Chapter 23

I look back on my blogs on Proverbs. Apart from being too infrequent, they also suffer from two problems:

1) I tend to write them late at night, and sometimes so late at night that I fall asleep at the keyboard. In those cases you will often see a blog that is either a little disjointed, or finishes very abruptly when you’d normally expect me to keep going.

2) Proverbs is such a rich book, and I don’t feel that I can do it justice. Bluntly, some chapters have so much in them that you feel like you’re a foody about to dine at the biggest buffet of haute cuisine that you ever saw.

It’s number 2 that really hits me tonight as I look at Proverbs 23. There’s so much here, and I can really only grab a couple of titbits.

Juicy titbits, to be sure, but only a couple.

As I previously noted, there are those who say that Solomon was not really the author of these proverbs; such people suggest that it’s someone trying to write what Solomon might have thought. Maybe; personally, I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be the man himself.

In any case, whoever wrote it has a remarkable understanding of people and how they work.

There are three concepts that are discussed in chapter 23 which I’d like to submit for your perusal tonight.

Firstly: Table manners.

Now, for a moment, you might be wondering why this comes up – collected wisdom of the ages, and he discusses table manners?! What gives?

But there’s more to it than that. Verses 1 – 3 and 6 – 8 are superficially about our behaviour with regard to food and drink – but they demonstrate something we intuitively know. We see eating and drinking with others as an important part of social life, and this is universal to human experience, whether you are from Melbourne, Madagascar, Malawi or even if you’re a member of the Maasai tribe. And because of this, the way we eat or drink – especially when we are with others – tells you something about how we regard others.

For example, when one is eating with an influential person (vs 1 – 3), one shouldn’t focus so much on the fare available to us that we exclude that person. The food isn’t really the point of the event; rather, it’s about developing relationships. If we aren’t aware of this, we miss the point of eating together!

Also, Solomon (or whoever) has sharply observed what it is like to eat the food of a stingy person. This is kind of the reverse – note that if you’re on the receiving end of treatment which sees the food (or its cost!) as the important thing, you too can see someone missing the opportunity to develop relationships.

Secondly: Parenting.

We live in a world where parenting is often practiced poorly. Many parents are so concerned with being friends with their children that they miss the opportunity to be their PARENTS. A child needs parents far more than they need friends, and you are the only parents your child can have – so it’s important that we get this one right.

It’s politically incorrect today to say “Smack your kids”, but Solomon is right alongside the use of physical discipline! Of course, the method of discipline is not so much the issue as the necessity of it being there. One thing is certain: children need to be disciplined consistently if they are to develop strong moral character. This is not to say necessarily treated badly, by the way; punishments are only part of discipline. So is direct teaching, so are rewards and so is modeling a good example of behaviour.

Thirdly: Alcohol.

I am not a big fan of alcohol myself, but many in our society would ask “where’s the harm in a quiet drink?”

I concede that if it is imbibed in moderation, alcohol may at least be non-harmful, and perhaps helpful. But so few people drink in moderation in our society; a very great number of people binge drink frequently, and not a few people suffer from that disease that was so well known even in Solomon’s day, ALCOHOLISM.

Vs 29 – 35 talk at length about alcohol, and demonstrate that alcoholism was at least as much a problem in Solomon’s day as it is today.

For all its good points, alcohol is a poison (literally – it damages body cells), and an addictive poison at that. So it must ALWAYS be handled with the greatest of care.


The three topics I have discussed above are not exhaustive – even in this chapter there is more. But these three are a good sample of the wisdom represented in this book. Solomon knew people; and if we listen to him, we will too.

Chapter 23

So we have Balaam, a chastened man, who has been given a very close brush with angel-conveyed sharp pointy death. It’s been made extra specially clear to him that he MUST say what God has said, and ONLY what God has said. Or else.

Oh yeah, and all that was conveyed to him via a talking donkey.

Balaam presumably isn’t in a terribly good mood. It’s not been a good day.

It’s about to get worse, from a financial point of view at least. Let’s face it, if your employer wants you to curse someone and you wind up blessing them, your employer is entitled to be a little flummoxed[1].

Numbers chapter 23 is basically the continuation of Balaam’s story. As you may recall, God wasn’t overly keen on him going with Balak in the first place, but since Balaam so insisted, God reluctantly let him go, on the condition that he ONLY say what God told him to. And the angel with sword/donkey incident is designed to drive this point home.

In this chapter, Balaam starts off with giving his instructions on how a prophecy is to happen – Seven bulls and rams burning on altars! – and then gives his “oracle,” the verses of prophecy that he is to speak. This basic pattern is done three times, although the last time spills over into tomorrow night’s chapter.

One thing here – there’s no question that Balaam is telling what he believes to be the truth. These oracles are going to cost him dearly, yet he still gives them.

We’re going to look briefly at the two oracles. The first oracle is based around a simple theme – “How can I curse someone God has not cursed?” Balaam sees the camp of Israel, and witnesses the number of people. He compares it to the particles in a cloud of dust.

Not surprisingly, Balak isn’t pleased. For some reason, though he thinks that if he puts Balaam somewhere that he can’t see as many tents, he might be able to do a better job of cursing the Israelites.

It’s often said that to do the same things and expect a different result is a very definition of insanity. You can see this here, because when Balak takes Balaam to a different place and has him try again, once again Balaam’s oracle is very different from what was expected.

This time, Balaam’s theme is that God doesn’t lie. “God is not a man that he should lie,” is something I have known for most of my life as a memory passage, and here I get the chance to see where it comes from!

Although I have had this verse quoted as an encouragement, in its correct context it is a stinging rebuke against someone who expected God to change His mind with a change of scenery.

I think we can sometimes be guilty of the same idiocy as Balak. We want God to bless what we do, which is understandable; but we come to that inconvenient realization that what we intend to do is something that is outside of God’s revealed word.

A friend of mine once told me that she was seeking to divorce her husband. She told me that she was “seeking God’s will for her life,” and that she didn’t believe that this will included him.

The fact is that God DOESN’T condone divorce, although it is a regrettable necessity sometimes. There was no violence or infidelity, she simply wanted out. I told her that I couldn’t see how God’s will could be for her to divorce; she went ahead anyway. I later found that there had been another man in her life.

God’s revealed word makes his stance on divorce (and infidelity!) clear, but my friend had made up her mind anyway. She wasn’t looking for guidance, really, but a pretext to do as she wished.

This is a big example, but it’s not like this person is alone. Frankly, I think we can ALL think of situations in which what we want has come first, and what God wants has come second. Sadly, I think most of us could probably think of examples of how we have even distorted God’s word in our own minds so we could justify things we wanted to do that, if we were honest with ourselves, were purely and simply wrong, wrong, wrong. Maybe for us these situations have not been as life-destroying as my friend’s choice; if so, that’s because of the grace of God. Our rebellion (let’s call it what it is) is less obvious than hers, but exactly the same in character.

In recognizing that Balak was stupid, we recognize that we are worse – Balak didn’t know God as we claim to, and many gods of the ancient world were capricious and prone to change their minds easily. No such mitigating factors apply to us. We know God, we know that He doesn’t lie or change; but we do what we know is wrong anyway.

At this point I have to admit that there are some things I need to repent from, and maybe there’s some for you too. The good news – the flipside of this issue if you like – is that we worship a God who is changeless – and part of that changelessness is His willingness to give grace, to put aside His wrath at Christ’s expense.

I have just realized that this particular chapter has turned from a lighthearted tone into a very serious tone. Sin is a major downer, especially when we come to the ugly realization that we are ourselves sinners – perhaps sinners that God is working on fixing, but sinners anyway.




[1] You COULD argue that there’s a breach of contract issue here, but I suspect that Balak was a little spooked by the events described in this chapter and didn’t want to annoy God further!