Posted on 02/22/2022 10:24:55 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat” (Proverbs 23:1-2 KJV).
Have you ever heard the expression, “cutting his own throat?” There it is. “Put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.” He is saying that a man might as well as to cut himself off, because that king is going to do him in. The bottom line is that the king already has it in for him, and is just looking for an excuse to get rid of the guy that has been invited.
Dainties are just the type of food he is serving; perhaps they are some sort of finger foods, or what we might call hors d'oeuvres, an appetizer that precede the main course. The word, “meat” there is used in other places in the Bible as food in general, not a specific kind of meal. It doesn’t necessarily imply the flesh of animals; the word can be used for any kind of food.
When someone sits down at a ruler’s table, no doubt everything is going to be very fancy, and etiquette will likely be observed at all times. Unless one has eaten at one of those really fancy upscale restaurants, they probably have no idea what this is like. A king would no doubt have all the best cooks in the realm, so everything is filet and foufou’d. I guess they even have rules about how you are supposed to display your pinky finger while eating that stuff.
“Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat,” they will deceive you. Esther used a banquet meal to overthrow Haman. Haman went to that meal expecting to be honored, and not knowing that it was his own throat he was cutting. She asked him to come, but the whole purpose of that meal was to get rid of him.
Matthew Henry has this to say about the dangers of luxury and covetousness:
The sin we are here warned against is luxury and sensuality, and the indulgence of the appetite in eating and drinking, a sin that most easily besets us. 1. We are here told when we enter into temptation, and are in most danger of falling into this sin: "When thou sittest to eat with a ruler thou has great plenty before thee, varieties and dainties, such a table spread as thou has seldom seen; thou are ready to think, as Haman did, of nothing but the honour hereby done thee (Esther 5:12), and the opportunity thou hast of pleasing thy palate, and forgettest that there is a snare laid for thee." Perhaps the temptation may be stronger, and more dangerous, to one that is not used to such entertainments, than to one that always sits down to a good table.
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