death. No amount of obedience, after the fact, could change that. The only remedy for death was death. That death could only be given by One who was qualified to die, One not already slated to die under the curse. Only One Who came from outside the system of earth would be qualified to give His life. Only the One Who came down from heaven was eligible to die. And He did. (Jo. 6:41-51). Death is the power of sin. Death is the bottom line on disobedience. The bottom line on God’s love for us was caring enough to make the supreme sacrifice to die in our place. He ransomed us knowing He would be misunderstood and held in contempt for it. For that He is the most loved and hated of all human beings that ever drew the breath of life. Dying in our place is the bottom line on love. Obedience in eating the food God has commanded us to eat, brings us into covenant with God’s grace and protection, making our obedience in some ways, as serious as the commandment God gave Adam and Eve in what NOT to eat. To disobey it has physical consequences as serious as the spiritual ones given for eating of the Forbidden Tree. Just because God did not personally pull us aside and instruct us on the benefits of obedience to the laws He set up for eating does not exempt us from the consequences of not keeping them. Not seeing the immediate effects of violating those laws has led many to eat without considering what damage disregard of them will bring. Eating is vital to human health and functioning, determined by choices we make numerous times every day, giving the Enemy a constant opportunity to tempt and overpower us. Ez. 2:6-8 makes a striking connection between rebellion and eating.  God speaking to Ezekiel says, “…do not be afraid or dismayed. Though they are a rebellious house”, speak My words to them, “But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” From this passage we can see that eating what God gives us becomes an indication of our submission to Him, an act of obedience and a source of blessing. Not heeding His provision and command becomes a sin that gives the curse a place to land, and opens the door to death. (See Pr. 26:2). Sin was activated under the declaration that “the soul that sins shall die”. Sin, in turn, activated the “body of death”. That “body of death” became part of human functioning when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Forbidden Tree.