When you sit to dine with a ruler,
note well what[a] is before you,
2 and put a knife to your throat
if you are given to gluttony.
3 Do not crave his delicacies,
for that food is deceptive.
Controlling the Appetite
The passage above emphasizes how appetite unchecked can lead to problems. When we become prone to allowing our sexual and eating appetites to control us we will ruin our lives. However, this verse tells us to control these appetites without telling us how. It smacks of the useless advice, “Snap out of it!” How exactly do we do that? The difficulty of doing these things keeps throwing us back to the theme of the book as a whole. The key to unlocking wisdom is to live in every area of life with God in mind. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. The key to ruining your life is to live your life as if God does not exist. In such a life what is to control the appetites? Soe appeal to the way nature works – even then nature works because it is ordered by God and points back to Him.
Questions
- How should a person’s appetite be when they are in important meetings?
- How do you think meals and diplomacy were related in the ancient world?
- How could a ravenous appetite destroy someone?
- How successful is a date where one person is more interested in the food than the date?
- Why do we have business lunches and dinners? What is the role of the venue?
Plymothian 