Gluttony and ‘The Great Mistake’

Have you noticed how many TV shows there are about food these days?

Do I sound like a judgemental old fogey in even asking that question?

Don’t get me wrong. I am as obsessed with food as the next person. Though in my case, it is more about managing food intolerances than gourmet cooking. I love to find tasty alternatives, full of texture, to things that I used to enjoy but now need to avoid. Just ask to try my focaccia-pizza next time you’re at my place.

“She needs a glutton-free diet,” a friend whose second language is English recently explained to the manager of an Asian restaurant. Yes, I thought, that is true enough. I didn’t correct that kind friend’s pronunciation. ‘Gluten’ and ‘glutton’ are quite similar in both form and their relationship with food. The manager obviously understood, for before long, the table was covered in tasty delicacies.

Early church leaders in the sixth century identified gluttony as one of the ‘seven deadly sins’, but we don’t talk much about it in today’s church. I was astonished this weekend, however, to find an example of it in ancient Israel … and to realise that a focus on food rather than on God was, in part (though only part), an element of ‘The Great Mistake’. A mistake not outside the providence of the Almighty, but a mistake nonetheless.

Isaac’s intention to bless his older son

The old patriarch, Isaac, now blind, had called for his eldest son, Esau, to receive the family blessing. “Go hunt some wild game and prepare my favourite meal,” he had instructed the hairy man. “Then I shall give you the family blessing.” 

His wife Rebekah, many years his junior but still no spring chicken, had overheard. This could not be, for God had told her himself that the younger son would become dominant over the older one. And God could not be allowed to fail. (That, of course, is another element of ‘The Great Mistake’, deserving of its own blog post.)

As for smooth-skinned Jacob, he was only younger by a matter of minutes. In fact, he had been born with his baby hand firmly grasping his hairy brother’s heel.  Decades later, he and his brother still struggled. 

Sending her younger son to select two fine goats, Rebekah began her work. Mixing the bread, preparing the meat, fashioning sections of the goat hide to cover her younger son’s exposed hands and neck, brushing off the questions of Esau’s wives as she prepared his best clothes, she bustled from one task to the next. By hook or by crook, her ailing husband had to bless the younger man, for God had spoken.

That meal had better be exceptional.

Isaac’s blessing of his younger son

Ageing Isaac’s eyes had failed him, but there was nothing wrong with his tastebuds. 

Esau, his son, was quite the hunter. The wild game that Esau caught and cooked was exceptional. Before passing on the family blessing to his older son in the presence of God, Isaac wanted a meal. A special meal. After all, you can’t just give the kids everything they want on a silver platter. You’ve got to make them work for it, even if just nominally. 

In fact, food was a big part of why the old man favoured Esau over his brother, Jacob. 

“The boys grew up, and Esau became a skilful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.” 

Genesis 25:27-28 NIV

When the younger son brought Isaac some delicious delicacies, along with bread and wine, he knew that something wasn’t quite right. He couldn’t see the man, but the voice of the son carrying the meal was that of Jacob. Never mind that he claimed to be Esau. His hands and neck were hairy though … surprisingly hairy.

Finally, his tastebuds tingling and his stomach satisfied, he called the son to his side. “Kiss me,” said Isaac. As the young man leant over him, old Issac inhaled deeply. Ah yes, the smell of those clothes was that of the outdoors. 

Did the wine dull his senses? Was he lulled into a sense of complacency by the tasty tucker he had enjoyed so much? 

In any case, after the meal was finished, Isaac blessed this man, his son.

But the younger son, not the older one. 

The end of that story

Esau turned up shortly after that. He carried a platter of food and drink, the crowning jewel being the dish made from the meat of a wild animal that had been running free just hours earlier.

Jacob’s deceit came to light. One wonders how much the father and older son realised quite how much Rebekah had been involved in hatching the plot. Certainly Jacob was in a lot of trouble.

Esau was furious, and Isaac visibly shaken. 

Under the guise of finding a wife from their own people, but in fear of his life, Jacob left the family home. He would be away a very long season during which he, the deceiver, would be deceived big time. Esau took yet another wife, a cousin through Ishmael this time, in an effort to please his father.

It didn’t end well. In fact, although some reconciliation would eventually take place, the tension between the brothers would be passed on to their descendants for centuries.

Relevance for 21st century people

Would Isaac have acted differently, say, had he fasted and prayed before such a momentous act as passing on the family blessing rather than licking his lips and chomping down his favourite meal? His example should be a warning to us.

The Bible has a great deal to say about fasting. In fact, just today (as I finalise this blog post, drafted yesterday) our pastor preached on Jesus’ acknowledgement of three significant spiritual disciplines – giving, praying and fasting. (That was from Matthew 6.) Oh yes, the disciples need not fast while Jesus was with them, but Jesus expected them to fast plenty once he had been taken from them. (See Matthew 9, Mark 2 and Luke 5.)

But surely God doesn’t expect us to fast these days? We live by grace, right?

Gluttony is quite acceptable in the food-mad culture in which I live today. In that respect, our culture is not unlike that of the first century Philippians, to whom Paul wrote critically of enemies of Jesus. Look at how he describes them.

“Their end is destruction, their god is their belly and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.”

Philippians 3:19 NIV

So what is the relevance for us … for me?

I’m not committing to a serious fast. Small blocks here and there, perhaps. If I boasted about it, I would be guilty of exactly the sort of behaviour that Jesus criticised in Matthew 6, the passage that formed the basis for today’s sermon.

For now, all I want to say is this: Our focus needs to be on God rather than food. When our culture pushes us to focus more on food than on God, then we must be counter-cultural.

By the way, the Bible is full of teaching about and examples of fasting AND feasting. It isn’t wrong to enjoy good food. The focus, however, must be on the Giver of all good things, and not on the gifts.

Glutton-free … that is what we need to be.