The Bible in The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, Part IV: The Queen’s Food & Drink
Continuing with my final “Lion” installment, here we have “The Queen’s Food & Drink.” So let’s dig in!
"My poor child," she said in quite a different voice, "how cold you look! Come and sit with me here on the sledge and I will put my mantle round you and we will talk."
Edmund did not like this arrangement at all but he dared not disobey; he stepped on to the sledge and sat at her feet, and she put a fold of her fur mantle round him and tucked it well in.
“Perhaps something hot to drink?” said the Queen. “Should you like that?”
The Queen took from somewhere among her wrappings a very small bottle which looked as if it were made of copper. Then, holding out her arm, she let one drop fall from it on the snow beside the sledge. Edmund saw the drop for a second in mid-air, shining like a diamond. But the moment it touched the snow there was a hissing sound and there stood a jewelled cup full of something that steamed. The dwarf immediately took this and handed it to Edmund with a bow and a smile; not a very nice smile. Edmund felt much better as he began to sip the hot drink. It was something he had never tasted before, very sweet and foamy and creamy, and it warmed him right down to his toes.
“It is dull, Son of Adam, to drink without eating,” said the Queen presently. “What would you like best to eat?”
“Turkish Delight, please, your Majesty,” said Edmund.
The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious. He was quite warm now, and very comfortable.
While he was eating, the Queen kept asking him questions. At first Edmund tried to remember that it is rude to speak with one’s mouth full, but soon he forgot about this and thought only of trying to shovel down as much Turkish Delight as he could, and the more he ate the more he wanted to eat, and he never asked himself why the Queen should be so inquisitive….
At last the Turkish Delight was all finished and Edmund was looking hard at the empty box and wishing that she would ask him whether he would like some more. Probably the Queen knew quite well what he was thinking’ for she knew, though Edmund did not, that this was enchanted Turkish Delight and that anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on eating it till they killed themselves. But she did not offer him any more. Instead she said to him.
“Son of Adam, I should so much like to see your brother and your two sisters. Will you bring them to see me?”
“I’ll try,” said Edmund, still looking at the empty box.
“Because, if you did come again -- bringing them with you of course -- I’d be able to give you some more Turkish Delight. I can’t do it now, the magic will only work once. In my own house it would be another matter….”
[Upon realising the disappearance of Edmund…] “Search parties, Son of Adam?” said Mr. Beaver; “what for?”
“Why, to look for Edmund of course!”
“There’s no point in looking for him,” said Mr Beaver.
“What do you mean?” said Susan. “He can’t be far away yet. And we’ve got to find him. What do you mean when you say there’s no use looking for him?”
“The reason there’s no use looking,” said Mr Beaver, “is that we know already where he’s gone!” Everyone stared in amazement. “Don’t you understand?” said Mr Beaver. “He’s gone to her, to the White Witch. He has betrayed us all.”
“Oh, surely -- oh, really!” said Susan. “He can’t have done that.”
“Can’t he?” said Mr Beaver, looking very hard at the three children, and quite certain inside that this was exactly what Edmund had done….Mark my words,” said Mr Beaver, “he already met the White Witch and joined her side, and been told where she lives. I didn’t like to mention it before (he being your brother and all) but the moment I set eyes on that brother of yours I said to myself ‘Treacherous’. He had the look of one who has been with the Witch and eaten her food. You can always tell them if you’ve lived long in Narnia; something about their eyes.” (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)
Two years ago, I wrote a blog called “Don’t Eat the King’s Food or Drink the King’s Wine!” It was based on a text from the Book of Daniel.
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself….So Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined before you, and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king’s delicacies; and as you see fit, so deal with your servants.’ So he consented with them in this matter, and tested them ten days. And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king’s delicacies. (Daniel 1:8; 11-15)
The scenario is that Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of the Babylonian Empire, was given the authority over Jerusalem. As so many times before, Israel fell into rebellion (witchcraft) and idolatry and thus, God turned them over to captors for a time to teach them repentance. In one of the two deportations to Babylon, “Nebby” called for a very specific group of people
Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king’s descendants and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. (Daniel 1:3, 4)
Basically, he called for the crème de la crème to be his new “token” courtiers and eunuchs. It was part of a timely process of assimilation and indoctrination.
Import the Captives. (Take them out of their atmosphere.)
“Fix” them. (Remove their natural ability to reproduce themselves.)
Name them. (Remove the “God-Factor” from their names.)
Feed them. (Indoctrinate them. See below.)
Educate them. (Dually indoctrinate them.)
And once fully assimilated, position them. (Place the puppets on the stage to seduce their own people.)
It’s a good plan, really. For a diabolical tyrant. There’s method to the madness. While I REALLY like talking about Nebby removing the God-Factor from Daniel and his royal cousins’ names, that is not the topic of this post. But in short, what Nebuchadnezzar did, was what Jadis, the Pretended Queen of Narnia, did: she indoctrinated people with her food and drink.
If I were Bishop Tudor Bismark, I would tell you--and Scripture supports this--that meat is doctrine while wine is spirit--literally! Now realistically, the food Nebuchadnezzar ordered for the young royals to be served was likely offered to idols which would make it unfit for the Jewish royals’ consumption. I’m also sure the food from the king’s table was meant to win over and blind the youths to Nebby’s true intentions.
For Jadis, she wanted to indoctrinate and seduce Edmund with promises of Turkish Delight and talk of thrones. (A throne, I might add, he was meant to receive anyway through Aslan and the great prophecy.) Nebby wanted to make drunk the Israelite princes with promises of Chaldean positions of power in the Babylonian Empire. What do you think Satan wants to seduce you with? What price do you have? There are some who would say everyone has their price. I disagree. Yet some of us don’t know which crowd we belong to: the crowd who has a price at which they can be bought or the crowd who knows--and accepts--that Christ already paid the price.
Everyday we are indoctrinated. Television, movies, music, radio, education, government--every area. Just a week or so ago I came to the realisation that the woman riding the beast in the Book of Revelation, on the seven mountains, is riding on the seven mountains (or pillars) of society.
The gate of government
The gate of media and communications.
The gate of the marketplace.
The gate of the arts.
The gate of education.
The gate of family.
The gate of church and ministry.
Now this is not the Tribulation contrary to what some think *side eye*, however, the emissaries of Satan are alive and well and preparing their way for that most tumultuous time where the grace of God will be absent from the earth. And it is by ruling these seven mountains that Satan can rule and indoctrinate the peoples of the earth. While Jadis fed Edmund on his British delights, and Nebby fed the Israelite princes on the Babylonian delights, we are being fed a steady diet of whatever we want through the media. And really, we’re being fed the same tricks as Eve in the Garden, and Edmund in Jadis’ sledge: being offered what we (are already to) have, but by lustful means.
By “lust,” I mean getting what one should have through shortcuts and other inappropriate means. The queen’s food and the queen’s drink is a lustful combination, capable of blinding any and everyone susceptible to it, so help us Aslan. Don’t fall for the queen’s tricks, repudiate her advances. Cling to right and refuse to be tainted!
