Day 20: Tough Stuff to Chew On

Food gained by fraud tastes sweet to a man, but he ends up with a mouth full of gravel. Proverbs 20:17

Have you ever been eating a delicious meal and sensed that you had a small pebble disguised as a grain of rice? I have - and I broke a tooth in the process. For some reason rice has a particular reputation to allow small pebbles to get through the screening process, and for that reason many people maticulously check each kilo before putting it to the cooking pot.

I doubt that any of us would come out and admit that we eat a meal that is the fruit of fraudulent behaviour, but like that one small pebble in a a package of rice, it is the small acts that come back to haunt their perpetrators. But the Proverbs warns that such actions will reap their harvest.

Galatians 6:7-8 puts it this way: Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature[a]will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

I can't imagine that a mouth full of gravel would taste good; one pebble in my rice is enough to cause disasterous results. How much more a life filled with deceit and behaviour that doesn't reflect reverence for God's law. It is one more way to pass along the warning of Numbers 32:23: and you will be sure that your sin will find you out.