Pro. 15 NKJV

Proverbs 15: 17 Better is a dinner of herbs^[c] where love is,
Than a fatted calf with hatred.

We had this verse in our Sunday School a few weeks ago. This is another way of saying that little is plenty as long as you have love. More is not better when love is not there.

There was something funny to me about the translation used in Sunday School. It went something like this: it’s better to eat dinner with cold vegtables, where there is love than with a fatted calf where there is none.

…So go tell that to the fatted calf.

Pro. 17 MSG

Pro. 17: 1 A meal of bread and water in contented peace is better than a banquet spiced with quarrels. 2 A wise servant takes charge of an unruly child and is honored as one of the family.

3 As silver in a crucible and gold in a pan,
so our lives are assayed by God.

I sense that verses 1 and 2 are speaking about “home-life.” Quarrels and unruliness tears us down so much as a family. Verse two reveres the servent for intervening. But intervening in family matters is dangerous. Still this servant is wise in God’s eyes, and I must see it as help to have friends that are serving me by being about the business of my home.

Verse 3 is thrown in today because I say, “Why me? Why all the trouble?” Because God is always analyzing us in order to make us purer.