Bread of Deceit

Yesterday, I wrote about the struggle with sin and how it is like venom of poisonous serpents. (“Of Mercy, Truth, Departing from Evil, Walking in Integrity, and Redemption”) “Just as the Israelites in the desert turned their eyes upon the brass serpent and were healed from the deadly venom of serpents, so I must look to Jesus only as the antivenom for my iniquity.” Today, I was impressed by the deceitfulness of sin when I read Proverbs 20:17: “Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.” Yesterday, my thoughts were on the “afterwards,” the mouth full of gravel, the venom in the veins. But it’s the lure that gets one there. It starts with the deception. That’s the sweetness, the delicious bread. It ends with a mouth full of rocks.

There are some verses in Job that make the same connection between the deceitful sweetness and the bitter end result. Job 20:4, 5 says: “Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?” Several verses below we find:

12. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;
13. Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:
14. Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.
15. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
16. He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

Job 20:12 – 16

It’s impossible for my mind to not go straight back to the Garden of Eden when reading this. To be right there in that time of old, “since man was placed upon earth,” and to hear the tempter, “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world,” (Revelation 12:9) saying, “You shall not surely die,” and to see Eve look upon the pleasant and desirable fruit… until Adam ultimately joined the feast and we all ended up with mouths full of gravel.

Hear a quote from Charles Bridges on Proverbs 20:17:

It is with deceit, as with every other sin, Satan always holds out the bait; always promises gain or pleasure as the wages of his service, and as surely disappoints the victims of his delusion.

Lead Me Not Into Temptation

Yesterday, I used the heading, “Deliver Me From Evil.” This morning I need to step back in my heart and pray, “Lead me not into temptation.” If the battle with sin is present every day, if I still have tendencies to indulge my flesh, if it remains so until I die – then I cannot flirt with temptation and expect to not experience the consequences. I shouldn’t even look at the deceitful bread, let alone pick it up and put it in my mouth. My eyes need to be elsewhere. They need to be on Jesus Christ. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of my faith.”

In the End

I will close this brief blog post with another quote from Bridges on Proverbs 20:17, as well as the words of Scripture from James.

Holiness is sweet in the way and in the end too. Wickedness is sometimes sweet in the way, but always bitter in the end. Whatever be the tempter’s proffered advantage, his price is the soul, to be paid in the dying hour. Oh! The undoing bargain! An eternal treasure bartered for the trifle of a moment! Charmed we may be with the present sweetness; but bitter indeed will be the after-fruits, when the poor deluded sinner shall cry – “I tasted but a little honey, and I must die.” (1 Samuel 14:43) So surely is the bitterness that springs out of sin the bitterness of death.

13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man:
14. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
16. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

James 1:13 – 17