Peace Over Plenty

Happy Sunday. I hope you had a great Fourth of July. Many Americans gathered for cookouts all across this fruited plain. I love it when my family gets together for a meal.

I have a good friend who when I go to see him asks me, "Are we going to break bread?" There's something special about breaking bread, having a meal, uh, with people that you love. Some of my favorite days are around a table, enjoying the company of friends and family. Churches have building programs to build fellowship halls so that congregants can sit together and break bread.

Some of my favorite church memories are doing just that. Have you ever been at a table where there was strife and some people present were not very pleasant? It can be very awkward to be at a table with those who were fighting. Today's verse from Proverbs 17 talks about both situations.

Listen to verse one of Proverbs 17. Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a houseful of feasting with strife. Let me do it again. Proverbs 17:1.

Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. This verse reminds me of another verse in Proverbs chapter 15:17 that says, "Better is a dinner of vegetables where love is than a fatted oxen with hatred." These verses get to the heart of the matter. It isn't the food that's most important.

It's the company. Feasts with fighting are not events that I want to attend. I want to be with people that I love, people that I care for, people that are at peace. Psalm 133 is all about this.

It's only three verses long, the whole psalm. It says, "How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony. For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil that was poured over Aaron's head, that ran down his beard and onto the border of his robe. Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon that falls on the mountains of Zion.

And there the Lord has pronounced his blessing, even life everlasting. Most of my meals that I have eaten in my life now at this point have had one constant companion, my wife, my bride of 43 years. I thank God that there is love and peace at our table and not bickering and strife. Let me read Proverbs 17:1 again.

Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. Again, this verse talks about something far more important than food. It isn't the food that's most important. It's the company.

We can take so much for granted. Now that the kids are gone and it's just the two of us, there are some days when our evening meals are not culinary masterpieces. They're not feasts at all. Some nights we may just have a bowl of cereal.

Yeah. And then on occasions we've had popcorn for dinner. Now of course we never would have done that when the kids were home. For all meals big and small, I am thankful for the love more than for the meal.

The next time you gather with your family or your friends, look not what's on the table, but what's around the table. Who's around the table. Those seated there are what really matter. And if you're by yourself, God is with you giving you that peace and that companionship.

As I looked at this verse, I was reminded that Solomon, the author of Proverbs 17:1, must have sat at some awkward tables. Why would I say that? First Kings chapter 11 gives us some interesting detail. King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the Israelites, "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for they will surely incline your hearts to follow their gods."

Solomon clung to these in love. Among his wives, we are told, were 700 princesses and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. Can you imagine?

700 wives and 300 concubines. Just imagine the family dinners. Would that include 700 mothers-in-law? Do the concubines bring their families along?

Solomon knew about awkward tables, I imagine. Knowing this, don't these words make more sense? Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. May your harmony and love and peace, May you have harmony and love and peace at your table always.

Pray with me. Lord, forgive us of taking for granted those that we are with. Forgive us of taking for granted the fact that you are with us. Thank you for the blessings of this life and more importantly than the stuff and the food and the feast, the love that is ours.

Help us cherish that always. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. God bless.

Thanks for joining me today.