You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. This phrase is an idiom, or an axiom, or a modern proverb, – or all three – that has found cozy and frequent application in our societal vernacular. It’s used whenever we recognize a situation with two desired outcomes that are mutually exclusive; where one can only truly be achieved or realized where the other is not. Here is a similar idiom: You can’t have it both ways. Perhaps this one is even better than the first. Why is this modern proverb so useful? Because, when we encounter a situation like the one described above, where one desired outcome seemingly cannot be realized concurrent with the other, what is our first inclination? We try to find a way to…have it both ways, anyway. Don’t we? We want to lose 15 pounds. And eat that croissant right there. We want to stay up doing things until all hours of the night and get enough sleep. This propensity is founded in a very human, if unmeritorious, truism: We don’t like to deny our appetites, even the ones that are plainly and patently in competition with each other.
Eventually, however, we must come to a realization that is attained only alongside sober maturity and common sense – that we really, truly, simply, can’t always expect to have it both ways. In fact, in many circumstances, we do wrongly when we try – or even hope – to have it both ways. Coming to a clear, objective, dispassionate, appreciation and acceptance of the reality of this truth is at least partial evidence that we have begun to embrace a grown-up view of life, and the situations that require us to do something that we naturally find very difficult: to actually make a choice – one that involves sacrifice; to choose a course – one that may require the denial of its alternative; to go ahead, when it’s really hard … and pick a side.
I’m convinced that God was acutely mindful of this idea when he gave the Israelites the very first of His ten commandments. You’ll recall that He said this: You shall have no other gods before me. In other words, you shall bring no other gods into my presence. The Israelites were not to suppose that they could serve other gods and have Jehovah-God, the I AM, at the same time. Please, look carefully and notice how He did not choose to phrase this decree. He did not say, You shall not forsake me for another god. He did not say You shall not replace me with another god. Now, God made it clear subsequently, that on many occasions hence, Israel did, in fact, forsake Him. But they abandoned him in a way that is foreshadowed by the way this particular injunction is phrased. They didn’t reject Him wholesale. They simply brought the gods of Canaan into the presence of the Holy One.
Why did they do this? Because, they wanted their Yahweh and their idols, too. Because they did not want to have to shun the pleasures and benefits of idol worship in favor of fully serving the true and living God. It was a difficult dilemma for them because it was a dilemma of self-denial; one that often required them to stand alone while their brethren embraced compromise; one that called for them to give something up; to pick a side. And, this was so very hard for a people who, in their immaturity, truly wanted it both ways…
Secondly, observe what is arguably the most riveting and colorful demonstration of God’s authority in the Old Testament. The account of Elijah versus the prophets of Baal. The showdown at the Carmel Corral. Remember how Elijah addressed the wavering children of Israel immediately preceding this fearsome event? He stood before them and said “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” I love the ESV rendering of this pronouncement. The word Elijah uses literally means to hobble or limp about. This was the feeble spiritual disposition of God’s people prior to the display on Carmel. You see, the message of God’s complete and categorical sacking of Baal and his priests, did not have Ahab and Jezebel as it’s intended audience. The audience for this demonstration of God’s singular supremacy and sovereignty was the waffling, limping, halting, children of Israel; a people who could not bring themselves to reject their God – nor to abandon the hollow idols to which they had become so sadly devoted. So, they limped about, unable and unwilling to choose. As evidence of the accuracy of Elijah’s indictment, the words immediately following the above passage in the 1 Kings 18 account are these: “And the people did not answer him a word…”
So, here comes the application for you and me – to wear; or, at least, to try on for size : ) The devil will not ask us, in general, to abandon our Lord. He knows that we don’t want to. But, he will ask us to put something from the world alongside Him, in competition with Him; like an idol in the house of the Lord. Then he’ll say “You can have your god. And this one too.” The devil won’t ask us to abandon our biblical worldview. He knows we won’t do that. However, he will ask us to blend it with accepted worldviews or culturally popular religious teachings; so that we won’t have to choose. We’ll have it both ways.
However, a life of devotion in the Lord will be filled with hard choices; choices that will require us to take a stand or set aside a desire. The good news is that, making those hard choices wisely is not only connected to a life of powerful and joyful service (rather than limping about), but also to all the promises and blessings of God. Check out God’s promise to Israel in Deuteronomy 28: 1-2 “Now it shall be, if you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God.” Overtaken by blessings from God. Who needs cake, right? Let’s recognize that it’s foolish – and futile – trying to blend God with anything else, or set our idols alongside Him. Let’s give our full devotion to Our Master, the One who has given everything to us!