“Living like a Christian feels like I’m in a candy store and all the candy is behind the glass case fully available to everyone but me.” We should not think that this painfully honest observation, submitted for discussion at a recent young people’s meeting, is a description only of the feelings which young believers have. The natural heart, which all believers have, is capable at all age levels of looking at and longing to taste what the world offers. The Word of God records for our instruction several accounts of those who were influenced in some way to taste the “candy” that was offered by the world. May we listen to the warnings these instances provide that we be preserved from such sad falls as they experienced.
Eve was influenced by her mind. Though only one thing was unavailable to her, Eve listened to a lie of Satan and was fooled into thinking that God was withholding something desirable from her. What God had forbidden to her mind seemed like “candy” something good. But faith never doubts that God wants the soul to be fully happy and that He has provided it with “all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” He has said “no good thing will He withhold”... let us believe it!
Lot was influenced by his eye. Abraham allowed him to choose first: the wilderness where he could walk with God as a pilgrim or the “well watered plains of Jordan” where his fellowship would be with the citizens of Sodom. Lot looked with nature’s eye and, seeing the “candy” that Sodom seemed to offer, was blinded to the abominations that existed there; “man looketh on the outward appearance.” Only the eye of faith discerns this world’s “candy” as abomination, though it be hidden under attractive wrapping. Nature’s “eye hath not seen... the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”
Israel was influenced by its taste. Their hunger in the wilderness caused them to forget the bondage and sorrow that was part of Egypt’s “candy store.” They remembered the taste of Egypt’s food and forgot that God, who delivered them from an impossible situation in Egypt, was well able to sustain them in an impossible place in the desert. If believers acquire a taste for this world’s “candy,” the appetite for God’s good food will be quickly ruined, and we will miss “good things” which He has promised to the hungry.
Achan was influenced by his covetousness. He wasn’t deceived, as was Eve, when he stole the gold, silver and clothing he found in Jericho; Achan knew that taking them was sin. But what his eye saw in Jericho so captured his heart that he could not resist the temptation to take it. To faith, obedience to God is far more beautiful than the gorgeous “Babylonish” garment or the glitter of Jericho’s gold and silver. May we look away from this world’s “candy store” that our heart not be captured and we begin coveting that which God has forbidden to us. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.”
Samson was influenced by his lust. His life is a sad testimony to how far into the “candy store” the treacherous heart can lead a believer. First, Samson saw a woman he knew to be one of the enemies of God’s people. Though she was unsuitable he still wanted her (Judges 14:22And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. (Judges 14:2)). Later, he entered into a relationship with a woman he knew to be unfaithful (Judges 152And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her. (Judges 15:2)), and finally he fell in love with a woman (Delilah) whose heart was unknown. This world’s “candy” can never provide lasting satisfaction and, if tasted, it will surely capture the heart and ruin the life of a believer. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
Demas was influenced by the present. Candy gives an immediate though temporary sense of pleasure. But as Demas served with the beloved Apostle, he had to taste trials, suffering and rejection instead of the pleasure and ease his heart craved. While faith is content to wait for that coming day of glory to taste God’s “pleasures forevermore,” Demas, loving the easy present, forsook Paul in order to enjoy the world’s “candy.” “If they had been mindful of that [country]... they might have had opportunity to have returned.”
Judas was influenced by unbelief. We shudder to think of the awful choice Judas made. For three years he walked in companionship with and observed the moral perfections of the blessed Lamb of God, and yet, because he had no living faith, he sold the eternal Son of God into the hands of wicked men for 30 pieces of silver. What vast divine treasures the unbelieving heart is willing to give up in order to obtain the worthless “candy” of this poor world! “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”
Any of these influences might cause a believer, when out of communion with the Father, to feel as though real pleasures can only be found in this life and are unavailable to them. But in closing we want to be encouraged by the example of Abraham who was offered by the world as much of its “candy” as his heart might desire, and yet without a moment’s hesitation he refused it all.
“And the king of Sodom went out to meet him [Abram] after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he [was] the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him.... And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich” (Gen. 14:17-2317And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale. 18And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. 19And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 20And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. 21And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. 22And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, 23That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich: (Genesis 14:17‑23)).
Abram, like his nephew Lot, was given a choice. Two kings met him upon his return from the battle. One had something to give to Abram while the other had something he wanted to take from Abram. Melchizedek, a beautiful type of Christ, brings bread, wine and blessing. Is not this better than what the world’s “candy store” offers? Abram evidently so valued what the King of Salem gave that when the King of Sodom made his wicked offer it was turned aside without a moment’s hesitation. Of what interest to a fully satisfied and blessed soul were the vain, wicked riches that Sodom’s king offered?
Feeding, as Abram did, on the wonderful things that we have in Christ is the key to refusing the “candy” offered by the world. Remember too that Satan, the prince of this world, offers to give “candy” in order that he might take the souls. Abram refused even a shoe-latchet or a thread if they came from Sodom. This world’s thread can never keep the garment of faith secure and bound safely about the Christian while its shoe-latchet will never keep the shoe of separation bound on the foot of a believer.
May God help each one of His dear children to feed fully on the infinite provision He has made in our blessed Lord Jesus Christ that we, like Jacob when viewing Joseph’s provisions, may say: “It is enough.”
Ed.