Proverbs 23:6-8 Eat thou not 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 shall thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
This principle has been pounded into most of our heads from infancy; watch whom you associate or play with, because they’ll lead you astray. And isn’t that the truth! ‘Show me yuh friends, and I’ll tell you who you are,’ is what the old folks said. I’ve had my fair share of pain for associating with the wrong crowd. But then it’s hard not to, since the wrong crowd always seems to be the most interesting, the ones having the most fun. Solomon’s telling us not to accept bread, or anything else for that matter, from a greedy, miserly person; ‘him that hath an evil eye.’ Neither should we let our hearts be filled with desire for his delicacies or baubles, cause he’s only displaying them to tempt our lustful flesh and draw us under his wicked spell. ‘Eat and drink saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.’ It’s only a deceitful plot to turn us from God. Sol makes a powerful statement when he says, ‘For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.’ Yes Friends, that’s gospel, and applies to all of us. The emotion that dominates our heart, our true colours, is the one we’ll most avidly express. You can’t be consumed by evil and show good, or vice versa. Shades of the skinny person that brings plenty fattening food to the party, encourages everyone to stuff themselves, but they barely touch a morsel. Sol continues the food metaphor by saying whatever you eat from such a person, you’ll regurgitate, ‘and lose thy sweet words.’ For sure! We usually regret our dealings with evil people, causing our spirits to plummet, leaving that sour, bilious taste associated with vomit. Oh Friends, it’s a tight rope we’ve got to walk, since it’s our duty to bring the wicked to Christ, but we can’t do that unless there’s some meaningful communication with them. So we always have to be on our p’s and q’s, and concentrate on influencing them for good, more than they do us for evil. Brings to mind Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20. God won him a big war, and peace reigned in Judah. He walked in the ways of Asa, his father, doing right in the Lord’s sight. (Vs.30,32) But later on, he teamed up ‘with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who did very wickedly.’ (Vs.35) How sad. They planned to form a navy like Solomon, to go to Tharshish and bring back ‘baubles, bangles and bright shining things.’ But yuh know what? The Lord nipped that scheme in the bud; the ships were damaged before they even left port. Why? ‘Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works,’ is the prophecy Jehoshaphat received from Eliezer. (Vs37) Yes Friends, we’ve got to be very careful about entering alliances with workers of iniquity. But through faith, constant prayer and obedience to the guiding of the Holy Spirit within us, we can successfully manoeuvre through the minefields of life. The Lord will allow us to daintily tiptoe through the tulips, crazily scattered around us. (smile) Much LOVE!…when in contact with evil doers…we must ensure that our influence reigns supreme…
This principle has been pounded into most of our heads from infancy; watch whom you associate or play with, because they’ll lead you astray. And isn’t that the truth! ‘Show me yuh friends, and I’ll tell you who you are,’ is what the old folks said. I’ve had my fair share of pain for associating with the wrong crowd. But then it’s hard not to, since the wrong crowd always seems to be the most interesting, the ones having the most fun. Solomon’s telling us not to accept bread, or anything else for that matter, from a greedy, miserly person; ‘him that hath an evil eye.’ Neither should we let our hearts be filled with desire for his delicacies or baubles, cause he’s only displaying them to tempt our lustful flesh and draw us under his wicked spell. ‘Eat and drink saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.’ It’s only a deceitful plot to turn us from God. Sol makes a powerful statement when he says, ‘For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.’ Yes Friends, that’s gospel, and applies to all of us. The emotion that dominates our heart, our true colours, is the one we’ll most avidly express. You can’t be consumed by evil and show good, or vice versa. Shades of the skinny person that brings plenty fattening food to the party, encourages everyone to stuff themselves, but they barely touch a morsel. Sol continues the food metaphor by saying whatever you eat from such a person, you’ll regurgitate, ‘and lose thy sweet words.’ For sure! We usually regret our dealings with evil people, causing our spirits to plummet, leaving that sour, bilious taste associated with vomit. Oh Friends, it’s a tight rope we’ve got to walk, since it’s our duty to bring the wicked to Christ, but we can’t do that unless there’s some meaningful communication with them. So we always have to be on our p’s and q’s, and concentrate on influencing them for good, more than they do us for evil. Brings to mind Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20. God won him a big war, and peace reigned in Judah. He walked in the ways of Asa, his father, doing right in the Lord’s sight. (Vs.30,32) But later on, he teamed up ‘with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who did very wickedly.’ (Vs.35) How sad. They planned to form a navy like Solomon, to go to Tharshish and bring back ‘baubles, bangles and bright shining things.’ But yuh know what? The Lord nipped that scheme in the bud; the ships were damaged before they even left port. Why? ‘Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works,’ is the prophecy Jehoshaphat received from Eliezer. (Vs37) Yes Friends, we’ve got to be very careful about entering alliances with workers of iniquity. But through faith, constant prayer and obedience to the guiding of the Holy Spirit within us, we can successfully manoeuvre through the minefields of life. The Lord will allow us to daintily tiptoe through the tulips, crazily scattered around us. (smile) Much LOVE!…when in contact with evil doers…we must ensure that our influence reigns supreme…
SCRIP-BITS 