I have started reading the Chronicles of Narnia books to prepare for the movie scheduled to come out in December. While reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it became obvious to me how much of the struggle actually takes place in the minds of the Pevensie children, especially Edmund. As the boy eats the food of the Witch, his perspective begins to change. He starts to look at the world with a distorted viewpoint. He loses his purity and begins to believe the lies that he uses to justify his wrong actions to himself. Deception leads to great deception and darker actions. A lie never stops until it is defeated with the truth.
Just consider the following excerpt from the book:
"And he (Edmund) had heard the conversation, and hadn't enjoyed it much either, because he kept on thinking that the others were taking no notice of him and trying to give him the cold shoulder. They weren't, but he imagined it. And then he had listened until Mr. Beaver told them about Aslan and until he had heard the whole arrangement for meeting Aslan at the Stone Table. It was then that he began very quietly to edge himself under the curtain which hung over the door. For the mention of Aslan gave him a mysterious and horrible feeling just as it gave the others a mysterious and lovely feeling...
"You mustn't think that even now Edmund was quite so bad that he actually wanted his brother and sisters to be turned into stone. He did want Turkish Delight and to be a Prince (and later a King) and to pay Peter out for calling him a beast. As for what the Witch would do with the others, he didn't want her to be particularly nice to them - certainly not to put them on the same level as himself but he managed to believe, or to pretend he believed, that she wouldn't do anything very bad to them, "Because," he said to himself, "all these people who say nasty things about her are her enemies and probably half of it isn't true. She was jolly nice to me, anyway, much nicer than they are. I expect she is the rightful Queen really. Anyway, she'll be better than that awful Aslan!" At least, that was the excuse he made in his own mind for what he was doing. It wasn't a very good excuse, however, for deep down inside him he really knew that the White Witch was bad and cruel."
The natural bent of mankind is to creatively find ways to justify the actions that we know deep down inside are wrong. Sin has corrupted the DNA of human history. When Turkish Delight, which can be any temptation, becomes our focus we become slaves to our appetites. It is quite fitting that the original sin by Adam and Eve dealt with food, pride, appetites and cravings. A lie tainted the perspective of Adam and Eve leading them to sin. If they had only seen the end result ahead of time and believed it, they would have never eaten the forbidden fruit. Although they were told the result of eating the fruit, they somehow convinced themselves that death would not be the outcome. Just like Edmund, they failed to grasp the real consequences for their sin until it was too late.
What about you? Are you willing to take that same risk? God desires to show you the path to life. He wants to guide you through the lies of the enemy. But you have to choose to see.
If you follow the desires of your cravings then you may temporarily enjoy a meal of to Turkish Delight only to discover that you are being fattened up for the kill. You are “what's for dinner.” Satan roams around like a lion seeing who he may devour. And his desire is to feast on the damned souls of the world. You could be next unless you are aware of the danger.
