“the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’”
Insatiable. That’s at the core of this passage. Solomon describes the appetite that is never satisfied, or is insatiable. The first one he mentions is without a doubt the most threatening. The word translated grave is more correctly translated hell or hades. The dominion of Satan and his demons is always craving more souls and destroyed lives. Barrenness, no children, was considered almost unbearable by the Israelite woman. Who has not seen a desert stretching on as far as the eye can see. It looks desolate, because it is, and the idea that a bucket of water or even a downpour of rain would do anything to change the long term condition of that dry, empty of life wasteland is unfathomable. I once knew a young college woman who was leaving school to go train as a smoke jumper. She described the dangers of a raging, hungry fire that she would be parachuted into to fight. No thanks. But we are all aware of the raging fires that destroy thousands of acres of wilderness. That’s the picture of insatiable destruction. The final fruit of the Spirit listed by Paul is self control. It is a gift from God’s indwelling Spirit. Today let the Spirit rule in your story and bring control to your appetites. #BeTheEdge
“But the fruit of the Spirit is…self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22b-23a NIV
