Contemplative Bible Reading

Proverbs 20:17 (New International Version)

Food gained by fraud tastes sweet to a man,
but he ends up with a mouth full of gravel.

Ouch! How does that feel? A mouth full of gravel. The Bible contains great literature and some great phrases – this is one of the many in Proverbs.

Literature aside, this is a powerful, true statement. Fraud – tricking someone and taking their possessions – is pretty easy if you try. The fruits of fraud – the possessions taken from another person – are sweet. That is the way most possessions are – sweet.

But what do I have in the end? A mouthful of gravel. A life where everything is dirty and grinds in my mouth until I have no teeth. Then I can only eat mush, and nothing makes mush taste good.

Fraud and easily gained possessions are sweet – at first. Nevertheless, they bring no good to me.

God grant me the wisdom to understand how a quick, fraudulent live only bring me to mush and worse.