The first command in the Bible was to eat this, not that
References: The Bible Project video “Tree of Life”, St. Thomas Aquinas and the Book of Common Prayer, as well as various Bible passages beginning in Genesis with the Garden of Eden, the temptation of Christ, the Sower and the Seed, as well as other references like Ephesians 2:1–3; James 4:1–7; 1 Peter 4:1–4; 5:8–9; 1 John 2:12–17.
Faith
The story of the Bible and of all humanity begins in a garden.
The garden was where God and man lived together. This garden represented a temple with a most holy place where God resided. This most holy place was the Tree of Life.
The Tree of Life represents God’s own life and creative power that is made available to others.
God’s first command was to eat.
Let’s pause there. God’s first command was to nourish the body with food.
But He specifically guided the first man and woman where to get this food for life.
They were to eat from MOST of the trees in the garden, including the Tree of Life. Eating from the tree of life leads to eternal life.
However, on the way to the tree of life in the garden they have to pass by another tree called the tree of knowing good and evil. They were NOT to eat from THIS tree.
The tree of knowing good and evil was also beautiful.
The twist is that God said that eating from this tree will kill you. This tree represents taking the authority of your life and doing what is right by your own standards. Not God’s standards. When humans do this, it leads to brokenness and ultimately death.
Both trees look beautiful, but one is a false tree of life.
We all know the story.
The humans (Adam and Eve) take from this tree. As a result, they are exiled from the garden for good.
The rest of the Bible is the unfolding of a journey to get back to the tree of life.
Moses encountered God in a desert through a burning bush on top of a mountain. This bush was radiating with God’s power and light just like the tree of life in Genesis. This burning bush experience God told Moses to bring His people to this mountain and there they could choose His way or their own way.
If you know that story of the Israellites, they gave their allegiance to an idol. This was not going to be the last time that God’s people turned away from Him.
Generation after generation, the people of God have chosen gods of their own making.
Strangely enough the idols throughout history were always placed on tall hills. But they were always false trees that led to exile, self destruction, and death.
Maybe the temptation for idols is just too strong of a grip on humanity?
When Jesus came to earth He claimed that there was hope. He was this tree of life. This is what He meant when He said He was vine and He invited people to eat from Him.
To eat from Him was to trust Him and be transformed by Him.
But Jesus also exposed how corrupt humans are and how much we love false trees of life.
So He gave them another opportunity to choose life or death. And they chose to kill him.
He was ultimately led up a hill and was hung on a tree to die.
The cross is a symbol of humanity choosing to deny Jesus as our source of life.
It seemed that the tree of life had been overcome by the tree of death.
But Jesus had also claimed to be a seed of God’s life and that He would die and then sprout as a plant. So to defeat death, Jesus went through it.
So this new tree of life is available to us, but we will have to pass through death like Jesus’ example for us.
We will have to die to ourselves.
This is the challenge of temptation.
We have to allow our old ways of being human to die so a new life can grow in its place.
When He said that He is the vine, and we are His branches, He has invited us to be a part of that tree of life, spreading life and light through our lives.
John 15:4-5 “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
St. Thomas Aquinas, a well-known theologian and philosopher in the 13th century, taught about the 3 sources of temptation:
The world "indifference and opposition to God’s design"
The flesh "gluttony and sexual immorality, ... our corrupt inclinations, disordered passions"
The devil "a real, personal enemy, a fallen angel, Father of Lies"
Romans 8:13 “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live”
The Bible app has a concise 3 day reading plan on this study https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/31324-three-sources-of-temptation
It is comforting to know that even Christ encountered all 3 types of temptations while in the desert for 40 days.
These 3 types of temptations are also exemplified in the parable of the sower in the book of Matthew 13.
Nutrition
There are certain laws of nature that God has created that we must live under. For example, gravity.
We know that gravity is a reality of this world, and we live longer when we abide and respect this law.
We can pray that we won’t die if we jump off of a building, but that prayer likely won’t be answered. Gravity is a reality.
The same can be said of food.
The more we learn about food science, the more we have to face the reality that much of the modern food sold in our grocery stores are food products, and NOT real food. And this fake food is making us very sick..
Fake food gives us the false impression that we are nourishing our bodies. But the reality is that we are getting addicted, malnourished, and more and more sick.
We can pray for our food at mealtimes, but the reality is that on a cellular level, this food is an unidentifiable object causing chronic inflammation. Prayer is always good, but we can’t change the law of nature.
I do not want you to be ignorant that the fake food is killing you.
And to deny the fake food can be similar to the passing by of the false tree of life.
We have to pass it up and go farther to get to the real source of life. Real food that is in its original form, the way God created it.
Real meat, not convenience meats like chicken nuggets, processed meatballs, and beef patties pre packaged with tons of fillers.
Real fruit, not gummy fruit snacks, popsicles with food colors and artificial flavors, or flavored juice boxes loaded with highly processed sweeteners and neurotoxic colors.
We have to see the food system for what it is.
Convenience, addiction, and big industry profits.
The idol of convenience
The idol of addiction
The idol of profit
Pass by this broken system, deny it, and let it die.
Eat real food the way God made it and experience a more abundant life.
Take aways:
The first Temptation began with food. Adam and Eve were physically tempted and this type of temptation continues through all of history.
To get to the Tree of spiritual life we must pass by the FALSE tree of life.
When we reach the real Tree of life and eat from it, we become a part of it and share this life to others.
To experience abundant life in Christ, we must die to our self.
My personal reflections:
Modern food is fake like the false tree of life. The food that God made - whole foods - are sustaining for us and are a concrete physical example of the spiritual tree of life.
We have to recognize the modern economy and its distance from creation. For profit, they create and sell fake foods that are addicting, attractive, and appear to be “perfect”.
Adjusting your life to eating real physical food requires life change, discipline, and more time. Shopping is harder, preparing is harder, resisting addicting foods is hard.
Physical food is not a salvation topic, but is a very concrete example of the reality of a tree of life and a tree of death. There have been traditions in history that practiced extremism like asceticism - which is complete abstinence from worldly pleasures. My declaration is not to be this extreme, but to simply recognize the deceitfulness of modern companies in producing addictive products that lead to sickness, addiction, and dependence.
Application:
What is one temptation, addiction, or idol that is slowly depleting my life and ultimately killing me? Is there a false tree that I feel I need to pass by to have abundant life? What do I need to die to today?
Wanting to go deeper? Are you stuck with food addictions?
There are so few spiritual resources for Christians who are seeking Biblical applications to their nutritional journey so I have created my 30 day NO SUGAR Challenge - available ANYTIME!
This is completely digital and has daily reflections for you to complete at your own pace.
Start by cutting out refined sugar for good, and see how this impacts your relationship to nutrition and other addicting foods.
Work at your own pace!
A guided study with recipes, encouragement, nutritional facts, and personal reflections of my own journey to quitting sugar FOR GOOD!
Spiritual reflections weaved throughout the 30 days.
