He Feedeth on Ashes

In a recent podcast Dr. Terry Ball spoke about Isaiah 44:20 which reads, “He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?” He commented, “Talking about the person who makes an idol and worships it out of a tree, he says, he, the one who worships idols, feedeth on ashes. So that begs the question, how is worshiping false gods and idols like eating ashes?” He continued, “So you're hungry and you want to get rid of the hunger pangs and you choose to eat ashes. Could you eat enough ashes that your hunger was satiated? Could you say, ‘I'm so full I couldn't eat another ash’? But on the same hand, could you have a belly full of ashes and die of malnutrition?” He then asked, “What are some modern-day ashes that people feed upon?” Certainly, there is much today that we turn to for fulfillment and happiness but in the end is just ashes. We think that our riches or cars or gadgets or popularity on social media will bring us lasting joy, but these kinds of things never can. This is reminiscent of the story that President Packer told as related by Elder Holland: “He talked about a severe winter in Utah when the snow was excessive and had driven the deer herds down very low into some of the valleys. Some of them were trapped by fences and circumstances as they were taken out of their natural habitat, and well-meaning, perfectly responsive, capable agencies tried to respond by feeding those deer to get them through the crisis of the winter. They brought in hay and dumped it everywhere; it was about as good as they could do under the circumstances. Later an immense number of those deer were found dead. The people who handled those animals afterward said that their stomachs were full of hay, but they had starved to death. They had been fed, but they had not been nourished.” Too often today we seek to be fed by what the world has to offer, but we find no nourishment in it.

            Moroni wrote that those who came into the church were “remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith” (Moroni 6:4). That is where real nourishment comes from: the good word of God. I believe that can be interpreted both as the words of God we find in the scriptures as well as the Word of God who is Jesus Christ. As we study His word and are watchful unto prayer, we find true nourishment to our souls and fulfillment that the world cannot offer. As we “feast upon the words of Christ” we will indeed be filled by Him (2 Nephi 32:3). Nephi gave us this incredible promise, “And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness” (1 Nephi 17:3). The Lord nourished Nephi’s family literally in the desert as the kept His commandments, and He will nourish us spiritually as we keep His commandments and come unto Him. Otherwise, if we turn to the world for nourishment, the ashes will not in the end provide us anything of value. Isaiah gave us another similar image in these words: “It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite” (Isaiah 29:8). Those who do not seek the Lord but fight against Him will eat and drink in their dreams only to find out they are still hungry and thirsty because they have focused only on “that which cannot satisfy” (2 Nephi 9:51). Those who refuse to com to the True Vine for nourishment will in the end find that they “have sought all the days of [their] lives for that which [they] could not obtain; and [they] have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head” (Helaman 13:38). Only in Jesus Christ and keeping His commandments will we find lasting nourishment and ultimately salvation with Him and the Father.