Let Us Eat And Drink
We devote a lot of time to eating and drinking, but do we ever stop to wonder if we’re doing it right?
Here are three ways to eat and drink.
The first approach is a hopeless eating and drinking:
And in that day the Lord God of hosts
Called for weeping and for mourning,
For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
But instead, joy and gladness,
Slaying oxen and killing sheep,
Eating meat and drinking wine:
'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’” (Isaiah 22:12-13).
The context of this passage has Israel on the edge of death and judgment because of their own sin. But instead of crying out to the LORD for salvation, they embrace that death and make the most of it by eating and drinking.
Maybe you could imagine what this feast would be like. Rowdy desperation.
Life is pointless. Death is imminent. But at least I have my food and drink.
The second way of eating and drinking is hopeful, but that hope is ill-founded.
“And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry’” (Luke 12:19).
Instead of eat and drink for tomorrow we die, it’s eat and drink for tomorrow we live.
Here it is in context:
Then [Jesus] spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ (Luke 12:16-20).
(As a side note, this is the only example of retirement that I know of in Scripture. And it doesn’t show retirement in a positive light.)
The rich man decided to stop running his race early and just enjoy the rest of his life.
This type of eating and drinking has a lazy feeling with it.
I’m eating and drinking now and will eat and drink forever. But he was wrong. He died that night.
Here is the final type of eating and drinking:
Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20).
Eat and drink, for today was a gift from God.
This eating and drinking rejoices in a good day’s work. And even that good day’s work is itself a gift from God.
Because of this, there is no reason for you to dwell unduly on yesterday or tomorrow or any other day of your life. You can’t live in the future and you can’t live in the past.
But you can eat and drink today because God kept you busy with joyful work.
This is your heritage. It doesn’t matter if you’re eating and drinking on a yacht or in a shack.
What matters is being thankful to God that you can enjoy your work, the food and drink that your work produces, and the people you’re able to share it with.
So eat and drink well.
What do you think?
Joseph