Rude Awakenings - Part 1
A sated man loathes honey, but to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet [Proverbs 27:7].
He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be reckoned a curse to him [Proverbs 27:14].
Do you like candy? No, I don’t mean just kiddie candy. I mean do you like candy of any kind? I bet you do! Many a poor slob is addicted to chocolate, for instance. It is such a common thing nowadays, that a new word was coined to depict it, viz., chocoholic.
Have you ever known anyone whose favorite pastime was to spend his time resisting the urge to eat his favorite candy? Didn’t think so. Such a critter doesn’t exist! The savor of chocolate (or whatever the favorite candy might be) is desirable, not repulsive.
But you know what? Even to a chocoholic the mere sight of chocolate can at times be repulsive. I mean, give him an inexhaustible supply of the stuff and permit him to stuff his face until he pukes it all up! Think he finds it “desirable” then? If so, then think again.
That is the point made by the writer of Proverbs 27, dear friends. When a man is “sated”, i.e., when he is overly full of food of any kind, then even “honey” (or chocolate) is loathsome to him. He is so full that his stomach cannot handle anything more, even things he normally cannot resist.
The other side of the coin is that, when a person is starving, he will eat anything, even things he cannot normally stomach (i.e., “bitter” things). His body is in dire need of nutritional succor. His sense of taste under those conditions is a simple luxury which he cannot afford to appease. His life is at stake!
Did you catch the antonymous parallelism which occurs in verse 7? This refers to a style which exists with Biblical Hebrew poetry. Instead of rhyming words at the end of lines, the Hebrews rhymed ideas between the lines. When the ideas were comparable, the style wore the identifier synonymous parallelism. When they presented contrasts, the jargon antonymous parallelism applied. Here’s a diagram of verse 7.
A. a sated man
B. loathes honey
A. a famished man
B. considers something bitter to be sweet
A “sated man” is the opposite of a “famished man”. To loathe something sweet is the opposite of to relish even things that are bitter. Voilà! antonymous parallelism.
But there is something more to be gleaned from this verse, dear friends, something we have repeatedly taught over the years. Rule #1 for Bible study states, a text without a context is a pretext. This truth reverberates into a crescendo in the two Bible verses with which we began this study.
A chocoholic craves his chocolate. He demands more and he demands it more frequently! Notwithstanding this addiction, when he is sated, when he is surfeited, suddenly he cannot stomach chocolate. Is he no longer a chocoholic then? Absolutely not true! The context explains why temporarily he can no longer brook chocolate.
See! A text (or any situation) has to be understood in its context, or fatal misunderstanding can follow. If not understood in context, when we observe a chocoholic vomiting at the sight of chocolate, we might be tempted to pat ourselves on the back for curing him. Yikes! We are beside ourselves a short while later, should we observe him chasing his favorite chocolate bar around the room!
Alas, but we’ve come to the end of the road for today. Not to worry though. By tomorrow road construction will be completed and we will be able to continue down this avenue. Let’s spend time awhile with Jesus, while we await the morrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my books in the Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes Bible study series. To purchase my books please click on the "Shop" tab at the top of this page, where you will find a complete list of my books. Each book is available in both paperback (Createspace) and eBook (Kindle).
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