A Perverted Appetite
‘All partial beauty was a pledge
Of beauty in its plenitude:
But since the pledge sufficed thy mood,
Retain it! Plenitude be theirs
Who looked above!”
E. B. BROWNING.
(ISAIAH xliv. 20.)
q/WO lessons were learnt by Israel in captivity — the t’ all-sufficiency of God, and the absurdity of idols. Each of these themes is dealt with in the glowing sentences of the paragraph which commences at the sixth verse of this chapter and culminates with the twentieth verse.
The all-sufficiency of God is the subject of verses 6, 7, 8.
The absurdity of idols, verses 9 to 20.
It is on the latter of these that we are new to dwell. We are conducted into the idol-factories of the day. As we begin our exploration, we are forewarned that we shall find the manufacturers vain, and their delectable things unprofitable; and that though the whole assembly of them stand together in solid phalanx, they shall be put to utter confusion and shame.
With this caution we enter the workshop where a molten image is being made from glowing metal, beneath the heavy blows of the hammer, wielded by the strong arm of the swarthy smith. Surely the product of such strength should be strong to help. But see, the smith himself is tired and thirsty after a few hours of work; how evidently, then, is he unable to produce that which can help other men in the extremity of their need!
The effect cannot be greater than its cause. An idol cannot give perennial strength, when its manufacturer is so easily exhausted (verse 12).
Next, we are led into a factory of wooden idols, where a carpenter is at work, stretching out a line of measurement, drawing a pattern with red ochre on the block of timber, and shaping the figure of a man. The floor is littered with crisp shavings, the furniture is heavy with sawdust, and the idol that is to fill its votaries with such awful dread is being very un-
ceremoniously handled in its process of manufacture (verse 13).
Lastly, we follow some private individual into the forest.- He levels cedar or oak; or an ash tree, planted long before, because its durable wood, when grown, would well suit his purpose. Part of the tree is sawn into logs and stacked for firing, and the remainder is fashioned into an idol, before which he prostrates himself. How graphically are these contrasts portrayed! We can hear the chuckle of delight, as the man warms his hands or roasts his food by the crackling logs; and immediately after we can see him in prayer, pleading with the remainder of the trunk to deliver him as his god.
Why do men act thus, with such inconceivable folly? How is it that they do not realize the incongruity of their actions? The prophet knows nothing of the modern theory that men do not worship the stone or wood, but accept the effigy as a help to fixedness of thought and prayer; he would affirm that with the mass of men this is a fiction, and that the worship of the devotee stops short with what he can see and touch. The cause of idolatry lies deeper. “He feedeth on ashes; a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
I. THERE IS A HUNGER FOR THE DIVINE IN MAN. — Z¢ és Universal. All men are made on the same plan, whether physically or morally. As the body needs food, so does the mind demand truth, and the spirit God. This is true of every age and clime. Always and everywhere these appetites demand satisfaction. Hence, beside the homes of men you will always find the corn-field, the mango-field, or the bread-fruit tree; and within a stone’s throw a church, or chapel, or temple, the path to which is trodden hard by repeated steps.
It is significant. We can tell something of the composition of the human body by the materials which it needs for its sustenance. Similarly the true dignity of man betrays itself in the hunger which perpetually preys upon him. The cattle, when they have taken their fuli meal, repose contentedly on the grass; but man is not satisfied to have eaten his roast or warmed at his fire, he must needs go forth in search of the beautiful, the sublime, the harmony of sweet colours and sounds, the discovery of truth, the presence of God. Does not this disprove the materialistic philosophy in vogue in some quarters? If man is only matter, if thought is only the movement of the gray matter of the brain, if there is no spirit and no beyond, how is it that the material world cannot supply the supreme good? and that when, as in the case of Solomon, life
‘is filled with all that wealth and power can yield, man turns from it all as a vain and empty bubble, the mirage of the desert, the apples of Sodom, the chaff which cannot appease hunger? Does not this show that there are component parts of man’s nature, and these the noblest, which, because they cannot be appeased by the contents of the time-sphere, are above time, and belong to the eternal and unseen? Must not there be something Divine in man, if he hungers for the Divine; something spiritual and eternal, since the spiritual and eternal alone can meet his need?
It is inevitable. The functions which food performs in our system are threefold. It is needed to replace the perpetual waste which is always wearing down the natural tissues; to maintain the temperature at some 98°; and to provide materials for growth. And each of these has a spiritual analogy. We need God, for the same three reasons as the body needs food.
(1) We need God, to replace the perpetual waste of our spiritual forces. Each time we act or speak we expend some portion of our nature; we break off, so to speak, some tiny fragment of nerve or muscle; we wear thinner some string or wheel in the complex physical machine. This needs to be renewed and replaced. Hence life is a perpetual struggle against the forces of disintegration and decay at work within us, Thus it is in the spiritual sphere also: each unselfish act; each remonstrance against wrong, or effort on the behalf of purity, peace, or righteousness; all right thinking, living, and working; all visits to the sick, discourses, acts of moral heroism, expend our spiritual forces. We are subject to a perpetual wearing down, and consumption of spiritual energy. And therefore there must be hours of quiet fellowship with God, in which to recruit ourselves and regain our spent vigour.
(2) We need God for warmth and heat. In cold, the body requires a good supply of carbon; it must be well fuelled. At every point of the immense system of blood-circulation there must be fires kept burning, to consume the waste products that choke the veins, and to maintain animal heat. So we need the comfort of the Comforter, the renewal of love and faith and hope, the blessed glow of those coals of juniper of which the Spouse speaks. And this, again, can only be met with in - fellowship with God.
(3) We need God for growth. As the young child must have milk that it may grow thereby, and as the ravenous appetite of the growing lad or girl betrays the immense demand that nature is making for materials, out of which to build up her temple; so our spiritual growth depends on how much of God we can take into our being. For want of this Divine Food, some never get beyond the babe stage, to become strong men and women in Christ. That which builds up the inner life is deep and intimate fellowship with God; and the more direct it is the better,
II. THis APPETITE MAY BE PERVERTED. — “He feedeth on ashes.” An appetite may be perfectly healthy in itself, but it may be supplied with unsuitable materials, In times of scarcity the Chinese use a kind of edible earth as a substitute for food. Negroes on the West Coast of Africa have been known to sustain life on a yellowish earth, used with coarse flour to make it go further; whilst the natives of Java are said to knead clay into balls for eating, as a luxury. In these ways men tamper with their natural appetite. They literally spend money for that which is not bread, and labour for that which satisfieth not.
But there is a close similarity in their treatment with that — wonderful yearning after the unseen and eternal which is part of the very constitution of our being — a hunger after the ideal Food, the ideal Beauty, the ideal Truth, which may be resisted and ignored, but still claims satisfaction; and if it does not get it in God, it will seek it in the ashes of idolatry.
Men worship idols yet. The sensualist worships in the old Temple of Venus, though he has never heard the murmur of the blue A2gean around the island dedicated to the grossest impurity under the name of religion. He tries to satisfy his hunger for Divine love with the ashes of physical gratification.
The man of the world worships money, rank, high office; he is prepared to sacrifice everything to win them. Morning, noon, and night, he is expending his choicest gifts at the shrine of the god of this world, invoking his help, propitiating his wrath, endeavouring to win his smile. The golden calf is still the centre of worship, decorated by garlands, encircled by the merry crowds. Costly sacrifices smoke before it, though in.the solemn heights of Sinai the cloud pavilion glows with the Shekinah.
The child of fashion worships in the temple of human opinion, and feeds on the ashes of human applause an appetite which was meant to satisfy itself on the “Well done!” of the Almighty.
The student who questions or denies the Being of God, worships in the temple of learning; and feeds with the ashes of human opinion an appetite which was intended to be nourished by eternal truth.
The soldier, in whom the love of adventurous deeds is strong, is apt to worship in the Temple of Mars, and to feed with the ashes of military excitement an appetite which was intended to lead to great exploits on behalf of the oppressed and wronged. In one shape or another, idolatry is as rife among us as ever, though material emblems are in small request. And in every case these substitutes for God, with “@he True Bread.” - 61
which men try to satisfy themselves, are as incapable of satisfying the heart, as ashes of supporting the physical life.
III]. THE TRUE BREAD. — /? zs the Gift of God. “My Father giveth the true bread from heaven.” God who made thee hunger for Bread, made Bread to grow for its appeasement. There is, of course, the human side in the cultivation and preparation of food; but it is a small thing compared with the Divine. “Thou providest them corn, for so preparest Thou the earth” (Psa. lxv. 9, R.V. marg.). In every land there is the bread-stuff indigenous to the soil. Other vegetables have their peculiar habitat. The olive will not grow in Labrador, and the fir does not flourish on the banks of the Amazon. But the corn-plant will make its home in every land, and grow on every soil.
He has also provided Beauty for our taste, Truth for our thought, Love for our heart; and has gathered all these and ‘much more into his one Gift, Jesus Christ our Lord, who contains within Himself all that is required for our inner life, as corn contains all that is needful for the nourishment of the body.
Nature yields her provision to man through death. The armies of standing corn are mowed down by the sickle. The tender plants yield up their stores, through the edge of steel, the grind of mill-stones, the scorch of fire, to minister to man. The cattle fall beneath the staggering blow, or the gash of the knife. For the wild things of the forest there are the rifle and swift death. So it is through death that Jesus has become the Food of men. The Lord’s Supper perpetually reminds us of this. The bread and wine that nourish us there are the emblems of the flesh and the blood of One who has died and is risen again. At that holy feast we commemorate the death of One who lives for ever; and show forth that the life which nourishes our spirits has passed through the sharpness of death, that it might nourish within our spirits the eternal life. Our Lord’s repeated reference to flesh and blood, which are so significant of death, enforces and accentuates this truth — that it is only through his death, and through our participation with Him of death, that He can become the true meat and the true drink (John vi. 53-57).
Let it never be forgotten, that it is not by the words, nor example, nor deeds of Jesus Christ, alone and apart from his death, that we can grow into the stature of perfect men; but by ’ fellowship with Him in death, and by the passage of all these qualities through death, and by the careful pondering of his own words, “I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore.” It is through death and resurrection that the Lord Jesus has become the food-stuff of the spiritual nature of man.
We must assimilate our food. It is not enough that the Lord Jesus should be set forth evidently crucified for us. We must feed on Him by faith. We must meditate on all that He is, and all that He has done. We must receive Him into our hearts by an act of spiritual apprehension. We must reckon that we have received and do possess. We must especially appropriate Him in respect of those special requirements which may have revealed themselves in moments of temptation and failure.
So shall we become strong and glad. Life in full measure will be meted out to us. We shall eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. We shall know even as we are known.