What Dulls Your Appetite for God?

[Garland-Green]

JULY 26, 2019

Article by Marshall Segal
Staff writer, desiringGod.org

What is the greatest threat to your soul? Whatever keeps you from God. And not every threat will be sin. In fact, for many of us, perhaps most of the greatest threats to our souls are not sin, but some good God himself has given to us.

John Piper offers a perceptive warning:

The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. (A Hunger for God, 18.)

Do you know what awakens your appetite for heaven? Do you know what dulls those same desires? We may think we know well what sin will reap, but we’re often far less aware of just how dangerous apple pie can be.

Read more: link  

[cristobela]

Let me just emphasize what this article is truthfully addressing: the illegitimate excuses, as Jesus described in parable form.

However, there are actual legitimate excuses written in the Law of YHWH (which we must acknowledge in order to glean any spiritual / symbolic insight represented by it). For instance, even in the case of the Passover dinner (with the Passover Lamb), you had to skip it if you were unclean, postponed until the next month (implication: when you would no longer be in an unclean state). Being in an unclean state is Lawful excuse. (You know you're contaminating.)

• Numbers 9:6-13 (NIV)
  
  6 But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day 7 and said to Moses, “We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting the Lord’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?”
  
  8 Moses answered them, “Wait until I find out what the Lord commands concerning you.”
  
  9 Then the Lord said to Moses, 10 “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they are still to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, 11 but they are to do it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones. When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow all the regulations. 13 But if anyone who is ceremonially clean and not on a journey fails to celebrate the Passover, they must be cut off from their people for not presenting the Lord’s offering at the appointed time. They will bear the consequences of their sin.

█ = excused
█ = not excused

This dinner is symbolic of fellowship with YHWH, partaking of (and fellowshiping with) The Passover Lamb, under His protection, you're His. Even this had a reason when it is not okay to partake of (you are literally excused).

It's a good excuse.

Who defines what is good?

• Mark 10:18 (NIV)
  
  18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
  
  
• Hebrews 6:5 (NIV)
  
  5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age
  
  
• Romans 7:12 (NIV)
  
  12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
  
  
• Timothy 1:8 (NIV)
  
  8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.
  
  
• Proverbs 4:2 (KJV)
  
  2 For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.

So, if you're in an unclean/ill/contaminating state, then no you're not obligated to fellowship. You should be healing, resting until you are healed / until He heals you (if we're talking physical; hearing a sound word can heal you back into having a sound attitude, a sound mind, but in the physical things you must be physically healed/clean to prevent passing on physical illness). The same pattern Jesus set: He healed someone, then they followed (and did activities with) Him and the rest of His body (like supped with Him and His disciples). Fellowship with the rest comes after healing.

There are even certain cases reiterated in the New Testament where, quite frankly, He (Jesus/YHWH-incarnate Himself) said that He doesn't want you to fellowship with Him and the rest of His body if you're in a contaminating, unclean state...

• 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 (NIV)
  
  27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. 32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.

...even if you're the Church, thus you're His, blood bought (this letter/epistle was written to believers in Christ, the church).

If one opens up the chapter (1 Corinthians 11), one will see examples of the unworthy eating (gluttony/greed: i.e. some eating up all the bread resulting in others having none and drinking all the wine, getting drunk; the others had nothing to eat or drink left to partake of the Last Supper). The greedy, gluttonous ones were defiled/unclean in a spiritual sense:

• Mark 7:20-23 (NIV)
  
  20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

If you're eating and drinking (fellowshipping) while committing greed in the heart and in body (an uncleanness that defiles) He does not want you amongst the rest of the Body, but separates you via sickness, weakness, even may outright kill you so that you don't contaminate the others.

In essence however, greed is a disrespect for YHWH-given/YHWH-designed limits (be it the limits of your stomach which you enlarge or the limits of His Commands which people stretch as if they were not there, something not to be heeded).

• 2 Corinthians 7:1 (NIV)
  
  7 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

I include 2 Corinthians 7:1 to demonstrate that yes, there is still physical detriment to what YHWH deemed a physically unclean bodily state. You can become contaminated and become ill in body (or, if already unclean in body, pass that contamination onto others) when in an unclean state. The physical is a picture of the spiritual (passing on of unclean thoughts, ideas, and attitudes too, not just passing on of pathogens when physically coming in contact with someone who is unclean; it's both).

So, unless you have the gift of healing/miracles, when it comes to physical bodily uncleanness/disease, please rest/recover in quarantine and allow others to; you are not obligated to get into the Word of God (physically, contaminate Scripture) or pray (if you don't have the energy to, exhausting yourself instead of allowing your physical body to allocate all its resources/energies into healing; let others pray over you if you physically can't and don't feel guilty about this). YHWH does not place that burden upon you like some religious systems would have you think (e.g. that you must pray certain prayers at certain times of day—as if you were obligated by God Himself via Command). No. Unless He heals you/you become healed (in body and mind), you are not obligated to fellowship, read Scripture, or pray, and actually are commanded against fellowshiping with the Word of God when in that state—for your (and everyone else's) own good.

To summarize:

That statement of Segall's...

Marshall Segal

There are no good excuses for skipping this banquet.

...is false (thus, that there are no good excuses that should keep you from fellowshiping with the Word of God). There are lawful reasons, even from Jesus' own mouth (and divine rebuke), to avoid fellowshipping with Him (even when other believers do not tell you, do not correct you, or fail to kick you out of the congregation, but that you should recognize for yourself when you shouldn't).

To suggest that there are no legitimate excuses is the leaven of the Pharisees: religious-sounding/religious-looking teaching, but denies the Commands of YHWH "as it is written".

There are Lawful (good) excuses, just like—as Jesus addressed with the parable—there are unlawful (not good / illegitimate) excuses (a concept we also see addressed in the Law: under certain conditions in your situation, you are excused; under certain conditions in your situation, you're not; this same principle is merely reiterated in spirit by Jesus' parable illustrating examples that do not excuse you from fellowshipping with Him. But the rest of Scripture [including in the New Testament] does describe the legitimate/lawful/good reasons that do excuse you from fellowshipping with Him and His body—and in fact, He outright commands you not to until you're healed of it and/or sincerely repented of it).