What Happens When You Don’t Control Your Appetite

A few years ago, I decided to get healthier. I started watching what I was eating, and cut out sugar, carbs, and caffeine from my diet. Later, I also took some supplements to help “cleanse” my system of nasty toxins and crap from all of my earlier bad decisions with food. If only the rest of my bad decisions could be erased by taking a couple of pills each day.

Adam and Eve

Earlier this week, I was listening to a sermon from my favorite online pastor, Michael Todd. He was talking about King David and Bathsheba, but he said something that struck a chord with me. I am paraphrasing, but it went something like this, “if Adam and Eve had controlled their appetite, Jesus wouldn’t have had to die on the cross.”

Woah! Let that sink in for a minute. Then, the pastor continued his sermon and said, “Your appetite can keep you from your destiny.” While most of us think of food when we hear the word, appetite, it can also apply to many other “desires.”

I doubt if Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil because she was hungry. She and Adam had EVERY tree in the Garden of Eden to choose from, so food was not an issue. So, “why” did she eat from the one tree that God had forbidden her to eat from?

Genesis 3:1-7

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

The reason is there in black and white for all of us to read… “She had a desire!” She believed the devil and his conniving words, but the decision was all hers. She was willing to bet that the Lord wouldn’t make her die if she ate from the tree. Instead, she believed that she would become God-like, and as wise as God.

What is desire? According to the dictionary, it is a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. Actions have consequences, and Eve’s desire got them banned from the Garden.

Sodom and Gomorrah

Have you read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah? Talk about desires being out of control!!! Two angels show up at Lot’s house; the men of the town want Lot to turn the angels over to them so that they can have sex with them. Lot offers up his virgin daughters to the men instead of the angels, but the men refuse and try to break down the door. The angels grab Lot and then strike the men blind so that they can’t find the door.

Genesis 19: 12-13

¹² The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, ¹³ because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

While I am not one for wanting to see people and places destroyed, I have to say that this was a good call by the Lord! The angels urged Lot to take his family and flee to the mountains so that they wouldn’t get caught up in the destruction of the city. But, Lot was afraid that the trek into the mountains would be too much for him and begged to go to a nearby town instead. The angels agreed not to destroy the town of Zoar and waited for Lot to arrive there safely.

Genesis 19: 23-26

²³ By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. ²⁴ Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. ²⁵ Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. ²⁶ But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Desires, or the lack of control of desires, destroyed those towns. And, the lack of Lot’s wife to control looking back, cost her life also.

King David

When we talk about King David, we usually think of the shepherd boy, the Goliath slayer, or David who hid in the caves and controlled his desire to kill Saul when he had the chance. In 1 Samuel 24: 3-13, you can read the account of Saul going into a cave to use the bathroom. David and his men were hiding in the cave, and David’s men urged him to kill Saul while he was unarmed and unprepared. David snuck close and cut off a piece of Saul’s robe, but let Saul walk out of the cave alive. But, David felt bad and came out of the cave and confessed to Saul what he had done. Saul said, “My son David, is that your voice?” And Saul wept out loud. ¹⁷ “You are a better person than I am,” he said. “You have treated me well. But I’ve treated you badly. ¹⁸ You have just now told me about the good things you did to me. The Lord handed me over to you. But you didn’t kill me.

But, what about David who didn’t control his desires? In 2 Samuel 11, we read of David seeing Bathsheba for the first time. Instead of controlling his desires for someone he “noticed,” he sent for her after knowing that she was another man’s wife. He slept with her, and she became pregnant. Then, David does what a lot of us do when we find ourselves in a situation of our making; he tried to manipulate his way out of the problem. When all of his manipulations fail, then he resorted to a plot to kill Bathsheba’s husband. Her husband was innocent in this scenario, in fact, he was off fighting for DAVID. The Lord was not pleased with David, and David had to be punished. Later in 2 Samuel 12, we find out David’s punishment, and once again, it cost the life of someone innocent.

2 Samuel 12:7-12

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘I anointed you king over Israel. I saved you from Saul. ⁸ I gave you everything that belonged to your master Saul. I even put his wives into your arms. I made you king over all the people of Israel and Judah. And if all of that had not been enough for you, I would have given you even more. ⁹ Why did you turn your back on what I told you to do? You did what is evil in my sight. You made sure that Uriah, the Hittite, would be killed in battle. You took his wife to be your own. You let the men of Ammon kill him with their swords. ¹⁰ So time after time members of your own royal house will be killed with swords. That’s because you turned your back on me. You took the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, to be your own.’

¹¹ “The Lord also says, ‘I am going to bring trouble on you. It will come from your own family. I will take your wives away. Your own eyes will see it. I will give your wives to a man who is close to you. He will sleep with them in the middle of the day. ¹² You committed your sins in secret. But I will make sure that the man commits his sin in the middle of the day. Everyone in Israel will see it.’ ”

and in verse 14: ¹⁴ But you have dared to show great disrespect for the Lord. So the son who has been born to you will die.” As I mentioned earlier, actions have consequences.

Are you noticing a pattern? Lack of control and giving in to our desires might cost distress and even death to innocent people around us. Jesus went to the cross because of OUR sins, not his. He sacrificed HIS life so that we might have a chance at redemption.

Did you notice that I left out verse 13 of 2 Samuel 12?

2 Samuel 12:13

¹³ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.

There was no waiting period involved. David confessed his sins, and Nathan immediately said, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.” We all sin, but confession will take that sin away from us immediately. The consequences will still come, but the sin will be wiped away. While I tried taking pills to purify my body of toxins and poisons, the Lord is the only one who can cleanse our souls.

To God Goes The Glory!

Have A Blessed Day!