Better is a dry piece of bread, and quietness with it, than a house full of sacrifices with fighting. (Pro 17:1)
This passage illustrates the difference between two sorts of homes. The first home is one where there is only dry bread, that is to say stale bread. The second home is one that is teeming with the choicest foods, the finest entertainment, and the best of the best that the world has to offer.
The first home has quietness and contentment. The second home has strife and frivolous contention. Where the Holy Ghost resides there is peace and contentment. Where the spirit of this age resides there may be great material wealth but often this is wed to the most unholy strife and discontent.
John Gill quotes an associate who used to say: ‘brown bread and the gospel are good fare’. Indeed this is true. The heart where stayed by the Holy Ghost is like the first home. The needs are few as the Holy Ghost gives contentment and peace. The heart of the unbeliever is like the second home full of strife and yet desirous of the finest appointments but never content.
Even dry bread from the Lord’s table gives peace and contentment while the choicest foods from the world brings only strife and more fighting.
