Hello everyone. Let’s begin by turning to Proverbs 23:1 and continue our Bible Study through this very wonderful and inspiring book, the book of Proverbs. Chapter 23:1:
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you:
2 And put a knife to your throat, if you be a man given to appetite.
This is simply talking about a principle of conduct and conducting ourselves properly whoever we’re around. And if we eat at somebody else’s house as a guest or someone else’s table, and in particular someone who has a position of power, we need to be at our best. We need to consider carefully our manners around everyone, but especially around someone who has power to give us breaks or to give us grief.
So let’s be careful no matter who we are around and no matter what the circumstance when we’re eating. Quite often, a meal will cause us to let our guard down and we’ll begin to say more than we ought to and say it in a way we shouldn’t say it.
When we’re eating, we ought to be at our best manners and be polite, and be considerate and not overreach and not overextend ourselves and wear our welcome out. But in particular, these verses here are talking about being in the presence of someone who is in authority. In particular, be careful. You can begin to just utter everything that’s in your mind and it could be taken in the wrong way, and he has the authority to do something about it and you could pay heavily. So let’s read it and take it for what it says:
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you:
2 And put a knife to your throat,—
In other words, you’d be better off to do that than to be a glutton, to give yourselves over to eating too much, eating everything that’s in front of you, going back for seconds and thirds, and to be blunt about it, making a pig out of yourself.
3 Be not desirous of his dainties:—
or his delicacies
3 —for they are deceitful meat.
Sometimes you can be around someone who is a powerful person and you can get out of line and you can be taken in by his wine and taken in by his food, and you can make decisions, make comments, conduct yourself in a way where you’ll pay for it dearly afterward.
So if you’re going to have that opportunity to sit with anyone to eat and especially with someone in power, be careful about your conduct. Be careful about what you say and be careful not to eat too much and not to go overboard. Better to eat a little than to eat a whole lot and end up looking like some kind of glutton, and then saying things that make you look foolish. And then the man who has the authority or power to do something about it will do something about it, and you’ll pay dearly for your conduct and for not keeping your appetite under control. And don’t be taken in by the meal and by the delicacies and deliciousness of the food, and then paint yourself in a corner by being careless with what you say and by being careless with the way you conduct yourself.
4 Labor not to be rich: cease from your own wisdom.
Don’t overwork in order to be rich. There are people who are lazy, and there are people who are workaholics. God doesn’t want us to be either one. He wants us to work hard, but He wants us to be balanced and to practice moderation in all that we do. And if we just work, work, work all the time so we can get more, more, more, and more money and we think that’s really admirable and really being smart, we’ll find out that we begin to get sick and then we die and all of the money that we made from working so hard will go to somebody else.
Our labor should not be something that we do in order to be rich. It should be something we do because it’s a good thing to do and because it provides for us and our family, and if it leads to wealth or if it leads to being well off, fine. But that’s not the main motivation for working and working hard, and yet working in balance and not overworking. You can do that and here’s what happens.
5 Will you set your eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
I know of very few things that disappear quicker than money. You can have a whole lot of it and then before you know it, it’s all gone. It’s just like it almost vaporizes, and the analogy, or let’s say the explanation, mentioned here in verse 5:
5 —for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
The eagle flies further and higher than just about any other bird, and longer, and so the money is pictured as flying away like an eagle, quickly and at great heights and at great distances. It’s gone, and all of that labor was for nothing. And so there’s the advice that I hope we’ll take.
6 Eat thou not the bread of him that has an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:
Or a better translation: Don’t eat the bread of him that is a miser or desire his delicacies. He’s a hypocrite, the individual being described right here. He’ll say, “Come on in, sit down, make yourself at home, please enjoy the meal,” and yet inside he’s saying, “I wish they weren’t here” and he’s saying, “I hope they don’t eat that much” and he’s saying, “Why are they taking what I have here?” He’s so tight. He’s so selfish. He’s so miserly.
7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he:—
And that’s true with everything. The way we think is the way we end up being because actions follow thoughts, and it’s certainly true with the miser. Oh, he seems so hospitable. He seems so glad to see you. He seems so happy you’re there to share a meal with him. But inside he’s saying, “I wish they weren’t here. I hope they don’t eat that much. Why are they taking my food? I should have that food for me. I don’t want to share it with them.” And yet the hypocrite that he is gives you the idea that he’s glad to see you.
Well, if you know that he is a miser, you know that he’s tight, you know that he’s a hypocrite, you know that he is one way and gives the impression he’s another. Be careful about being around someone like that and be careful about accepting an invitation to sit down and eat because you could end up, once again, getting yourself a black eye from an innocent decision to eat with somebody who has asked you to eat with them.
7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, says he to you; but his heart is not with you.
Go ahead and eat and drink, but he wishes you wouldn’t. We’ve seen so many admonitions in Proverbs about being careful regarding our companions, being careful about whom we spend our time with. Being careful about who we are around. And it’s certainly true regarding being around stingy, selfish, miserly people who might say, “Come and eat, we’re glad you’re here,” but their track record is, they wish you weren’t there. And once you’re gone, they’ll start talking about you in a negative way and feeling ill towards you because you actually ate, even though they said you’re welcome to. Because their heart is not wholehearted. Their heart is not real. In their minds and in their hearts, they’re lying, they’re deceitful, they’re a hypocrite. They’re telling you to eat and yet they don’t really mean that. That’s what it’s saying. Notice verse 8:
8 The morsel which you have eaten shall you vomit up, and lose your pleasant words.
You’re going to think about it later and realize, “Oh, he’s done a number on me,” and feel like throwing up what seemed tasty. And the pleasant word you tried to pass with the individual, you wish you could take back.
The whole point here is: Once again, be friendly, be warm, let your light shine, care for all, but be careful who you spend a whole lot of time with and make sure that they are trying to live life God’s way, and they’re not trying to take you in and do a number on you. And make sure they don’t have ulterior motives or there’s not a catch to what they’re saying, even if they invite you to a meal.
If you go, just be careful about how much you eat and what you say and the way you conduct yourself. If you feel like you’re being used here, being maneuvered and manipulated here, maybe even just tactfully and in a polite way decline the offer if there’s somebody like that who’s trying to take advantage of you.
9 Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
Why waste your words? Why waste your breath? Why waste your time? A fool who is a hardened fool and will not change, will not repent, will not listen—you’re just wasting your time and your breath and your words. In fact, he will probably hate you for it. He certainly won’t like you for it, and he’ll probably turn it on you. He’ll probably spread a lie about what you said or twist it. You can’t trust a fool.
So, once again, be careful about our companions is what verse 9 is telling us. Be careful about trying to interact with them. Be careful about trying to develop a friendship or a relationship with them or a business relationship with them because if you speak in their ears and they are fools, he’s not going to like that. In fact, he’s going to despise the wisdom of your words. He doesn’t want to hear it. He may let it go, or he may turn it on you and it turns out to be something ugly. He certainly will not like what you told him because he’ll probably feel guilty or he’ll feel like you’re trying to make him do something that he doesn’t want to do, etc. He’s a fool and so why waste the time and the energy and the breath? Even though what you’re telling him is wise, he’s not interested in that. He’s a fool.
10 Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
In other words, respect the property line of others. You know, there are people who will build a fence and they’ll build it partially on their neighbor’s land. Or others will go hunting when there’s a “no trespassing” sign, and yet they’ll still go in there and hunt or go in there and fish. Others will simply want a certain piece of land and they’ll take it, take their chances about being sued about it. God takes that very seriously because it’s stealing. It is stealing. It’s not loving our neighbor.
10 Remove not the old—
boundaries
10 —and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
This gets very serious here, the orphans.
11 For their redeemer is mighty; and he will plead their cause—
Against you, is a better translation. Many verses in the Bible, especially Psalms and Proverbs talk about how we better treat widows and orphans with respect and with care. It doesn’t mean you can’t walk in their field if they say you can. It doesn’t mean you can’t spend time with them in their field if they okay it. But what it’s saying here is, don’t go in there and harvest their crop. Don’t go in there and cut down their timber. Don’t go in there when you’re not invited in there. Respect their property. Respect them. Because if you think you can take advantage of an orphan or a fatherless person, or you can take advantage of a widow because she’s a widow and in a weak position or you perceive or think that she might be in a weak position, you are coming up against the great power of the entire universe and God does not take that lightly, and you’ll have to answer to Him. That’s not something you want to do. You don’t want to be in a position of fighting God.
11 —and he will plead their cause—
Against you. He sees everything. He hears everything. He knows everything. And He takes particular umbrage and exception to people who mistreat the poor, the widows, the orphans. That’s something that we’d better think twice before we do it purposely or inadvertently, and if we find we have inadvertently stepped over the line with anyone in a disadvantaged state like that, we better make it right very quick or we’ll answer directly to God.
12 Apply your heart unto instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
If we really want instruction and if we really want knowledge and we apply ourselves to gain understanding and to gain instruction and to gain knowledge, God will give that to us if we cry out to Him for it, and if we search His word—because that’s really the big source of true wisdom, true knowledge and true understanding—and other books that tie in with the Bible.
If we really want this, then we can have it. But most people don’t want to take the time, or put in the energy, or really have a passionate desire for it. We have to really passionately want true instruction and true knowledge and true wisdom, and we have to dig for it. And if we do, then God will give it to us. And the blessings of having this knowledge and having this instruction and having this wisdom are laid out repeatedly, those blessings are, in the words of this book and in the words of the Bible. The blessings are endless and the blessings are big, and they’ll grow bigger as we apply this knowledge and as we apply this understanding and as we apply this instruction.
13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
In other words, parents are supposed to be engaged in rearing their children. Many parents want children, and then they treat them like trophies. They want children, but they don’t want to do what it takes to rear happy, successful, pleasant, wonderful children. They think, “Well, I’ve got them now,” and somehow or the other they’re just supposed to grow up and be fine. And it doesn’t work that way.
Children have human nature. Children have energy, and they have intelligence, and they have tremendous interest and intellectual curiosity. That all has to be guided and directed and channeled. And they have to be trained, and they have to be instructed. And parents who love those children will give them that training, will give them that instruction.
And sometimes they need to be corrected, and sometimes that correction is going to require punishment. And if a parent really loves their child, they will correct them and they will punish them. They’ll punish them properly and they’ll punish them in the right way. It will never injure them, it will never abuse them, it will always fit the infraction, the punishment will. It will be done as close to the infraction as possible. And then when the crying stops, there’ll be hugs and kisses and forgiveness, and then everybody moves on. That’s the proper correction talked about here.
It’s not talking about a big club and beating our children, of course not. The Bible interprets the Bible, and when you put other scriptures together with these scriptures about parents who love their children, care for their children, parents who bring their children up in the admonition of the Lord, they would never do that.
But on the other hand, there comes a time when a child needs to be corrected, needs to be punished in love the way God punishes us in love in order to teach us the right things to do, in order to teach us what to do and what not to do—because sometimes we don’t get the point otherwise. And so that kind of correction, if it’s administered properly, while it may hurt a little bit, it will not injure. And while it may cause the child to cry, that child will benefit greatly from it, and he will live, not die. He will begin making better decisions, and therefore be more successful.
14 You shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from the grave.
Once again, it’s not talking about taking a club and beating him. It’s simply talking about the proper correction, the proper punishment when it’s necessary, given in love for the sake of the child so that they will learn their lesson and not continue to do what will end up hurting them in the short and long run. A loving parent will be involved in that kind of child training, and it will involve discipline sometimes and it will involve punishment sometimes.
But it’s always done in love; it’s always done in patience. We should never punish our children in anger. We should never lose our temper. It should never be done when we don’t have our emotions in control. We should do it when we are calm, and we should do it methodically, and we should do it in love, and we should do it for the reason of teaching our children the right way as opposed to the wrong way. And when we do that, it will add to the happiness and the success of the child. And especially when we are done punishing or done correcting them, we hug them and kiss them and move forward with them in life. And our main relationship with our children has to do with hugs and kisses and compliments and backing up their good deeds and their good accomplishments.
15 My son, if your heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
A father can say that, a mother can say that—above all, God will say that. If children learn to be wise and then grow up into wise adults, everybody is going to rejoice, including the child because good things come from a wise child that grows into a wise adult.
16 Yea, my reins—
my innermost being
16 —will rejoice, when your lips speak right things.
You’ve seen children who open their mouths and it’s just a bunch of silliness and stupidity and vanity and arrogance. It doesn’t have to be that way. Of course, children are going to do childish things. But overall, a child that is loved and disciplined and provided for and encouraged and cared for and looked after and led and trained, they’re going to grow up into a wonderful, wonderful human being that is a credit to the family and causes the parents to rejoice. And they are going to be speaking right things. And when we as adults conduct ourselves that way, our Father in heaven rejoices because we’re speaking right things and we’re doing wise things.
17 Let not your heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
In other words, standing in awe of God, worshipping and adoring and serving God, submitting to and yielding to God, walking in the fear of the Eternal is a twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week way to live. We don’t just stand in awe of God when things are going well, and when it starts going bad, we forget God. And we don’t just stand in awe of God when things are going badly, and then when they start going well, forget God. No, what this is telling us here is that He’s got to be number one in our life all the time, and that we ought not in any way, shape, or form be jealous of sinners. Oh, it might look like they’re prospering. It might look like they’re doing just great. It might look like everything is going so well with them. But in the end, and sometimes sooner than in the end, it all falls apart. We ought to not follow their example. We ought to follow the example of Jesus Christ and the example of the apostles and the example found in the Bible. And you’ll find that those examples are made up of people who stood in awe of God and who lived His way and followed Him day and night. And that’s what verse 17 is telling us to do. We ought to walk in a consistent pattern with God. A consistent pattern of making sure he’s number one in our lives. A consistent pattern of standing in awe of Him all the day long.
17 Let not your heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
18 For surely there is an end;—
There is a hereafter.
18 —and your expectation
or your hope
18 —shall not be cut off.
In other words, we tie in everything we do now with what’s going to happen later and as we live our life now, that then ties in with what’s going to happen to us later in the resurrection and for all eternity. So while others may have more physical things now, if we put God first and walk in the fear of Him all the day long, then when everything is said and done and we are resurrected in the Kingdom of God, we will see that it was all worth it doing it God’s way and living it God’s way, and that what He said would happen as we put Him first actually does happen. We’re given eternal life and we’re given tremendous blessings.
So as you go through life and you see sinners prospering—they’re not really prospering, but it looks like they are, and you might be having a tough time or somebody else who’s obeying God might be having a tough time—don’t let that throw you off. Just go ahead and keep on walking with God, keep on standing in awe of God and remembering there is going to be a time of reckoning and an end time when the resurrection takes place and you are given your reward at last. And then along the way toward that end, you’re going to have hope. And that hope is going to be realized along the way with blessings from God, but most of all, that hope is going to come to fruition by being given eternal life in the family of God.
We’ll stop there and pick it up next time in verse 19.
This is Charles Bryce with the Enduring Church of God.