Indulging vs Feasting

The  country is France, the place, the most expensive restaurant in the capital and the decade is the 1790s. Although France is wracked by war and revolution, and though peasants are baying for bread, here two men sit opposite each over a table groaning  under the best food in the country.  One of them, the fatter, one who is struggling with his food, is the Gourmet  Pere Gourier, and the other, far thinner, is the city’s executioner.  He is known simply as Ameline.   The two men, are engaged in a competition to see who can eat the most steaks, and at present,  Ameline is on his 15th. Everyone, the waiters, the wine waiters and the Metre D’hotel are watching intently, as Gourier struggles to face his 14th steak, takes a bite and swallows.  Then, in the act of cutting himself a second slice, his face turns pale, he gasps, chokes and slumps into his plate, stone dead.

This dramatic episode marked the end of the man known as the Diabolical Gourmet, a man with plenty of money, who murdered for fun.  He murdered, not by conventional means, but by inviting  poor people to a restaurant, and paying for them to indulge themselves.  Inviting them back day by day, and week by week.  Sooner or later, each of them died of over indulgence.  Eight men died at Gourier’s hand, but it is ironic, that he eventually died at the table, with food in his mouth.  Even more so, that an executioner lead him to his death. But it was the only way to stop him, as nobody can be prosecuted for buying someone too much grub!

So what has this to do with faith?  Gourier played the trick all sin tends to play on us. An action becomes a bad habit, such as lying or using porn or drinking too much, becoming ever easier to indulge in.  We are often our own worst enemy, by deceiving ourselves with the idea that just a little more will not hurt. The worst thing about indulgence is it is such a false friend, keeping us from the things that will really fill us up. The things that God designed our desires to be filled by, the things that he delights in us feasting on bring life, not death:

 

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

Isaiah 55:2

So, more steak anyone!?

David Wilkins

Image by Fotoos Van Robin