Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.
Gain gotten by deceit tastes sweet to a person at first, but afterward it turns bitter and painful, as if the mouth were filled with gravel. What deceit offers may seem pleasant in the eating, yet its end is bitterness and pain.
The deceitful bread is the table of demons, set against God's table. It tastes sweet because the wicked love to be deceived. They make lies their refuge and hide themselves under falsehood.
They love to have prophets prophesy falsely, and demand smooth things and deceptions from seers and prophets. They delight in deceitful assurances of peace and safety and in preaching that puts off the coming of Christ. They refuse to examine the truth about the Saviour's return, closing their eyes to evidence and shutting their ears against truth and hating its voice. They imagine that by crying peace and safety and doubting the promise of His coming they ward off danger, though the danger remains real and their disbelief does not change the truth or stop the event.
The verse denounces and condemns fermented drink. In English the word wine always suggests a liquid drink, almost always a fermented drink. But the original words translated wine were not restricted to drink, for some meant solid substances regularly used as foods and not as drinks, though they could be turned into intoxicants by human ingenuity. Where those words refer to fermented drinks such beverages are denounced and condemned, as in this verse.
Gain gotten by deceit tastes sweet to a person at first, but afterward it turns bitter and painful, as if the mouth were filled with gravel. What deceit offers may seem pleasant in the eating, yet its end is bitterness and pain.
The deceitful bread is the table of demons, set against God's table. It tastes sweet because the wicked love to be deceived. They make lies their refuge and hide themselves under falsehood.
They love to have prophets prophesy falsely, and demand smooth things and deceptions from seers and prophets. They delight in deceitful assurances of peace and safety and in preaching that puts off the coming of Christ. They refuse to examine the truth about the Saviour's return, closing their eyes to evidence and shutting their ears against truth and hating its voice. They imagine that by crying peace and safety and doubting the promise of His coming they ward off danger, though the danger remains real and their disbelief does not change the truth or stop the event.
The verse denounces and condemns fermented drink. In English the word wine always suggests a liquid drink, almost always a fermented drink. But the original words translated wine were not restricted to drink, for some meant solid substances regularly used as foods and not as drinks, though they could be turned into intoxicants by human ingenuity. Where those words refer to fermented drinks such beverages are denounced and condemned, as in this verse.