Gary Burbank was a local Cincinnati radio celebrity who used to do hilarious routines.  One of his characters was “Earl Pitts, American.”  Apparently, a lot of things made Earl sick.  In fact a lot of things made Earl “wanna puke.”

Well, the Bible talks about puking quite a lot.  You didn’t know that?  Well, it does!

For example, Proverbs 23:6-8 warns people against a certain brand of hostile hospitality.

“Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy;

                 do not desire his delicacies,

⁷    for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.

                 “Eat and drink!” he says to you,

                 but his heart is not with you.

⁸    You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten,

                 and waste your pleasant words.” (English Standard Version)

I read this, and thought to myself, “Yeah, there are people like that!  They wanna make me puke too!”

Lindsay Wilson makes some excellent observations about this passage:

This section echoes verses 1-3, but broadens the concept out to one who offers food begrudgingly.  The precise character of this person is not immediately clear.  Some versions opt for stingy (ESV, NRSV, HCSB), others for “begrudging” (NIV 1984), while some older versions pick up the more literal sense of ‘him who hath an evil eye’ (KJV).  It refers to someone who is the opposite of one who has a good eye, which in 22:9 describes a generous person.  . . .  Verse 7 indicates that such a person has a façade of being generous, but is not like that on the inside.  The only other place where the expression is used in the OT is in 28:22, where it refers to one who chases after wealth.  So it describes someone who is greedy and not wanting to share, yet still wanting to have a name for being generous.  . . .  The meaning of verse 8 is clear (you will vomit up what you have eaten and waste your kind words), but the reason for this is not set out.  There may have been something bad about the food, but more likely it is a vivid expression for being revolted when you realize the hypocrisy of the host.[1]

Before I read Wilson’s good comments, I had thought to myself, “Hey!  Maybe this stingy guy was serving his poor guest food that had gone way beyond its expiration date.”  So, Wilson’s appropriately tentative comment, “There may have been something bad about the food . . .” might be along the same line as my suspicion.  (I just love it when other scholars’ suspicions support my own!)

I was, of course, identifying myself with the guest.

And then, the merest bit of doubt intruded: What if I was a little like the stingy host?  Perhaps, reading the Scripture is a relatively benign activity.  But letting the Scripture read me is another matter altogether.  Allowing the Scripture to speak to me is an exceedingly subversive activity.  It is likely to reveal my soft underbelly.  (For further information, I refer you to The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien.  Smaug, the dragon, had a vulnerable place underneath him, near his heart.)

Now, my first reaction to this unwelcome thought was, “Why, of course, I’m not stingy!”

And then I remembered the Girl Scout cookies that I bought from our neighbors.  They have two girls in the Girl Scouts, so I had to buy four boxes of Tagalogs.  I thought of hiding them in my room, and not sharing them with my sweetheart, my wife.  I didn’t, but I thought about it.

Oh my!

Now, don’t get me wrong: I can be very generous with some things.  You want the last helping of broccoli?  No problem!  You don’t want to share your green beans?  You can have them all!

So, I am very generous with things that I don’t like.

We Christians just came through the Lenten season.  We are often challenged to think of how much God gave up for us, and how much Jesus sacrificed for us.  We are also encouraged to give up something during Lent.

And now, we are in the season known as Eastertide, when we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, the surprising sequel to Jesus’ death.  Celebrating what God has done for me is also celebrating what God has done for the entire world.

How can I share my Savior with others, when I struggle to share my Tagalogs? Sometimes, vomiting is self-induced.

[1] Lindsay Wilson, Proverbs, TOTC 17 (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2018), 252.