Week 4 Story: Overeating - A Bedtime Story

Overeating: Source

     Noah was always one of God's favorite children; however, after the flood, food was very scarce. Due to the lack of food on the boat, Noah didn't quite remember what it was like to have a full stomach. After settling down and building his new home for he and his children, Noah began to question whether God still was looking out for him. 

     Noah found a seed of a wheat plant and began to plant it and fertilize it. He noticed that his children were also starving and they appeared to have no hope. Shortly after planting the seed, he was approached by Satan. Satan wanted to help Noah grow the plant in order to feed his family. God had warned Noah about Satan, but Noah was in a very desperate situation. Therefore, he agreed to go into a partnership with Satan and allow him to help with the growing process. 

      Shortly after agreeing, Satan brought multiple animals to sacrifice on the soil to make the plant grow. First, Satan explained a lamb must be sacrificed. This is because it represents people who eat well and are in shape. Subsequently, Satan brought a a hippo. Satan explained this was because once you eat too much you become plump like a hippo. Lastly, he brought a sloth to be sacrificed. The sloth represented the slowness of the body and mind after becoming morbidly obese. 

      After sacrificing these three animals, the seed grew into a multitude of plants, creating a surplus in a matter of minutes. Noah and his family had never seen so much food. Thus, they began to indulge. They turned the wheat into bread and ate as much as they could. Due to their lack of food they continued to eat all day and night until they all became morbidly obese. 

     Their obesity got to the point where they could no longer move, as they were inhibited from their weight. They became lazy and didn't tend the rest of the wheat. As a result of this, all of their wheat slowly crumbled under the sun due to the lack of water. This left Noah and his family without food to sustain themselves. Consequently, they had become the constituents of the first sin of overindulging. 

Authors Note: I attempted to turn this story, which was originally related to alcohol consumption, into a lesson about overeating. I used the same plot as the original story and the same protagonist. I felt that this would be more suitable to tell children since it didn't involve alcohol; however, the main theme remains being about over consumption and the dangers surrounding it. 

The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909): Source