September 17: Proverbs 23–24; Psalm 72; John 14

Old Testament: Proverbs 23–24 Proverbs 23–24 (Listen) 23   When you sit down to eat with a ruler,<br />    observe carefully what1 is before you,<br />2   and put a knife to your throat<br />    if you are given to appetite.<br />3   Do not desire his delicacies,<br />    for they are deceptive food.<br />4   Do not toil to acquire wealth;<br />    be discerning enough to desist.<br />5   When your eyes light on it, it is gone,<br />    for suddenly it sprouts wings,<br />    flying like an eagle toward heaven.<br />6   Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy;2<br />    do not desire his delicacies,<br />7   for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.3<br />    “Eat and drink!” he says to you,<br />    but his heart is not with you.<br />8   You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten,<br />    and waste your pleasant words.<br />9   Do n