SURFEIT
The word ‘surfeit’ refers to an intemperate indulgence in something, wherein excess leads to satiety and then gives way to disgust. In Proverbs 25:16, a good example of surfeit is recorded,
“If you find honey, eat just enough-too much of it, and you will vomit.”
Honey might as well be substituted for any food we absolutely love. Craving and desperation for the food before we get to it, leads on to the intoxication of pleasure when the senses are satisfied by the first sight and taste of it. Desiring to capture that pleasure forever within our experience, we gorge on the food only to realize that within moments, the pleasure changes to disgust and a nauseating aversion to the same food we desperately craved moments ago. The surfeit of our favorite food forfeits even our ability to enjoy any other food.
What is true of food is also true of almost every other experience in our human lives- young people having excessive sex to end up losing the ability for relationships or intercourse in their latter lives; people working hard at their jobs, without a break, focusing on their professional growth, eventually burning out and losing all interest in their job; people proclaiming that traveling around the world is the key to happiness, setting out on a global jaunt, only to get sick of all travel after a while; binge watching a serial or games or movies only to come away with an emptiness that appears puzzling!
Why does this happen? Because man’s desire is infinite but his body with its sensual organs has a finite capacity for satisfaction. When man proceeds to mistakenly think that ‘sensual (satisfaction of the senses) satisfaction’ can fulfill his eternal desire, he makes a mistake. An infinite desire can only be satisfied by an infinite Being, and unless one turns to God and finds the succor of a relationship with Him, satisfaction will forever elude him. And a relationship with God is made possible only through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, which one has to appropriate as one’s own.
Once he does find stability and consistent joy in the connection with God, it is easier to understand that surfeit is inevitable with the finite experiences here on earth. And so moderation becomes the theme, wherein while pleasure is indulged in, it is always within the boundaries set forth by God for man.
‘The man who fears God will avoid all extremes’ (Ecclesiastes 7:18)
And in doing so man can navigate through life here on earth, having the stability of joy and the exuberance of pleasure without the concomitant surfeit.
