Pro. 23 NLT

²⁹ Who has anguish? Who has sorrow?
Who is always fighting? Who is always complaining?
Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
³⁰ It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns,
trying out new drinks.
³¹ Don’t gaze at the wine, seeing how red it is,
how it sparkles in the cup, how smoothly it goes down.
³² For in the end it bites like a poisonous snake;
it stings like a viper.
³³ You will see hallucinations,
and you will say crazy things.
³⁴ You will stagger like a sailor tossed at sea,
clinging to a swaying mast.
³⁵ And you will say, “They hit me, but I didn’t feel it.
I didn’t even know it when they beat me up.
When will I wake up
so I can look for another drink?”

This is probably the longest passages I’ve ever posted.  It is so long because it all hangs together, demonstrating the dangers of alcohol abuse.  This proverb section is doing what I have been considering this week.  There is a truth that the writer wants to communicate, and it is not so much that alcohol is a danger as much as the writer wants to communicate motivation to stay away from the danger.  Most people don’t buy the lie that alcohol is perfectly safe.  Most believe it is dangerous.  But they choose to risk the danger.  They choose to go against their better judgement and attempt to come as close as possible to “the line” and then stop.

The message I’ll be preaching on has to do with a good habit to develop rather than a bad one to give up.  Still, it’s not that I have to sell one on the idea of these good habits, I just need them motivated enough to do them.