Simple Minded and Lacking Good Judgement

Proverbs 9: 4b-6, 16-18

“Come in with me,” she urges the simple.
    To those who lack good judgment, she says,⁵ “Come, eat my food,
    and drink the wine I have mixed.
⁶ Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live;
    learn to use good judgment.”

¹⁶ “Come in with me,” she urges the simple.
    To those who lack good judgment, she says,
¹⁷ “Stolen water is refreshing;
    food eaten in secret tastes the best!”
¹⁸ But little do they know that the dead are there.
    Her guests are in the depths of the grave.

I was looking up some bible verses about food and comfort and noticed something interesting in these verses.  This is a chapter talking about wisdom as if she is a person asking people to come into her home.

In the first verses (4-6) she urges the "simple" and "those who lack good judgment" to eat food & drink wine and THEN says to leave your "simple ways" and "use good judgment".

In the second set of verses (16-18) again she urges the "simple" and "those who lack good judgment" and AGAIN mentions food & water.  But she skips right over being simple minded and having good judgment and goes straight to the truth. "Little do they know... her guests are in the depths of the grave."

I don't think this is a coincidence knowing what our society lives for.  We live to satisfy ourselves.  And given the epidemic we have of obesity, we satisfy ourselves with food. (This is also called gluttony, but that's another blog for another day.)  I know I turn to food for all kinds of emotions: sad, tired, angry, even happy! Sometimes a little alcohol to calm me down from a rough/stressful day (usually involving children!).  I would probably turn to alcohol more often except that I think about how many calories and sugar it contains.  And then I think about how "out of control" I can get if I drink too much. And I also think about the after affects/how I'll feel the next day!  What's funny is, food has the similar affects and yet I don't have this mind set as ingrained in my head about food as I do about alcohol...  And maybe that's because alcohol is a "drug" and can be very bad for you. 

You know we've all heard over and over to not drink when you're pregnant and don't drink and drive. These things are ingrained in your brain!  But how many commercials or advertisements do you see talking about how food is bad for you?   We may see a few news reports on certain foods: sugar & diabetes, fried foods & cholesterol, etc. But I guarantee you that during that 7 minute commercial break you're going to see AT LEAST 1 Food Commercial!!  And it is NOT going to be advertising health foods!  So, even though food is necessary for our survival, food IS OUR DRUG OF CHOICE in America!  People are dying from eating too much food and too much of the WRONG food!  I mean, you would think that a marathon runner would be the golden standard of health.  But how many do you see or hear about getting injured, getting dehydrated, having heart attacks.  A lot of this comes down to what they are putting into their bodies.

If we could just change our mindset about food.  Food is our Energy that sustains our life.  Food is not intended for pleasure or to heal us from pain (emotional or physical).  If you eat too much food you will feel terrible afterwards!  You will feel tired. You will feel dehydrated (even though you may not recognize that you are thirsty. You will probably end up eating more instead of drinking water).  You will feel bloated. And you will feel fat.... because you will be getting fat if you continue to over eat what your body needs on a daily basis.

According to these Bible Verses we are simple minded and we lack good judgment when it comes to what we eat and drink. And I wholeheartedly agree!  We don't think through the process of what we are doing to our bodies when we eat and drink food that is not good for us.  (To think through our biological processes is very technical!! Definitely not a simple thought.) Instead of thinking through a meal plan; Instead of making a recipe made with real, non processed foods; Instead of thinking about the nutrients our bodies actually need, we simply stuff our faces with what is convenient, quick and will satisfy our wants (not our needs) in that moment.  In that moment we may be happy and want to celebrate! But why do we have to have ice cream to celebrate?  Why not get together and hang out with friends to celebrate?! I mean, that's what we do for our birthdays, right? And when t comes to our food CHOICES: We all know that we can't live on ice cream for every meal of every day.  But we sure could if we had to, right??  But why do we think that we can live on cheese nips, 100 calorie Oreo snack packs, sugar & milk filled Frappuccino's (These are dessert people!!! Not Your Morning Coffee!!!) 

²⁹ Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. ³⁰ And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened. Genesis 1:29-30 tells us what we need: plants and fruit.  Before sin the animals and the humans got along. They didn't eat each other.  But in Leviticus 11 it talks about the clean & unclean animals.  Animals that are good and healthy to eat vs what is not good to eat.  (There's a lot more that goes into that, but we'll leave it as that since we are working slowly on our simple minds ;)

It sure does look like understanding and figuring out what is good and healthy to eat requires some research and discipline.  It is challenging because it is somewhat complex.  We are lazy people. We do not use good judgment when it comes to food, alcohol, what our bodie's need, what we mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually need.

But if you desperately want to be healthy, you will make the extra effort to research why you eat when you shouldn't, research why foods aren't good for you (if what I said wasn't enough), research what you should eat, research when you should eat. 

"Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live;
    learn to use good judgment.”

When your body is healthy it's easier to make your mind & spirit healthy and vice versa.