# 435 The Proverbs – ‘A manual for living’ (MSG). Proverbs 13 (2). Appetites – good and evil.

The word “appetite” usually refers to the legitimate desire to eat food items, usually due to hunger.  

But the word can also indicate a desire or liking for some things other than food, some legitimate, some not. For example, an appetite for power, or an appetite for pleasure.

Or as Proverbs 13 says:

² From the fruit of their lips people enjoy good things,
    but the unfaithful have an appetite for violence.

So, “appetite” here means a desire, but in this case an unhealthy desire, and that being for violence!  Previously, we read in Proverbs 4 some wise words concerning guarding our lives from evil ways and we were told:

¹⁴ Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
    or walk in the way of evildoers…
¹⁷ They eat the bread of wickedness
    and drink the wine of violence. (4:14-17)

Then, concerning an appetite for food, we read that:

⁴ A sluggard’s appetite is never filled,
    but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.  (13:4)

The “sluggard”, of course, refers to someone who is lazy, and Proverbs 21:25-26 explains his/her problem:

The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him,
    because his hands refuse to work.
All day long he craves for more…

Having an appetite for food is a good and normal thing, and the ideal is, as it says here in Proverbs:

¹⁹ A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul.  [As long as that longing (or appetite) is positive].

 All humans should know the sweetness of having our good and normal appetites fulfilled, and for this we need to be grateful to God, but sadly, the reality is that this is not the case in many places around the world, and often this is not due to a person being a “sluggard”, but rather this is due to the other unhealthy appetites of people resulting in injustice.

Paul in Romans 16:18 speaks of people who are serving their own appetites – appetites for power, wealth, violence, pleasure and other selfish concerns – and resulting in the people around them suffering, unable to fulfil their own basic and legitimate appetites.   

And did you know that while the normal appetites of many people in our world for basic food requirements are never satisfied, there are other parts of the world where the problem is obesity from overeating?

On the website www.actionagainsthunger.org it says that “There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone on the planet. Yet 733 million people still go hungry. Nearly one in 11 people around the world go to bed hungry each night, a crisis driven largely by conflict, climate change, and chronic inequality.”

And then on the website www.worldobesity.org it says that “more than one billion people in the world are now living with obesity, nearly 880 million adults and 159 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 years.”

What has gone wrong in our world when it comes to our appetites? Why are some going hungry and dying of malnutrition when others are suffering the negative health effects of obesity?

Whichever way you look at it, the situation is tragic! 

No wonder we need the wisdom spoken of in Proverbs, and in relation to this is the key subject of justice and injustice. We will look at this in greater detail in a later Post, but just consider some of the following:

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
    for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
    defend the rights of the poor and needy.  (31:8-9)

Whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker;
    whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished. (17:5)

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
    when it is in your power to act. (3:27)

The righteous care about justice for the poor,
    but the wicked have no such concern. (29:7)

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker,
    but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. (14:31)

If a king judges the poor with fairness,
    his throne will be established forever. (29:14)

Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor
    will also cry out and not be answered. (21:13)

Commenting on this last verse, Keller says: “if we don’t create a society that defends the weak, there may be no one left to defend us. So 21:13 predicted what Martin Niemoller said happened in Germany when the Nazis came first for the socialists, then for the Jews and other unwanted citizens, and hardly anyone spoke up. And so ‘[W]hen they came for me … there was no one left to speak for me.’”

Keller continues: “A society is as strong as its care for its weakest members. What can you do to make it possible for you and our whole society to hear the cry of the poor?” (# 51)

Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,
    and he will reward them for what they have done. (19:17)