Surf the channels on your television these days, and you’re likely to catch a wave of reality shows. Most of the shows are brainless, some of them are entertaining, but one of them makes for the most heart-wrenching hour of television you’ll watch each week. It’s called Intervention, it airs on the A&E channel, and it tells the stories of addicts who—at the urgent pleading of family and friends—make moves toward clean and sober living. Unfortunately, after a stint in rehab, many of these addicts return to drinking and using, along with all the attendant ills that prompted their loved ones to intervene in the first place.
As I said, it’s the most heart-wrenching hour of television you’ll watch each week. But it’s also the most instructive one. We learn by example, both good and bad, and the addict’s example shows us how not to live.
Like Intervention, Proverbs 23:29-35 shines a bright light on the reality of alcoholism. Commercials promote drinking alcohol—always responsibly, of course—but few show us a picture of the morning after a night of heavy drinking. Advertisers promote drinking as glamorous, fulfilling, and sexy, but not Proverbs.
Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaints?
Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
Those who linger over wine,
who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.
Those six rhetorical questions hammer home the dark side of alcohol: woe, sorrow, strife, complaints, needless bruises, bloodshot eyes.
The Bible does not prohibit drinking alcohol per se, but it does warn us about becoming too enamored of strong drink.
Do not gaze at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup,
when it goes down smoothly!
Becoming too attached to alcohol has physical consequences.
In the end it bites like a snake
and poisons like a viper.
Talk to someone whose liver has been poisoned by drinking too much, and you’ll understand what Proverbs means.
Addiction to alcohol will affect your intellectual capacities.
Your eyes will see strange sights
and your mind imagine confusing things.
Male college students routinely joke about “beer goggles,” the alcohol-induced misperception of ugly women as supermodels. But “beer goggles” are no laughing matter. Drunks aren’t reliable interpreters of reality, whether at a bar, at work, or on the road.
And alcoholism, which loosens lips and exacerbates emotional extremes, often results in violence.
You will be like one sleeping on the high seas,
lying on top of the rigging.
“They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt!
They beat me, but I don’t feel it!
Several years ago, a drunk teenage driver in Orange County took a turn too fast, wrecked his car, killed a couple of his passengers, and permanently injured others. But he walked away from the accident. He didn’t feel the pain he caused others.
Unfortunately, in spite of all these harms, alcoholics still crave the bottle.
When will I wake up
so I can find another drink?”
As I said, the Bible doesn’t prohibit drinking per se. But the dangers of drunkenness—especially its alcoholic extreme—urge caution. The most important question regarding alcohol consumption may not be, “Is it prohibited?” but, “Is it wise?”
GeorgePWood.com 