#DailyDevotion Watch Yourself When Invited To Dinner
June 20
Prov 22:22—23:12
Pro 23:1-3 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, (2) and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. (3) Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.
Pro 23:6 Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies,
Pro 23:7 for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
These two sets of proverbs seem to go together in this chapter. They speak about dining with other. The first is a ruler the second is a man who is stingy.
With the ruler, when you dine with him he is seeing what kind of man you are. Are you a glutton who devours everything set before you with gusto? Do you pick and choose carefully what you are going to eat and eat with discernment and restraint? Are you wasteful? Do you care about your fellows who sit with you? Do you make sure they get what they need?
What you do at the dinner table can demonstrate a lot about your character and what you do at your work and how you go about your work. If you are dining with someone greater than you he very well may be sizing you up as a person, so be the person you would want the ruler to see.
As to the stingy man his heart is not with you. He has no desire to give you good things. If you devour your meal he will only built up a resentment towards you and work against you in everything if you do not eat in accord with his temperament.
Pro 22:29 Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.
Pro 23:4 Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.
These two verses also go together. While the Lord wants us to toil to receive our daily bread, he does not desire that our hearts be set on wealth. Wealth is fleeting and the love of it destroys the love of God in men. You cannot love the Lord and wealth. Better set in your mind to be the best you can be at what you do and apply yourself to it. If you do, you will be known by great men of wealth and always have what you need. They will bring their wealth to you for your skills and work. If the Lord desires to make you wealthy through your skill and hard work so be it. If not continue to set your heart on the Lord.
Heavenly Father, give us hearts for instruction and ears given to words of knowledge that we may apply ourselves to them that we may live in the joy of your salvation and life. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.