Appetite: The First Sin

CEBU, Philippines - Their tragedy was at the skin of their teeth. Everything had been perfect in their lives --the couple was blessed with good countenance, good home, good relationship, good food, good job, good success, good life -- nothing was wanting. One day while the wife was walking in the garden, she was jolted by someone hissing at her. "Psst...psst....psst...over here," the woman turned to find a talking snake. "Oh hi there," she told the snake, "anything on your mind? Snake off, I want to get a nap under this shady apple tree."

"It's too early to have a nap. How would you like a taste of that fruit over there?" said the snake.

"Fruit what fruit?" said the woman, "The Almighty said we are not to eat the fruit of that tree. We would be poisoned and die if we ate. Yuck, I wouldn't want that to happen to me. Look my skin is flawless, my hair has perfect bonds, my body is in perfect shape and my husband is such a handsome man. I wouldn't want some fruit to ruin by beauty and perfection."

"Oh come on, Madam Eve, the boss won't know. It really won't harm you a bit to take a bite. Look you've got flawless, soft hands and I don't. That fruit is within your reach, munch on," said the snake.

Picking the fruit and digging her teeth into its flesh, "It tastes great Mr. Snake, thanks for telling me," said the woman as she chewed.

Just then a muscular, tall man came. "Hey, what's going on here? What in the world are you doing, darling? You ate the fruit that the Almighty forbid," said the man.

"Have a bite, darling Adam. It tastes great," said the woman.

Because of an appetite for the forbidden, the couples were banished from their paradise. For taking a bite of sin, they got devoured with destruction.

The story of Adam and Eve is always a sad story. It is a story of temptation, of indulgence, of defiance with a tragic ending. The moral lesson of the story is more than just temptation. It is also about nutrition. Since Adam and Eve, God already gave strict guidelines of what and what not to eat. But the devil always finds ways to destroy man by his own doing. The snake did not have to pick up the fruit for Eve to eat. Eve poisoned herself by her own doing. Other than nutrition, appetite has direct links to our spiritual life. When the appetite is ruling, sin is at the skin of one's teeth. It is because of appetite that man falls into his own tragedy by his own appetite.

Serpents in advertisements

From the laws of health, the National Nutrition Council has provided guidelines of food and drink fit for the human body, fit for a healthy life. These guidelines come with listings of forbidden food and warnings of what the human body stands to suffer when forbidden food or drink is eaten and eaten in excess. But serpents lurk everywhere -- be these in advertisements, in allurements and counterfeit advocacies. It was not the serpent in the Garden of Eden that caused Eve to sin. Rather, it was Eve's appetite that caused her to suffer the consequences of sin.

From spiritual and psychological laws, appetite must be controlled with reason so that the obsessions of food cannot take control. What we eat or drink can either promote or hinder our relationship with God. By His marvelous works, God created man such that He put guidelines in Leviticus 11 and Proverbs 20 of what man can eat, fit for godly lifestyles or lifestyles as it were in the Garden of Eden. God created man on the sixth day when all other things for his food were ready like the trees, plants, fruits, fowls and fish. God created man, plants and animals with a chemistry of what plants and animals to eat fit for the chemistry of the human body man. Sadly, man would rather heed the hissing serpent from behind at risk of being poisoned and losing a healthy life in paradise.

Hissing serpents have long been banished from the Garden of Eden. These are now all over the earth in advertisements showing images of cholesterol-laden halo-halo or crispy chicken in billboards, print ads, and television and radio ads. Serpents brandish its ugly head of temptation in the guise of allurements promoting cholesterol-laden food sold at value prices. While the National Nutrition Council heads a multi-organization task force of promoting good nutrition that includes local government units, little has been done by local government units to regulate or ban ads that have heavy subliminal messages of appetite and indulgence for unhealthy food. There are advertisements that promote a lifestyle of drinking liquor among women. Yet Local government units have done little to regulate ads or issue strong statements of ads that promote alcoholism on women or junk food for children.

Scripture makes it clear in Isaiah 65: 3-4 and Isaiah 66:17 that eating swine flesh is abomination to the Lord worthy of death. When God created pigs, He already knew that this is bad for human consumption. But just like the serpent that told Eve it is all right to eat of the forbidden fruit, so is man in these present days where many of culinary delights are cooked with pork meat. Does it surprise us that the lifetime of man is reduced from 900 years old to 70? It really has much to do with eating the forbidden.

Prophetic warning, counterfeit advocacies

The prophetic warning of sinful appetite was also revealed in the Book of Daniel. The first test that Daniel and his young friends faced was the test of appetite. They asked not to be given the king’s food which is mostly meat food and instead asked for pulse diet or diet of vegetables, dates and fruits.

When Jesus the Christ was in the wilderness, his first test was appetite. The devil lured him to turn stones into bread. But Jesus the Christ hit the devil on the head with “man does not live on bread alone.”

Hissing serpents also come in counterfeit advocacies that promote the appetite for compromises. There are hissing serpents that speak in talk shows, in their columns or in advertisements that it is all right to indulge and eat anything because there is a carbohydrate tonic that controls cholesterol. Or it is all right to indulge because there are gyms and health clubs that provide quick fix weight loss and slimming programs. Or there are options for surgery and body wraps that promise to lose flabs and wrinkles overnight. There are food supplements and cereals that deceptively guarantee weight loss in a matter of days. Even as far as telling people blatant lies like they can lose weight without exercise or controlling diet. It is time to be freed from the deceptions of the serpent.

The only way to have a fit and healthy life is to have a fit and healthy spiritual life. There must be an appetite for spiritual life first so one does not have to give in to the appetite of hissing serpents. People become fat, old and ugly for eating and drinking those things forbidden. It happened to Eve, it could happen to you.