DROWNING IN DRINK

Proverbs 23.29-35
DROWNING IN DRINK
"...it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper."

PROVERBS IS ABOUT LIVING, AND LIVING well. It instructs us to be skilled in godly, wholesome living. As such, it warns us against the things that jeopardise our health, our relationship with people and with God. The consumption of alcoholic drinks is one of the most potentially destructive habits of personal and social life.

The seven verses here give us the longest and most vivid warning in Proverbs against drunkenness (see also 20.1; 31.4-5). The appeal of wine and drinking is recognised: "it sparkles in the cup...it goes down smoothly" (v.31). So are its deadly effects: the bloodshot eyes, the bruises on the body (possibly, from bumping into objects, falling or from fights), hallucinations and incoherent ravings (vv.29, 33-35).

Some years ago, I received a newsletter from a Christian group called "Alcoholics Victorious". It provides useful information on our subject. I quote the undated newsletter: "What is alcohol?... The type of alcohol found in all alcoholic beverages is ethyl alcohol or ethanol. It is a colourless, volatile liquid, and has three properties that make it dangerous for human consumption.

"Firstly, it is a drug and is highly addictive. A true slogan is that 'Alcohol is a drug disguised as a drink.' Secondly, it is an anaethestic which slowly affects various centres in the brain. The higher centres of thinking and self-control are affected first, then speech, hearing, vision and muscular co-ordination."

"Thirdly, alcohol is a poison. Normally, alcohol is taken sufficiently diluted not to manifest its poisonous properties immediately, but if a bottle of spirits were to be taken undiluted, death would certainly follow in a very short time."

The newsletter goes on to speak of alcoholism. "This is a psychological and/or physical addiction to the drug ethyl alcohol. The difference between a heavy drinker and an alcoholic is that the latter has become addicted: he cannot stop drinking by using his willpower alone. A heavy drinker may sink very low, but when he sees that his drinking is adversely affecting his life..., he can stop himself. But if a person drinks enough alcohol for long enough he will become an alcoholic."

Since the line between the drinker and the alcoholic, "harmless" social drinking and alcoholism, is often almost unnoticeable, it is wise not to drink at all. Why poison yourself and ruin your life?

Am I an alcoholic? Am I in danger of becoming one?