And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ Luke 12:16-19 (ESV)
God created a perfect world for sinless people. It featured humans created in God's image and designed to live on the life of God. This was symbolized by God breathing into them the breath of life. When we forfeited that essential life through disobedience, decay set into all the world. Apart from God’s intervention, nothing can stop this decay.
As soon as you pull a carrot or potato out of the ground, it begins to decay and spoil. All of our food sources respond in this way at death, including vegetables, meat, drinks, and grain. Some food lasts longer than others, but none escapes the decay of death.
The history of humanity is a story of trying to keep food fresh and healthy enough to eat. We have experimented through trial and error to come up with better ways to feed our bodies and make food last longer. We have tried dehydration, salting, pickling, burying, cooling, canning, air-tight sealing, freezing. (When someone asks me what is the greatest invention in the world, I usually say the refrigerator.)
We have creatively gone beyond preservation to solve the problem of decay by remaking our food. We leave out the real nourishment and replace it with man-made substitutes. We imitate flavors and vitamins artificially. We cover up the bad taste of spoilage with more spices. We invent preservatives. We manufacture imitation food and flavor it with chemicals.
Under the Abraham Lincoln administration, Congress created the United States Department of Agriculture. For 150 years this agency has tried to solve the problem of processing our food so it can be stored for future use. We regulate processing and packaging. We put expiration dates on packages.
Consumers feel pretty good about the success of this effort. We have a sense of superiority about our country's food industry. Until we eat with a neighbor who has a back yard garden. Then we realize what real food should taste like--and what nutrition it was designed to build into our bodies. Then we long for a way to return to a simpler and richer lifestyle of garden-to-table diet. When we find out the work required, we tend to revert to the convenience of our fast food diet. We still can’t put a safe piece of chicken on the store shelves.
Bible Lessons
As in Jesus parable about the rich fool who assumed his bumper crop entitled him to a life of ease and merriment, God has used the spoilage of food supplies as an amplified call for us to trust in him.
It shows up in the manna he provided daily in the wilderness. It is unavoidable in the Hebrew temple’s daily “bread of the presence.” It is a main feature of the story of Elijah's contest on Mt. Carmel to test whether Yahweh or Baal is the true God. It is the problem in Joseph's dream interpretation of the seven years of famine. It is Jesus' sermon on the mount teaching about God feeding the birds. Our daily bread is always fresh and healthy. God's mercies are new every morning. Even though people face this clue all the time, they seldom get the message.
This pointed lesson draws us to understand the decay of the human spirit and soul. Just as a physical body decays when life is removed, so also the human spirit decays when the life of God is not there. In what theologians call "regeneration" God puts his life and Spirit into spiritually dead people through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Every nationality, language, and people has lived with this obvious, but usually ignored, lesson facing us every day. Every culture has the challenge of staying alive in a world where food rots and becomes toxic. The need for spiritual nourishment as a clear parallel to physical food seems to be a part of general revelation. And many cultures have preserved stories and myths of this challenge.
Native American students at Harvard in the nineteenth century told their nations’ legends to Professor Longfellow, who wrote them into the Song of Hiawatha. The search and the temporary solution is there in the story of Hiawatha's week-long fast to seek the answer to food supply for his people.
The tale of this problem in Finland is recorded more cryptically in the Kalevala stories told for centuries by bards. You can find it in the invention of the wondrous Sampo by Ilmarinen.
There are hints of this in ancient Israel, recorded in the Bible's account of Israel asking Samuel to give them a king like other nations. It is a human problem that spans geography and time.
Spiritual Response
In American society today the unavoidable clue to the necessity of depending on God for physical and spiritual food is rehearsed weekly in most of our homes. It's when you go through the fridge and throw out the leftovers that are beyond reheating.
Why not turn that chore into a Sabbath delight? As you toss precious food that didn't make it for another meal, remind yourself that you live in a world marked by decay. Remember that God has a solution for decay and is in the process of reversing it. Give thanks for a God of the present, who will supply all we need out of his abundant and unfading resources. Understand that this applies to spiritual survival as well as physical. Make garbage day a weekly reminder of your dependence on God. And make your faith a daily sacrament of seeking the Lord.
Treasures stored on this earth, whether food or riches or achievements or other value, will decay. No matter how good your appliances or safes or investments are, they are subject to being stolen or simply wasting away. Trust in the one who can reverse decay by making everything fresh and fulfilling. Wait expectantly and welcome each new provision.