EAT TO SATIETY

Proverbs 13:25 (KJV)

The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want.

Not long ago I listened to a historical podcast about Jesse James.

The James brothers are interesting characters to me because their father was a Baptist preacher and co-founder of William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri.

When my boys were little I used to tell them that Frank and Jesse James were Baptist preacher’s kids so growing up in our house was no guarantee they would turn out right.

Jesse James has always been somewhat of an enigma.

To this day there are people who view him as a Robin Hood rather than a crook.

He learned his profession as a Confederate “bushwhacker.”

When the war was over, the reconstructionist were unforgiving of people like Jesse and his family and some believe he and the Cole Younger gang took up robbing as a means to provide for friends and neighbors suffering under the carpetbaggers.

Jesse James was a personable man, married and with children.

After the Northfield disaster, where Cole Younger was captured and the James brothers barely escaped with their lives, Jesse James took an alias name, Thomas Howard, and purchased a farm in St Joseph, Missouri.

Gardner claims that Thomas Howard was unrecognized by his neighbors as Jesse James. They all knew him as a faithful husband and loving father to his children.

Neighbors reported seeing him frequently playing in the yard with his kids.

But he wasn’t satisfied.

Whether his thirst was for money, adventure or further revenge on the government, James put together a new gang. This one, however, was not composed of trained confederate soldiers, loyal to one another, but to common criminals, whose only goal was money.

It was one of this gang who shot Jesse James from behind while he stood on a chair to straighten a picture.

That Jesse James could have survived had he given up bank robbery after Northfield is demonstrated by Frank James and Cole Younger – both of whom did survive to old age.

Jesse James, however, couldn’t be satisfied.

Proverbs 13:25 (KJV)

The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want.

Based on this passage, I have three thoughts for you:

I. THE RIGHTEOUS FEED THEMSELVES

The righteous eateth

Obviously the picture being drawn is of eating food, but the lesson implied means so much more.

It has to do with our ability to care for ourselves:

• • Fitness
• • Food and
• • Spirituality

It also has to do with our earning potential; our ability to provide for ourselves and our family.

A. It has to do with food

• • A baby can’t feed itself
• • The infirmed sometimes can’t feed themselves and some people
• • Won’t feed themselves

People who are depressed, or addicted to chemical substances, for instance, sometimes choose not to eat.

An alcoholic will spend what money he has on booze instead of food.

B. It has to do with fitness

Many people refuse to take care of themselves physically.

• • They don’t get any exercise. 
• • They choose to let their bodies slowly quit working.

C. It also has to do with the spiritual

More people mistreat themselves in this area than in any other.

Too often people never feed their spirit and their soul.

They get up and eat, they go to work, they may participate in some kind of hobby…

But they do nothing for the spiritual side of themselves.

The righteous person eats.

He or she does what is necessary to take care of himself.

Secondly

II. THE RIGHTEOUS FEED THEMSELVES THE RIGHT THINGS

The righteous eateth to the satisfying….

Not too long ago I listened to this program about sugar vs salt.

I am pretty convinced that sugar is exactly what my high school friend used to say it was – poison.

This doctor on the podcast aid that our body needs to be fed absolutely no sugar.

It can create all the carbohydrates it needs from other foods, including, protein.

Since the body was not created to consume sugar, it has no means of telling itself when it has had enough.

The more sugar you eat, the more sugar you want.

It is like a drug.

You become addicted to it and yet, the whole time you eat it, it is killing you.

It never satisfies.

You might get sick from eating too much chocolate cake the first time you eat it, but the next time you will be able to eat more, and more, and more.

• • Real food, on the other hand, does satisfy.
• • Real food, he said, contains salt, not sugar.

• • Grass fed meat has salt in it.
• • Animal organ meat has salt in it.

Healthy fats all contain salt.

And the thing about salt is that your body will tell you when you have enough of it.

Unlike sugars real food, without added sugar, also has an appropriate ratio of quantity to calories. 

Your stomach reaches satiety before you have eaten way more calories than you can burn.

I think this is very good information to have, but we are speaking about the righteous, not the healthy so the passage has to do with things other than sugar and salt.

John 6:35 (KJV)

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 

Jesus said

Matthew 4:4 (KJV)

…. It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 

He also said

John 4:13-14 (KJV)

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 

Just like the addict who is controlled by his drug or the junk food junkie who eats himself full of disease, the wicked are never satisfied because they feed themselves on the wrong things:

• • Sin
• • Immorality
• • Lust
• • Covetousness
• • Riotousness
• • Licentiousness

Galatians 5:19-21 (KJV)

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

These things only feed the addiction. 

They never bring satisfaction.

Finally,

III. THE RIGHTEOUS FEED THE RIGHT PART OF THEMSELVES

The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul…

The righteous person focuses on feeding his soul instead of his flesh.

He takes care of the right things

• • Not his appetite, though we must eat some food
• • Not his body, though some exercise is important

He purposely takes care of his soul.

A. He prepares to meet God

Amos 4:12 (KJV)

Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

Hebrews 9:27 (KJV)

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

There is one thing that is absolutely certain – every man, regardless of race, gender, or religion, will die.

The wise person prepares to meet God after that.

B. He lays up treasures in heaven

Matthew 6:19-21 (KJV)

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

C. He puts on the new man

Ephesians 4:24-32 (KJV)

And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Neither give place to the devil.

Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.