Enough

Wanting more has been the wile of God’s enemy Satan since the beginning of time.  He empted Eve with gaining wisdom and being like god by eating from the one tree that God told them not to eat from.  God made male and female in His own image and gave them everything they needed; but Satan promised more.  The Israelites were tempted by the ungodly nations to want a king to rule over them rather than God who had led and provided for them for over 40 ears.  Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness with all that was not his to give by saying, “If you are the Son of God do this”, as if being God’s Son wasn’t enough.

Wanting more destroys nations and creates wars.  It makes people envious and jealous of one another.  It feeds the gods of capitalism and consumerism, which results in slavery, classism, and discrimination, the very things that pollute and destroy a society from within.  Wanting more is a most dangerous and destructive weapon because it hides and disguises itself as progress, success, and ‘doing good’ in the world.  But in the end it only corrupts individuals, societies, and nations.

In the movie Babe a powerful statement is made by Babe’s owner.  After Babe completed his task of rounding up and penning the sheep, his owner shut the gates, looked down at him and said, “Enough pig, enough”.  Then they both smiled at one another, those “get ya” smiles that say “all is well with the world”.  It’s that smile that I expect was on God’s face on the sixth day of creation.  It was on that day that He told Adam and Eve that He had given them everything they would ever need.  And God saw everything that He had made and saw that it was good…very good.  In other words, “It is Enough”.

God provided everything that was needed by the Israelites in the desert for 40 years.  They had manna, quail, water, and clothes and sandals that never wore out.  They lacked nothing.  It was Enough!  Then God brought them into the Promised Land and provided great cities which they did not build, houses full of good things that they did not fill, wells which they did not dig, vineyards and olive trees they did not plant.  And then He warned them. “Beware lest thou forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” 

Unfortunately they did forget and did exactly what God told them not to do.  They went after the other gods of the people that were around them.  That behavior and those choices took them right back into bondage again; a bondage that we have inherited and suffer the consequences of.  We ignore the ENOUGH and live in the WANTING MORE, and then complain that we are in bondage and not free to enjoy life.

Jesus shows and teaches us the ENOUGH life in God’s kingdom, where He provides all His people could ever want or need.  It is a life filled with the fruits of the Spirit that are ENOUGH for all.  It is a life lived in God’s Presence that is ENOUGH for all.  It is a life of drinking freely from the Fountain of Living Water, and it is ENOUGH.  Everyone had everything and it is ENOUGH!