Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

• Exodus 11:31-34

When you sit to dine with a ruler,
    note well what is before you,
and put a knife to your throat
    if you are given to gluttony.
Do not crave his delicacies,
    for that food is deceptive.

• Proverbs 23:1-3

I am continuing the series of quizzes on the “seven deadly sins: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth.”

We will look at “Gluttony”.  There is only one verse in the NIV that contains the word “gluttony.”  That verse is shown above.  These verses in the quiz speak of God’s provision.  Does God give us enough?  Yes, but do we think so at the time?

This is a matching quiz.  Ten verses that speak of God’s provision have one word missing from them.  The list of missing words are given after the questions section in alphabetical order.

The questions are in Biblical order, with the first six from the Old Testament.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging ____.
2	I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will ____ it.
3	He makes grass grow for the cattle, and ____ for people to cultivate—bringing forth food from the earth:
4	The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the ____ time.
5	Do not join those who drink too much wine or ____ themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
6	If you find honey, eat just ____—too much of it, and you will vomit.
7	Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for ____, for they will be filled.
8	Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father ____ them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
9	Do not work for food that ____, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
10	Their destiny is destruction, their god is their ____, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.
Word List
Bread, Enough, Feeds, Fill, Gorge, Plants, Proper, Righteousness, Spoils, Stomach

The first selected Scripture is about how the Israelites complained.  God had given them quail once before, the night before the manna first arrived, but here their chefs had figured out many ways of preparing the manna for the family, but it was still manna.  The same thing every day for 40 years.

But it was far less than the forty years by this point.

I am afraid that my wife would be right there with them in complaining about the same thing every day.  Her father made a decent wage, but there were nine children.  Food expenses had to be curbed.  With eleven mouths to feed, they rarely had a meal where all eleven enjoyed it.  So, when they had a meal that everyone enjoyed, my future mother-in-law would fix a big batch, and they would be eating leftovers for a week.

I referred to it as Gastronomical Redundancy.  My wife hated to have the same type of meat two days in a row.  If we had burgers one night, beef would not be on the menu for at least three or four days.  Pork might be in nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) one night and the bacon in a hoppin’ john two days later, but ham or pulled pork would have to wait a few days.  Seafood had variety.  She could have shrimp one night and then tuna salad the next night and then a salmon steak or salmon patties two days later.  Chicken seemed to get a free pass, but then it was easy to prepare chicken in a variety of ways.

With this main course, I was usually tasked with taking the leftovers to work as my lunch the next day.  I seemed to be the only one who could handle Gastronomical Redundancy.

So, looking back to eating only manna, seven days a week, 52 weeks per year…  Yep, there would be complaints.

But since this is the bread that God provided to His people, we might just have it often in Heaven.  And with our sin nature gone, and thus our tendency for boredom gone, we will not ever get tired of it.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging ____.	Psalm 37:25
2	I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will ____ it.	Psalm 81:10
3	He makes grass grow for the cattle, and ____ for people to cultivate—bringing forth food from the earth:	Psalm 104:14
4	The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the ____ time.	Psalm 145:15
5	Do not join those who drink too much wine or ____ themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.	Proverbs 23:20-21
6	If you find honey, eat just ____—too much of it, and you will vomit.	Proverbs 25:16
7	Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for ____, for they will be filled.	Matthew 5:6
8	Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father ____ them. Are you not much more valuable than they?	Matthew 6:26
9	Do not work for food that ____, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”	John 6:27
10	Their destiny is destruction, their god is their ____, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.	Philippians 3:19

Solomon provides Thirty Wise Sayings that go from Proverbs 22:17-24:22.  But then he continues with even more wise sayings.

The second Scripture at the top of this quiz is Saying #7.

It is the only mention of the word gluttony in the NIV, although glutton or gluttons are mentioned six times.

And the strange thing is that gluttony is only tangential to the wisdom.  We should be wary of the ruler (king, emperor, boss, superintendent, etc.) when they invite us to a big meal.  What is the motivation of this ruler?  What does the ruler really want?

Here we have delicacies laid before us.  It would be foolish to gorge ourselves on the food.  That is simply not proper.  But being a glutton means that our mind is controlled by our stomach, and then our guard will be down when the ruler reveals his reason for the gathering.

In such a setting, you eat a measured amount and keep your mind sharp.  You notice the prudent people around you, and you might pray for those who fall into gluttony.

You are not the only one observing.  So is the ruler, and the ruler is observing you along with everyone else that is invited.  The ruler may just be looking for someone that he or she might be able to trust.

But this being the only use of gluttony in the NIV, it shows a little flaw in these Seven Deadly Sins.  Is gluttony nothing more than Lust of food instead of lusting adulterously?  Is gluttony merely a sustenance version of Greed?  Do we not gorge ourselves when offered food we have only been envious of our neighbors eating?

It is almost like gluttony is a Gastronomical Redundancy of some of the other six.

   …

   …

   …

The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging ____.	Psalm 37:25	bread
2	I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will ____ it.	Psalm 81:10	fill
3	He makes grass grow for the cattle, and ____ for people to cultivate—bringing forth food from the earth:	Psalm 104:14	plants
4	The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the ____ time.	Psalm 145:15	proper
5	Do not join those who drink too much wine or ____ themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.	Proverbs 23:20-21	gorge
6	If you find honey, eat just ____—too much of it, and you will vomit.	Proverbs 25:16	enough
7	Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for ____, for they will be filled.	Matthew 5:6	righteousness
8	Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father ____ them. Are you not much more valuable than they?	Matthew 6:26	feeds
9	Do not work for food that ____, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”	John 6:27	spoils
10	Their destiny is destruction, their god is their ____, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.	Philippians 3:19	stomach

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Hymns of Grace singing Great Is Thy Faithfulness.

Here is Rosemary Siemens with My Hope is Built on Nothing Less. 

Here is Eclipse 6 singing Be Still, My Soul.  I have written before that if I ever wiggled on an old wooden, unpadded pew, my mother would turn to this hymn.  It meant that my Dad would whip the tar out of me when I got home with his belt.  But somehow, God has healed those wounds.  There are a lot of great recordings, but I like this one the best.

We need to be still and know that God is faithful to us.  Our hope should be built on nothing less.  With that, is there any reason to gorge on food as if there will not be another meal for a long time?  Gluttony may come for some people because of a medical condition.  My wife and I had thyroid conditions.  Hers barely worked and mine not at all.  As a result, the signal to stop eating was not there.  We had to learn by giving ourselves smaller portions and not going for seconds.  But most overeating comes from some inner feeling that the next meal may not be for a while.  My wife and I had been there too, oddly both of us while on active duty in the military.

But when that gluttony is from a lack of faith, we need to take God at His Word.  You can trust Him.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.