Avoid the stingy man's table

As we enter the feasting Christmas season, there is a small but powerful wisdom verse I'd like to share. During this holiday season we are often invited to places, to people's homes, or to work-related parties. We eat with people as part of the fellowship of the season. Breaking bread over a table in hospitable fellowship should be a sweet way to celebrate the Savior. And it usually is! However, as with most things involving people (because we are all sinners), even accepting a simple invitation to sup with bosses, peers, friends, acquaintances is fraught with mine fields of the emotional and spiritual kind.

You would not think, at first, that a kind invitation to break bread at a person's table would be fodder for deep consideration and caution. But it is- IF the person is stingy.

I am not talking about frugal because their income demands it. I am not talking about careful shepherding of the financial blessings Jesus bestows because they love Jesus and follow Him and His ways. I am talking about a person whose life is defined by how much money they do or do not have, a true miser.

The Dictionary defines miser as "One who lives very meagerly in order to hoard money."

The bible has much to say on the subject of generosity and giving. Therefore it makes sense that there are warnings about miserly behavior. Here is the verse and afterward are three commentaries explaining it-

Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy;
do not desire his delicacies,
for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.
“Eat and drink!” he says to you,
but his heart is not with you.
(Proverbs 23:6-7)

Barnes Notes: The hazard here is the hospitality of the purse-proud rich, avaricious or grudging even in his banquets.

Clarke's Commentary on the Bible: Of him that hath an evil eye - Never eat with a covetous or stingy man; if he entertains you at his own expense, he grudges every morsel you put in your mouth. This is well marked by the wise man in the next verse: "Eat and drink, saith he: but his heart is not with thee."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary: Beware of deceitful men, whose courtesies even you will repent of having accepted.

Should you eat with a Scrooge? The bible warns against it.

Just a quick devotional thought this morning. As always, be generous with your love, with your Spirit and with your money. 'Tis the season ... the season of Jesus all year long!