Posted on 12/22/2022 9:48:13 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. Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words” (Proverbs 23:1-8 KJV).
Notice the king shows up again.
“When thou sittest to eat with a ruler,” see, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings” (Proverbs 22:29 KJV). Previously he will stand before kings, now he is eating before kings.
Now, verses 1-8, from here on out—we started seeing it in chapter 22—we see a group of verses together on one subject. And that hasn’t been the case since we started looking at actual proverbs in chapter 10. Since chapter 10, every verse was pretty much self-contained. It said what it had to say and then you moved on to the next verse which on a different subject, but now it is starting to group passages, as with vss. 1-8.
“When thou sittest to eat with a ruler,” or we could say someone in authority. What did Jesus Christ say to do if you were called to a feast? Where should you sit? In the lowest seat. He said that we should sit in the lower seat, and when they call you up it is not a result of pride, it is because you are to be honored and deserve it. He said that if we go up to the upper seats, we might not be wanted there up there, and they put you down, you’ll be humiliated in front of everybody. He said that that was not the thing to do, but sit in the lower seat and when they call you up, you’ll be honored.
“When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee.” Consider not only what is before thee, but also consider where you are sitting. Be humble about the whole thing. Don’t go charging into the king’s house like you own the joint. You are liable to go out the back door quick!
Now, the subjects of vss. 1-8 are food, and drink, and money, and material things. The thing is the control of appetites. One preacher says, “Don’t trust anyone 30 pounds overweight.” He explains that if a person cannot control base appetites, they cannot control spiritual appetites. That is just a base desire of life. If a man cannot control the carnal aspects of his life, there will never be very much success in his life when it comes to the spiritual. The man that said that is well-disciplined in his life. He followed the words of Paul where he wrote: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1Co 9:27 KJV).
I think we can all agree that Paul was very successful in his ministry, and a good person to emulate. A man that has that sort of discipline can “rule over his own spirit” (Proverbs 25:28).
“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city” (Proverbs 16:32 KJV).
Men can “take a city,” like Alexander, but he couldn’t rule his own spirit—his own spirit killed him, the city didn’t kill him. Alexander basically self-destructed, and that is a horrible way to go.
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Glory to Gods word ! Thank you Pilgrim as always !
Bump.
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