MPC 4th October 2020.October 4 - Proverbs 23:29-35 - "Drinking Problem?"
MPC 4th October 2020.
Bruce Pass
As I mentioned last time I was preaching, these sermons on Proverbs come from a sermon series we were doing at the Brisbane School of Theology, and when I looked down the roster to see my name against the sections that talk about sex and then alcohol, I started looking for my name against passages that talk about rock 'n' roll.
You'll be pleased to know that there is nothing about rock 'n' roll in the book of proverbs, although if you look in chapter 32 verse 4 the teacher states that the difference between a bass and an onion is that nobody cries when you chop up a bass.
In any case, the book of Proverbs is remarkably frank in the way that it addresses awkward topics, which is possibly why I was asked to preach on them. So, to get the ball rolling, let me just ask you straight up, do you have a drinking problem?
If you don't you will probably say, 'no.' If you do, you will probably say 'no' too. This is one of those questions. But it's at this point I should clarify something. Don't assume that I am talking about alcohol. The drinking problem I have in mind is a different one.
It's a problem that often stands behind the misuse of alcohol but it's also a problem that is common among those who would never touch a drop. We'll get to this other drinking problem in due course, but let's begin by hearing what the teacher has to say about grog.
Did you notice the way the second passage we heard begins with this repeated question, 'What are you doing ... What are you doing ... What are you doing?' (31:2)
It's a question but it's also a way of telling someone that they're stuffing up their life. The first passage begins with a similar question but it's a bit more tactful. In 23:29, the teacher asks, who has woe, sorrow, strife, complaint, injury, and pain?
Now, these are not the signs of a flourishing life. Woe and sorrow - tears rolling down your cheeks. Injury and pain - curled over in the foetal position. It's probably not a bad description of some of my students trying to complete their final essays for the semester, but the teacher has a different form of pain in mind.
Who has woe and sorrow? The teacher is thinking of the guy with a tear in his beer, the miserable drunk. Who has injury and pain? He's thinking of the guy who likes a glass or six of Dutch courage, the troublesome drunk.
The teacher is posing this question in the hope of getting our attention. And although his remarks are directed to his son, his words are a warning that we all need to hear. There is a good dose of realism in the way he speaks.
But let's not skip over the fact that his words are directed to his son. Those of you with sons, do you talk to them about grog? The teacher knows that sons need to learn these lessons ahead of time. The knot needs to be unpicked before it gets tied.
And he gives us a good lead on how to do this by showing us three reasons why alcohol is so dangerous.
i) Alcohol is deceptive
The first reason is that alcohol is deceptive. It delivers more than it promises. Look, you see this even in the advertising. Or rather, it's what you don't see in the advertising.
You don't pick up a bottle of wine and see someone with a swollen red nose and signs of liver disease. You see a very sophisticated looking someone who is often young and attractive. You don't pick up a bottle of whisky and see someone with bloodshot eyes vomiting in the gutter. No, you see a beautiful image of the Scottish Highlands.
But alcohol delivers more than it promises. Alcohol can give young and sophisticated people swollen red noses and bloodshot eyes. It's deceptive.
And it's not just the advertising. It's the drink itself is deceptive. It fills your heart with joy but leaves your head with a hangover. This is what is being described in chapter 23, verses 31 and 32.
The teacher says, 'Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.' In the beginning it looks good, tastes good, and feels good, but a little too much and you might as well be drinking poison.
But the tricky thing here is that wine is not poison. This is what makes the teacher's warning easy to ignore. Wine is not poison. It's a blessing. The book of Proverbs even says so. In chapter three, we read, 'Honour the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine' (3:10).
God doesn't exactly fill your vats with poison when he wants to bless us, does he? This is what makes the teacher's warning easy to ignore. The Bible even seems to affirm alcohol as a good thing.
And in chapter 9 we see that even lady wisdom likes a glass of red. She invites people to taste her specialty wines (9:4-5). And the rest of the Bible talks like this too. Psalm 104 exults in wine as a God-given gift, and even itemizes the gladdening properties of alcohol as one of the things that makes it a blessing.
But the fact is, this blessing can become a curse. And the reason that it can become a curse is the teacher's first point. Alcohol is deceptive. It delivers more than it promises. But what we have to see here is that the hangover is the least of the teacher's worries.
The headache will pass. It is a fairly temporary consequence. You'll feel terrible but not forever. But this is not the real danger. The real danger lies in consequences that are more far-reaching. This takes us to the teacher's second and third reasons.
ii) Alcohol can make even moral people do immoral things
The second reason that alcohol is dangerous is that it can make you do things you otherwise wouldn't. And the teacher has something particular in mind.
In 31:3, the teacher asks, 'What are you doing, son of my vows?' The teacher is asking this question because the person drinking alcohol can't see that he's got his hand on the doorknob of sin. He no longer sees the danger of behind this door.
This is why the teacher goes on to chide him, 'Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink.'
We might say that King Lemuel is blind drunk. He will feel the sting of the adder when he wakes up. But the teacher is pointing to another kind of blindness. King Lemuel cannot see that he is plunging headlong into sin. And there is a sad irony in this.
He is a ruler, but he is becoming ruled by wine. The proof of his being ruled by wine is that he won't keep his pecker in his pocket. Now, this connection between alcohol and sex is a common theme in both the Old and New Testaments. It even features in the first mention of drunkenness in the Bible.
Noah ends up nude when he's drunk (cf. Gen 9:21-22). Seriously, what was he doing? You don't just start taking your clothes off when you've had one too many. There's somethin' goin' on! Or at least Noah was wanting something to be going on.
The same thing happens again when drunkenness is next mentioned in Genesis. When Lot gets drunk, he ends up having sex with his daughter (Gen 19:33). And he is so drunk, he can't even remember what he's done. And so he does it again.
The point is, alcohol can make even moral people do immoral things. This is what makes it so dangerous. Take note of this. It can make even moral people do immoral things.
Genesis makes a big deal of Noah's righteousness. And the Bible does not describe Lot as a creep, but rather as a righteous man (2 Pet 2:7). Both of these godly men were undone by grog. This is what makes it dangerous.
Just ask yourself, when does an adult get on to internet porn? It doesn't happen when he's checking his emails over the first coffee of the day. It happens after a few drinks later that night. When do the youth group kids end up yielding to temptation? Not at the prayer meeting but at a party after their fourth bourbon and coke.
Do you recognize this danger? Do you recognize what this blessing can make you do? This is what the teacher wants us to see. Yet as bad as this is, it's actually not his biggest worry. The teacher wants to draw our attention to an even bigger reason why alcohol is dangerous.
iii) Alcohol can stuff up other people's lives
To put it simply, there are worse things than stuffing up your own life. You can stuff up the lives of others and alcohol will do this very nicely. This is where the teacher wants his son to really know that bad life-choices won't just have consequences for him. They will have even worse consequences for those around him.
Now, I am sure that some of you could share some tragic stories in this regard. Even in my 18 months teaching at BST, I've heard some very sad things from students. As effective as such stories would prove as sermon illustrations, it would be very inappropriate for me to repeat them.
But I would simply be astonished if there were no victims of domestic or sexual abuse in this room or online. There are simply too many of us. And I would be even more surprised if this abuse couldn't be traced back to the abuse of alcohol in some way shape or form.
This is why the teacher actually devotes more space to warning us about how alcohol can stuff up other people's lives. It's one thing to harm yourself through bad choices. It's far worse to harm others. And this is exactly why the teacher spends more time harping on this third reason.
Let's come back to King Lemuel in chapter 31. The teacher points out that a ruler cannot let himself be ruled by wine because he won't just make his own life miserable; he will make everybody's lives miserable. In 31:5, Lemuel is warned that if he ruled by wine he will forget 'what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.'
This idea is repeated elsewhere in the Old Testament. It's a very bad thing for a country to be ruled by someone who has beer for breakfast. A king's life touches on so many lives by virtue of the fact that he is the king.
Now, it is unlikely that all 25 million Australians will be affected by any of our life-choices for the simple fact that none of us are the king (or queen) of Australia. But according to the impeccable reasoning of Darryl Kerrigan, a man's home is his castle.
The point is, alcohol can wreck a home just as easily as a king can wreck a country. Isn't that what some of us have learned the hard way? And even if you're part of a more woke, non-patriarchal family, I doubt that you would disagree that the destruction that can unfold particularly from a man's misuse of alcohol is immense.
And it is not always in violent acts. A father's misuse of alcohol can set an emboldening example. It can lead children to rush in where perhaps their fathers' feared to tread.
There is some food for thought for those of us who are engaged in full-time vocational ministry. Ecclesiastes 10:16-17 says, 'Woe to you, O land whose king was a servant and whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed are you, O land whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time-- for strength and not for drunkenness.'
We could easily rephrase this in such a way that it reflects the warning of Proverbs 31. 'Woe to you, O church whose elders drink in the morning. Blessed are you, O theological college whose faculty drink at a proper time and not for drunkenness.'
Those of us who are engaged in full-time vocational ministry especially need to reflect on the fact that our lives touch on many more by virtue of the fact that we minister the Word of God and the very serious point being made is that there are worse things than stuffing up our own life and ministry. We can stuff up the lives of those we are supposed to be ministering to.
So, these are the teacher's three reasons. Alcohol might be a blessing but it can become a curse. It is deceptive, it can make even moral people do immoral things, and it can stuff up other peoples' lives.
Now, some of us won't need to hear this twice. Anyone who has grown up with an alcoholic father or has suffered at the hands of a drunken spouse won't need any reminder of just how destructive alcohol can be. I'm sure that is etched into your memory forever.
But there is a subtle danger that you can still easily fall in to when you hear a passage of Scripture like this. You can easily glaze over when you hear the teacher's advice. You agree that alcohol is dangerous but the fact is that it poses no danger to you personally. You know it's true but it's not true for you.
The problem is that you might have another kind of drinking problem. This drinking problem is a problem that is just as prevalent among those who drink too much alcohol as it is among those who drink none.
Paul alludes to this drinking problem when he repeats the warnings of Proverbs in his letter to the Ephesians. Paul writes, 'Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit' (Eph 5:17-18).
Did you hear the echo of Proverbs? Paul is simply repeating the teacher's second reason. Alcohol is dangerous because it can lead you into sexual sin. Paul is repeating the teacher's warning but, interestingly, he doesn't leave it at that. He draws the Ephesians' attention to another drinking problem that Christians who have no difficulties with alcohol are equally prone to fall into.
He hints at this problem when he tells us to tank out on an alternative beverage. Did you notice that? Paul doesn't just say, 'don't drink too much.' He says, 'make sure you are drinking a lot of something else instead.' He says drink to your limit. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
It's a beautiful irony. In the same way you need to know your limit with alcohol and keep away from it, Paul's saying you also need to know your limit with the Holy Spirit but keep on drinking.
The reason for this is that God himself can fill the emptiness that drives people to grog. Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as living waters that make us never thirst again.
So, the danger that Paul is alluding to is that we might succeed marvellously in not drinking too much wine but we might be just as abstinent when it comes to living water. You might think never to have more than a single light-beer but you might have just as an inconsequential thirst for God.
Do you have this drinking problem? Middle-class Presbyterians are quite good at straining out gnats and swallowing camels. A tee-totaller can have as low a spiritual blood level as the one who is ruled by wine.
And when we are not slaking our thirsts with this living water, we are vulnerable to sin. It might be the sin of alcoholism, but more likely not. It is more likely to be the sin of impatience, unkindness, outbursts of anger, self-centredness. We readily fall into these sins when we refuse to quench our thirsts in God.
All of us are driven by unfulfilled desires and such desires make one vulnerable to sin. These thirsts make us vulnerable to sin but they have little grip on our lives when they are being quenched in God.
Paul draws our attention to this again in his letter to the Galatians where he talks about the dangers of alcohol and a bunch of other dangers. Paul says, 'walk in the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh' (Gal 5:16).
You will not. If you are walking in the Spirit, drinking deep of his living water, you will not be ruled by wine or by any other temptation. If you are filled with the Spirit of Christ, your life will be ruled by the King of kings.
Friends, the Bible is remarkably honest about how we self-medicate. We gladden our heart with wine because it needs gladdening. But what we forget is that there is a drinking habit that fills our heart with hope rather than just dulling its sensitivity. We forget that there is wine that can be bought without money and without cost.
Somewhat unhelpfully, Martin Luther once said, 'Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more ... Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles ... So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.'
The problem with the great Luther's logic is that the devil rarely tells anyone to drink less alcohol. What the devil does constantly tell us, however, is to drink less of is Christ's Spirit.
He is constantly turning us away from the God's Word and prayer. He is constantly giving us reasons not to come to church and this in one of the few places in the world where there are currently no COVID-19!
When the devil assaults us in this way, we should respond in the way Luther urges. We must answer him: I will drink, and right freely. And I will seek the company of men and women and drink more, but of the wine that can be bought without cost.
Sunday morning here at MPC is where we can drink and right freely and in the company of men and women. It is quite literally the Christian's happy-hour. Even the coffee is cheap.
If you find yourself thirsting listen again to Jesus. 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink' (Jn 7:37).
One of the unexpected things you learn when you become a parent of small children is that you have to constantly remind them to drink. Because they are so tiny they dehydrate very quickly but they don't seem to realize that they need to drink and oddly you need to keep telling them to drink.
Spiritual children are not much different. Our heavenly Father has to remind us to drink. This is our real drinking problem. He has to remind us to go on being filled with the Spirit. Let me encourage you to hear his reminder as we meditate on the book of Proverbs warnings about alcohol.