Manna and Mammon

bou-lim-i-a [boo-lim-ee-uh, -lee-mee-uh, buh-] a serious eating disorder, characterized by compulsive overeating usually followed by self-induced vomiting or laxative or diuretic abuse, and is often accompanied by guilt and depression

Fallen, fallen, fallen
Is Babylon
Fallen, fallen, fallen
Is the City of Doom
The queen of every dark desire
Fallen by famine, plague and fire
Fallen is Babylon
Fallen is the City of Doom!

–Michael Card, The City of Doom

We christians are something. We binge and purge our way through the world like a bunch of spiritual boulimics, pining for and dining on Egypt. Trouble is, Spirit doesn’t mix with Egypt and sonship and onions make a lethal cocktail. Mixing leeks and manna sours the stomach and fouls the breath, yet we say it is the way to stay relevant; so we pull up our chairs at the pub, get tipsy on Nile water, not as drunk as the pagan in the next stool mind you, but tipsy enough to coherently give ‘em the Romans Road in a bar ditty.

How ironic that we fight for things like blended worship to make everyone happy when there is a much more pathological issue of blended worship going on among those who name the name of Christ: Jesus said it was like trying to serve both “God and mammon” (you say mammon is money but it is really anything that steals our devotion from the Lord and thus opposes Christ). Light and dark. Egypt and the Promised Land. The broad road and the narrow road. Babylon and Zion. Manna and mammon.

Sadly, too many of us swallow Egyptian food then regurgitate it because, while we may like its taste, we don’t want the curse that goes along with it. Quoting from a friend, we’re “buying real estate on the Nile River” instead of packing our bags for the wilderness. We choke down leeks and onions along with our Passover Lamb even though the Death Angel is just down the street.

Let me tell you where all this ranting is coming from. It is on me. Me, I tell you! Although I am a saved man I confess I still dabble in Babylon. The other morning when I should have given the earliest hours to the Lord, it was more important to me to see to some other tasks and the Lord called me on it. And while we’re on the subject, Scott, he added, what’s the deal with you watching that stuff on TV last night? Do you enjoy sitting through a movie that curses My name?

I immediately fell into repentance and confessed to My Master that I can be such an ‘Egyptophile’. I said, Lord, the man You saved does not want or need the bells and whistles, comforts and conveniences, luxuries and bounty of this world. The man You saved wants YOU! He wants YOU at the loss of all other things this world has to offer. Babylon is fallen! Fallen! Why in heaven’s name would I want a world that has a life span?

My prayer to the Lord that morning continued (I often write my prayers to the Lord),

The man you saved is a violent warrior. He is looking ever and only to the Commander and seeks to please Him. He is faithful to Sandy, never looking at another. He is a Lover and a Leader. The man You saved is a friend to all and will freely give his shirt and coat to one in need—even though he has his own needs. The man You saved lives the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle. He isn’t entrusting his soul to a prayer he prayed or an aisle he walked but to the Person of Christ. He is a “Lord’s Prayer Man” not a “Sinner’s Prayer Man.” Thy Kingdom come, Lord, and let it come in me!

I know this man is alive, Lord, and every once in awhile I can actually see him. So why do I still feast at ‘Pharaoh’s Diner’? Why do I do it only to look in the mirror later and disgust myself? If this man, this saved man, can muscle up to the head of the line and punch the lights out of this other entity who passes himself off for me, I know he will never choose Egypt and its crap (’scuse the language, used only for effect) because he knows, (a) it is never palatable, and (b) it is passing. This saved man will never forage for a half-eaten Wendy’s burger covered in maggots in some dumpster but will sell all he has for the Manna from heaven.

That’s what got me on this soap box today. I sincerely hope I didn’t needlessly offend you but every once in a blue moon I need a swift kick in the derriere to jolt me back into kingdom reality when I catch myself eyeing the green of Egypt. And I suspect you do too. So, c’mon, brothers and sisters, let’s stop the retching. The bags are all packed, the wilderness is calling, and the Lord is wooing us to our inheritance. Giants will fall. Kingdoms will perish. And we will not look back, by the grace of God, but forge ahead. What’s to miss, after all?

Someone please pass the manna…