When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well who is before thee;
A good meal with a powerful man looks harmless. This proverb seats a guest in a ruler's dining room and tells him to look hard at what is in front of him before he eats.
Kelly groups this verse with the warnings that follow it:
In chapter 23:1-8 we have the cautions of wisdom against self-gratification and seeking the riches which furnish its means.
Gaebelein finds two lessons in these opening verses:
The opening proverbs of this chapter deal with self-restraint in curbing the appetite. They also teach how to behave in the presence of someone above you.
Kelly takes that look as covering both the food and the host — some translations read "who is before you." He sets the warning against a man in one of Jesus' stories:
In Luke 16 our Lord describes the easygoing gentleman — not an unbeliever, but correct in his religion — who lived to please himself. He dressed in purple and fine linen and feasted in style every day. But once he was dead and buried, he lifted up his eyes in Hades, in torment. That was the direct result of living for self and not for God. Here, though, the danger is to a man who is not used to luxury. He is told to consider what, or who, is in front of him, and to put a knife to his throat rather than give in to self-indulgence. "Give us this day our sufficient (or necessary) bread," as the Lord told His disciples to pray. Fine food is deceptive even for a Jew — how much more for a Christian!
Kelly quotes the Lord's prayer as "sufficient (or necessary) bread"; the ESV reads, "Give us this day our daily bread."
Grant reads the knife at the throat as a picture, and widens the setting beyond royal tables:
We may seldom get an invitation to eat with a ruler. Still, the instruction here applies to eating with anyone who holds a place of honor (v. 1). This is not the place to indulge your appetite! Instead, we should think about what food we take, and put a knife to our throat (v. 2) — that is, curb our appetite. The ruler may well have a gourmet menu, and we should not crave such food, "for they are deceptive food" (v. 3). In the long run they do not give the nourishment we credit them with, and simple, healthy meals are not expensive.
The verses that follow move from the plate to the purse. Kelly weighs the two dangers against each other:
The danger of chasing riches, and setting the mind on being rich, is if anything even more subtle and gripping. Here it is not the plain appetite you have to guard against. You have to stop trusting your own understanding, which is so quick to find good reasons for an evil and selfish thing... For the love of money is a root of every evil. Some have reached for it and have wandered away from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Kelly applies the same standard to the ordinary table, rich or poor:
Whatever money a God-fearing person has, self-indulgence is unworthy of him. He lives in a world where we have the poor always with us, and where many sudden losses call for special compassion.
Restraint is not the point on its own. The reason lies in who owns the body:
When it comes to food, the Christian is told to eat — and to carry out every other bodily function — in a way that fits a person whose body belongs to the Lord, is a member of Christ, and is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:13, 15, 19). The glory of God should be our highest aim in keeping the body strong: "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). On the other hand, lack of self-control and abuse of the appetites are real sins.
- Look first. Before you eat, look at what — and who — is in front of you. A powerful man's table calls for care, not appetite.
- Cut, don't coast. The knife at the throat is a picture of curbing appetite. The guest most at risk is the one not used to luxury.
- Deceptive food. Rich food does not give the nourishment we credit it with. The prayer for daily bread sets the measure of what we need.
- Appetite feeds greed. The passage moves from rich food to riches. Wanting to be rich is the subtler danger: the mind finds good reasons for a selfish thing.
- Eat for God. Restraint has a positive aim. The body belongs to the Lord, so eat and drink to His glory; losing self-control is sin.
and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
A guest at a ruler's table gets a shocking order: hold a blade to your own neck rather than let your appetite run free. Why should a good meal in high company count as a danger at all?
The verse sits in a short run of warnings against self-indulgence. One writer sets this guest beside the rich man of Luke 16, who lived to please himself and ended in torment:
In Luke 16 our Lord describes the easygoing gentleman — not an unbeliever, but orthodox. He lived to indulge himself, clothed in purple and fine linen, feasting in splendour every day. But once dead and buried, he lifted up his eyes in Hades, in torment. That was the immediate result of living for self and not for God. Here, though, the danger is to one not used to luxury. He is told to consider what or who is before him, and to put a knife to his throat rather than give in to self-indulgence. "Give us this day our daily bread," as the Lord taught His disciples to pray (older renderings have "sufficient" or "necessary" bread). Rich food is deceptive even for a Jew — how much more for a Christian!
The knife is not literal, and the warning is not limited to royal palaces:
We may very seldom get an invitation to eat with a ruler. But the instruction here can apply to eating with anyone in a place of honour (v. 1). This is certainly not the place to indulge one's appetite! Rather, we should think carefully about what food we should take, and put a knife to our throat (v. 2) — that is, curb our appetite. The ruler may well have a gourmet menu, and we are advised not to desire such fare, "for they are deceptive food" (v. 3). In the long run they do not give the nourishment we may credit them with, for simple, healthy meals are not expensive.
The command comes with a condition. It speaks to the man who knows his own weak spot. One writer notes that the word behind "appetite" is the word often translated "soul." He lists its meanings as "appetite," "pleasure," "desire," and "mind" — that is, will or intention (Frederick W Grant). So the knife cuts at something deeper than the stomach:
This is a rare and admirable grace, spreading its holy influence over one's entire course, character and conduct. It bears not only on one or two or twenty selfish habits, but on self in all the length and breadth of that far-reaching and hateful word. Many a person who would look with proud contempt on a glutton or a drunkard may himself fail every hour to show the grace of self-control. … But self is a tree, not merely a branch of a tree or a cluster on a branch. We should not only judge self when it works, but control it so that it may not work.
The proverb is not an attack on food. Scripture puts eating under the same rule as everything else, and only then names its abuse as sin:
As far as taking food is concerned, the Christian is told to carry this out like every other bodily function. He must do it in a way that suits someone whose body belongs to the Lord, is a member of Christ, and is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:13, 15, 19). The glory of God should be our final aim in keeping the body alive and well: "whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). On the other hand, the lack of self-control and the abuse of the appetites are real sins. God sternly condemns both the glutton and the drunkard.
There is a second reason to cut your appetite short, and it has nothing to do with your own health:
Let us be willing to give up anything of our own, if by doing so we can help someone for whom Christ died, or keep them from stumbling. … As we pass through this world and see its delicacies, let us put a knife to our throats, since we are men given to appetite (see Prov. 23:2). Surely we would not, just to please ourselves, do anything that might trip up our brother.
- Look first. Before you eat, consider who is in front of you — the table of a powerful man is a place to think, not to relax your guard.
- Cut, don't nibble. The knife stands for curbing appetite outright. The proverb calls rich food deceptive because it promises more than it gives.
- Know your weakness. The command is conditional — "if you are given to appetite" — so the man who knows his own craving is the one who must act.
- Reach past the plate. Self is a tree, not one branch; the same restraint that governs eating must govern the whole of self.
- Aim at God's glory, and at your brother. Eat and drink to God's glory rather than starve yourself. Hold back if your indulgence would trip someone else.
Be not desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful food.
Proverbs 23 opens with a scene: a powerful man invites you to his table, and the food is better than anything at home. The warning is not about table manners. It is about your own appetite, and about food that promises more than it gives.
Few of us dine with rulers, yet the situation repeats itself wherever we sit down with people above us. One writer reads the first three verses as one instruction, and takes the knife of verse 2 as a picture of restraint.
We may very seldom sit down to eat with a ruler. But the instruction here bears on eating with anyone in a place of honour (v. 1). This is certainly not the place to indulge one's appetite! Instead, we should think about what food we take, and put a knife to our throat (v. 2) — that is, curb our appetite. The ruler may well have a gourmet menu, but we should not desire such food, "for they are deceptive food" (v. 3). In the long run they do not give the nourishment we credit them with. Simple, healthy meals are not expensive.
One writer sets two people side by side. First is the man in Luke 16 who lived to indulge himself. Second is the person most at risk here — not the one used to luxury, but the one who is not.
In Luke 16 our Lord pictures the easygoing gentleman — not an unbeliever, but correct in his beliefs — who lived to indulge himself. He was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted in splendour every day. But he died and was buried, and in Hades he lifted up his eyes in torment. That was the immediate result of living for self and not for God. Here, though, the danger is to someone not used to luxury. He is told to consider what, or who, is before him, and to put a knife to his throat instead of yielding to self-indulgence. "Give us this day our daily bread" — or, as the words may be rendered, our sufficient, our necessary bread — is how the Lord told His disciples to pray. Dainties are deceitful food even for a Jew, how much more for a Christian!
Kelly also reads the opening verses as one theme with what follows: cautions "against self-gratification and seeking the riches which furnish its means." A second writer sees the same shape in the chapter's start.
The opening proverbs of this chapter treat of self-restraint in curbing the appetite and give manners to be observed in the presence of a superior.
Daniel and his three friends met this proverb in real life. In Babylon the king sent them food from his own table, and they refused it. One writer names what that fine food really was.
Turning to the book of Daniel, we find that these four men purposed in their hearts to act for God. Consequences did not matter; they refused to eat the food from the king's table, or to drink his wine. This would have been "defilement." His luxuries were pleasant to nature, but they were only a bait of the enemy. The first step of faith is refusal.
If the delicacies deceive, then having fewer of them is a mercy, not a loss.
Soft pleasures harden the heart. Prosperity has its honey, and also its sting. The spreading of a full table may be the spreading of a snare. Many have been sunk to hell with golden weights… What if we have less food we have less snare; if less dignity, less danger. As we lack the rich provisions of the world, so we lack the temptations. To give us Christ is more than if God had given us all the world. He can make more worlds, but He has no more Christs to bestow. If you have only enough bread each day to meet your needs, be content.
Two pictures frame the danger. Jesus described a man who dressed well and dined well every day, and Kelly draws out what followed: "dead and buried, in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, the immediate consequence of living to self and not to God." The chapter itself makes the same journey.
The chapter began with the evil of self-indulgence in eating, above all in a ruler's house. It ends with the even plainer danger of hard drinking, wherever it happens.
- Look first. Before you eat, consider who is before you. A great man's table is no place to indulge your appetite.
- Deceptive. The delicacies do not give the nourishment we credit them with. Plain, healthy food costs little.
- Bait. What is pleasant to nature can be the enemy's hook, as the king's food was for Daniel; the first step of faith is refusal.
- Knife. The remedy is self-restraint. Curb the appetite instead of yielding to it, and pray for bread that is enough for the day.
- Enough. Less food means less snare; and Christ given to us outweighs the whole world spread on any table.