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Dining With Rulers

             When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive. (Proverbs 23:1-3)

If you’ve worked anywhere, including for yourself, you’ve probably noticed a tendency for employers to expect their employees to buy the company’s goods or services rather than to shop at or hire a competitor. You work for them. How could you commit treason. In ancient days (and in some cultures even today) eating with someone could be considered allying with them. The meal is your purchase price. At the same time, if a ruler invited you to dinner, you weren’t exactly free to decline the invitation without suffering the consequences.

The alternative is to be cautious in what we eat, in how much time we spend, in what we say, etc., so that it’s clear that the other person does not have too great a hold on us. It also prevents others from identifying weaknesses that can be used against us.

There’s another side to this that we might do well to consider. Each of us is a ruler in a limited way. At the very least, we have some measure of dominion over ourselves. In the same way that we should be careful when we dine with some other ruler, we should be careful when we dine with ourselves, or with our weaknesses, because as we indulge, we may give our weaknesses power over us.

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