Proverbs 9:17 [ESV] Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
I remember as a very young boy at school using my weekly dinner money one Monday lunchtime to go over the road to the shop that sold chocolate, and buying chocolate and crisps, and soda, and forgoing my weekly school dinners.
It was a week of hunger by Tuesday afternoon. Then to add to the pain a teacher told my parents I was missing school dinners and it all came out. There was a new pain added to the pain of hunger that day.
The chocolate, crisps and soda had tasted so good in the moment – all things I would never get to eat at home. But it did not last, and the guilt, the discovery, and the pain afterwards ensured it was a one-off. At least for the next few months.
KNOWLEDGE
These are the words of the woman at the door of her house and in the highest places in the town/city (v14) They would seem to come from a place of safety (home) or authority (high place). Yet they are set traps.
There is of course an element of truth about them, just not the whole truth. They are set to deceive, to entrap, to ensnare. There is pleasure, and there is unmentioned pain. The pain of regret, of consequences that impact self and others for years to come, of a life changed and a new unwanted path taken.
UNDERSTANDING
Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live?
The word used for “eaten in secret” in Hebrew is pronounced as “seter”, and carries the meaning of – “hiding place, shelter, secret place, covering, veil.”
The LXX reads as “Bread loves of secrets with pleasure you touch and water of fraud, sweet you drink.”
The word used for secret is κρυφίων [kruphion] – “of secrets”. This word appears once in the New Testament as “κρυφῇ” – kruphe from Ephesians 5:12 [ESV] For it is shameful evebn to speak of the things they do in secret [κρυφῇ] “
WISDOM – There are people who will tell you things that will mislead you if you let them. The choice is yours and mine.
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Consistency as a Gallup Strength has clear expectation, and lets everyone know where you stand. Remember that your way is not the only way.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – Taken by deception, water tastes sweet, and bread for food eaten secretly, is to be favoured.
Stolen – taken by deception
water – water
is sweet – tastes sweet
and bread – and bread for food
eaten in secret – eaten secretly
is pleasant – is to be favoured
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me today to be open with you and with others. And to trust you with my future.
To chat to me as a professional coach/mentor – allan@theallankey.com
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