Does Ecclesiastes 10:17 prove that an early morning meal is injurious?
We can tell better if we read it, and find out what it says. Here it is, together with verse 16, from which it cannot be separated: "Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes eat in the morning! Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!" (Ecclesiastes 10:16-17)
Now let us read it slowly and carefully, noting what it says. We see at a glance that there is a contrast--the state of the land under two sets of conditions is contrasted.
• If the king is a child, or a servant, as in the margin of the Revision,-that is, if he is inexperienced, and himself in need of tutors and governors-the land will suffer.
• If, on the contrary, the king is the son of nobles, free born, disciplined in mind and body, and trained to govern, the land will be prosperous.
So much for the king, and all is plain enough thus far. There is yet another adverse condition and its contrasted blessing:
• If the princes eat in the morning, it will be disastrous to the country;
• But, on the other hand, if they eat in due season, it will be greatly to the advantage of the land.
Nothing else can be made of the language than that the morning is not "due season" for eating. I have nothing to say as to what anybody shall do; my business is simply to set forth the Scriptures just as they read. Custom, convenience, habit, the opinions of men, our own appetites or preferences,--none of these have any place whatever in considering the meaning of any portion of Scripture. "What does it say?" is all that need concern us.
Read the text again, and it will appear that to eat in the morning is not to eat for strength. The land suffers when princes eat in the morning; it rejoices when they eat in due season, that is, not in the morning; for strength, and not for drunkenness. Eating in the morning, therefore, tends to drunkenness, rather than to strength. It does not say that drunkenness necessarily ensues, but that the result of morning eating is the opposite of strength, and that it tends to produce the condition of dullness and heaviness that accompanies intoxication.
Of course the average reader will at once begin to argue or make excuses. Please don't. Disbelieve the text, if you will; ignore it entirely in your practice, if you choose; but don't try to twist it out of its plain, self-evident meaning. "At any rate," says someone who is anxious to feel clearly justified in ignoring the instruction of the text, "it applies only to princes."
Yes; it applies only to princes, that is, to those who have to do with affairs of State, so far as the country at large is concerned. Bear in mind that it says "Woe to the land," when its princes eat in the morning. But it can be bad for the land, only because it unfits the princes for the highest service. Muddle-headed princes or men with overtaxed digestive organs and nerves, cannot rule the land well.
Remember, however, that princes are but men, and that whatsoever affects them injuriously has the same effect on common people. Transgression of physical law on our part may not have as far-reaching effects as when committed by princes--it may make no difference to the country,--but it will certainly make a difference to us personally. If we feel that our proper place is among the princes of the Lord's people, then we shall give diligence to keep our bodies in at least as good condition as should the princes who wear only an earthly crown. "But everybody eats in the morning; how absurd to try to start a new custom; I don't believe in fads," I hear someone say.
I beg your pardon, I am not trying to introduce any new custom; I am simply setting forth the obvious meaning of a simple text, in answer to a question. And what if "everybody" does eat in the morning; what does that prove? Isn't it possible that there is a chance for great improvement in the people of the land generally?
Look at the case in its physiological aspect. Doesn't it seem strange that after a night's rest, by which the whole system is refreshed, and in the best condition for work, people should at once begin to spend that energy in digesting food, instead of in work? It is true that there is ordinarily a feeling of hunger soon after rising, but that is solely because the stomach has become accustomed to receiving food at that time; but that feeling is not true hunger,--the cry of the system for nourishment,--for all the organs and tissues of the body have been restored by sleep.
This is not the time or place to enter fully into a consideration of the subject of hunger; but it may be stated as a truth that very much of what people suppose to be hunger is not due to lack of food, but to other causes, when the system does not actually require food, then every particle that is eaten is just so much for drunkenness--the effect is the same as that produced by alcohol, though differing in degree. Anybody can see that it is at least a tax on the system. "Well then, would you advise me to try going without my early morning meal, and break my fast later in the day?" you ask.
No; most decidedly not. "Why not? If the Bible says that it is a good thing."
Because I can never advise anybody to try experiments. "The just shall live by faith," (Romans 1:17) and faith knows before it acts. Trying experiments belongs to doubt, and not to faith. You are never to try some mode of living, to see how it will agree with you; you are to find out from some reliable source (and there is none better than the Bible), whether the proposed thing is right or not.
If you do not know that some other course is better than the one you are following, do not change; but if you know that a thing is right, then take hold of it with a resolution that will realize the good that is in it, in spite of some possible inconveniences in making the change. You must know that whatever you do is good for you, not because of how you may sometimes feel, but because God's word says so. Otherwise one is manifestly not living by faith.
Someone asks: "Do you not think that there are other errors in diet which call far more loudly for reform than does this one of eating in the morning?"
Undoubtedly there are many reforms far more necessary than this. If one make all other reforms in diet, that are obviously necessary, one might do very well, as thousands do, while continuing to eat in the morning. Perhaps it may be said that the reform here discussed is a luxury, rather than an absolute necessity. It is a privilege, for those who wish to live like princes, rather than a duty, and as it is not enjoined on any, it may be ignored by these who are content to live only a common life, and have only ordinary strength.
Perhaps a few words of personal experience may be allowable, inasmuch as the subject has been broached. Some time ago, when I had an unusual amount of work on hand, I was considering how it would be possible to get through it. Suddenly the text in question flashed into my mind. I had, of course, often read it, but without having my attention fixed upon it. Now it stood out vividly, and I could not help seeing that here was a neglected avenue of strength.
Since it came from God's Word, it was not necessary to confer with flesh and blood; I knew that what the Bible pronounces blessed is blessed, and the decision was instantly made. There was no thought of "trying the plan;" it was entered upon for life, and although a slight inconvenience was experienced for two or three days, no change was ever more easily made, and nothing could persuade me to return to the old habit of eating in the morning.
There was not the slightest doubt to begin with; but experience has demonstrated that both mental and physical labor can be far better performed without an early morning meal than with it.
Nevertheless, I repeat with emphasis, Let nobody adopt this mode of living who does not know absolutely, better even than he knows his own name, that it is the very best thing for him. "Let everyone be fully persuaded in his own mind; ... for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." (Romans 14:5,23)--Present Truth, January 8, 1903.