Returning from Bible school, many a brother or sister has commented, “We were well fed, that was a ‘feast of fat things’.”
The comment does not refer to the sustenance provided the natural man but to the food enjoyed by the spiritual man. Such a metaphor is Biblical, for scripture uses natural food as a symbol for the word of God. “How sweet are thy words to my taste!” “…eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear (the word of God), and your soul shall live;” (Psa. 119:103; Isa. 55:2-3). And the Lord himself, the word made flesh, alludes to himself as the “bread of life” (John 6:35).
A natural exhortation
There is more in these phrases than powerful figures of speech; there is a pointer to daily exhortations that are built into our bodies if we will but recognize them.
Our bodies hunger for daily food. We do not experience hunger on a weekly or monthly basis. In the normal course of life, we experience it daily, usually several times a day. The natural man is telling us it needs sustenance – every day. This fact can serve as a regular reminder that the spiritual man also needs sustenance — daily.
Our bodies react to a poor diet very slowly. We can get by on junk food for weeks or months before the effects begin to show up. We can be overweight for years before we realize the condition is causing nearly fatal complications. In a similar manner, poor feeding of the spiritual man will seldom result in glaring sin immediately. We can go along for months, apparently acting as well as we ever have, when suddenly a combination of circumstances occurs which exposes our low resistance and dangerous spiritual condition.
God’s deliberate design
When we look at scripture, we see much evidence that God has deliberately designed natural conditions to teach spiritual lessons.
The rainbow is an obvious example. That natural phenomena is not an accident of nature, it is a deliberate reminder of God’s promise not to destroy the world again with a flood. To the sensitive servant of God, the rainbow is not only a refreshing reminder of the grace of God but it is also a sobering exhortation. It reminds us that, at one point, man’s iniquity was so great only eight people were saved. And it further reminds us not to become absorbed in today’s conditions, which are very much like those that occasioned the outpouring of the wrath of God.
When we say, “Look over there at the rainbow!” we can merely observe a beautiful sight or we can be sensitive to this powerful exhortation God has deliberately built into nature.
The precise cycling of the seasons and of night and day is not an accident. Every day we can read in the paper exactly when the sun will set today and when it will rise tomorrow. Every year the occasion of the vernal and of the autumnal equinoxes can be printed in advance on calendars. That precision is a result of God keeping His covenant that, “While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” (Gen. 8:22)
We can take the precision of the natural cycle for granted or, at morning prayers, we can see in the dawning of a new day absolute assurance God keeps His covenants — all of them. “If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night…then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne…” (Jer. 33:20-21). To those who have eyes to see, every new day provides reassurance that the kingdom will be established. The night of Gentile darkness will end and a whole new order will be established upon the earth; Israel will dwell safely; Jesus Christ will reign supreme from Jerusalem and his servants will reign with him throughout the world. What joyous reassurance has been built into the natural cycle if we but have the sensitivity to see it.
The persistence of weeds, the pain of childbirth, the containment of the seas, the multitude of languages, the uncleanness of human issues and many other physical aspects of creation all convey spiritual lessons. This situation is not accidental; it is deliberately designed by God so that our natural circumstances can provide constant exhortation.
Hunger for the word
Therefore, let our daily hunger remind us of our daily need for the word of God. As we reach for something to assuage the natural desire, let us be reminded to reach for the word on a regular basis. As we make plans for the major meal of the day, let us make plans for a concentrated period with the Bible. As we feel our bodies refreshed by the intake of nourishment, let us realize our spiritual man is restored by imbibing the water of life. With proper spiritual sensitivity, our natural body can provide us frequent exhortation.
Gradual trouble
And when we are told that if we do not improve our diet we are headed for trouble, let us consider our spiritual situation as well.
As noted in this issue in the letter under “Family Life,” spiritual breakdowns usually result from a gradual decline in spiritual health. Such a decline is habitually associated with the person neglecting his spiritual diet. He stops reading the Bible daily; he begins to miss ecclesial functions; he declines ecclesial assignments; he avoids activities that will require Bible study.
No immediate harm is noted. But then he meets an attractive person at work and an association begins that would never have started if his spiritual health was good. He is slandered by someone in the ecclesia and harbors bitterness instead of extending the forgiveness that comes from a spiritually healthy heart. Or he finds association with the world pleasant because he has lost his repulsion at vain conversation and his goals have gradually shifted to the joys of this life instead of participation in the kingdom of God. Adultery, hatred, unequal yoking–they can all result from a poor spiritual diet and the gradual decline in health that ensues.
Let us be exhorted by the features God has deliberately built into our own bodies. Let us be built up by the word, that our health may be vibrant and our resistance strong against the wiles of sin.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One