While I was off on the rabbit trail yesterday, I also took a
momentary peek at the verse following the one we discussed. In Psalm 141:4 the Psalmist is imploring God
saying, “Do not let me be persuaded to do
anything evil or to become involved with wickedness, with people who are
troublemakers. Do not let me taste their
delicacies.” (God’s Word ©) The idea of “tasting their delicacies” caught my eye and I jotted down a few
notes that I picked up from for my study this morning.
My first picture when I thought of “delicacies” was of the little sweet confections that you see
displayed on tiny white doilies in the glass cases under the counter in fancy
bakeries. These tempting items may taste
rich and delightful, but they might not always be the best thing for you to
consume. Similarly, the taste of evil
things may have the immediate reward of being enjoyable for the moment, but
tend to have a negative effect on us.
As I continued to consider this, I was reminded of other
items that people in some countries may consider "delicacies" but are quite repulsive
to Westerners. I immediately pictured a Filipino
gentleman that worked for me in my first supervision position at Hewlett Packard. Art was a great guy with a terrific sense of
humor. He was the type of worker that
would do just about anything for you.
His only downside was that he didn’t always think things through before
taking certain actions. This led to a
few humorous situations as well as one that caused a potentially hazardous
condition.
But all that aside, Art was a joy to be with… except at lunch time. I remember one period of time when I was in
the midst of writing a musical for our Children’s program and spent most of my
lunch breaks in my little Datsun 4X4 with pad and pencil furiously penning
songs and script! One night I decided to
take a break and to sit with some of my crew and enjoy their company while we
ate. Well, all was going fine until Art
pulled out what looked like a giant egg and explained the Filipino “delicacy” called “Balut” that he ate daily.
So out of curiosity all of us at the table leaned over and watched as he
cracked open the “delicacy.”
Once I saw what was in the egg and thought of him eating it,
I suddenly had the very urgent need to leave the table as fast as I could… me and everyone else seated there! This highly favored “delicacy” in their country is an 18 day old, fertilized egg that
is boiled alive and seen as a taste treat that, as Art described, is loaded
with all kinds of vitamins and minerals.
(If you dare… Take a look at a
current article on CNN.com about this delicacy!
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/05/travel/how-to-eat-balut/)
That vivid remembrance came to my mind as I considered tasting
the “delicacies” of evil people. With it I also thought of how I took the bait
set out before me and “tasted” the “delicacies” of false accusations that
certain people has tossed to me concerning my character and decision making
abilities when it came to the care of my wife.
Instead of refusing to receive the hurt, I jumped in without thinking
and found myself in a losing battle that may have tasted good when I responded
in anger, but ended up being quite distasteful and upsetting to my spirit as
well as to my natural man!
The King James Version says to “let me not eat of their dainties.”
The word translated “eat”
literally means “to feed on, consume or
to engage in battle.” In my case, I
found myself engaged in a battle that I could not win on their terms. I’ve heard it said that when things like this
come up that we should never try to engage them in a battle of words because
they’ve had much more practice at it than we have! It is a battle fought on their terms that we
cannot win. It is much more effective to
immediately turn the battle over to the Lord and allow Him to change them and heal
the hurt from the inside out!
Some delicacies take what they call an “acquired taste.” I often
wondered why people drank so much beer.
It always tasted very bitter to me, but then I’ve heard some say that
like the enjoyment of fine wines, it is a taste that is acquired after a period
of time. I had one young man tell me
when I temporarily worked on a production line at Hewlett Packard, that he “hated the taste of beer, but enjoyed the
resulting buzz!”
That “buzz” was
the thing that caused him many problems!
It is also the aftereffect of tasting the “delicacies” of evil that can cause us all kinds of problems in our
natural and spiritual lives! So what
will it be? Is the enjoyment of that “delicacy” really worth the troubles it
holds for you and me? Thank God that we
have a loving heavenly Father that will always forgive us of our trespasses,
but why push the envelope and go through the pain in the first place? I am not saying that this is always easy, but
in the long run it is the best path to take.
Next time you’re tempted to taste the “delicacies” of evil, just take a moment and think about that “Balut!” I guarantee that you’ll quickly turn and run
away from temptation!
Have a great day.
Stay in tune to God’s Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”
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