Proverbs 23
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
30 Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine.
31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly;
32 At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things.
God’s Word is multi-faceted with different meanings which is totally true to the text. Let us look at this text not only in the context of the sin of drunkenness but sin in general.
The person described here is in total bondage. It is visible especially in his eyes. So when it speaks here of the awful bondage we are advised in v31 not to get near it.
If you have a weakness for a particular sin and you want to get out from it here is an important tip from God’s Word, “don’t look (gaze on it with desire) on it “.
Eve gazed on the forbidden fruit and sinned.
We see that there is a temporary desire in sin, but in the end it bites like a snake.
It might be self-pity or a grudge and you nurture it and it feels nice. But in the end it destroys you.
Or maybe it’s a relationship that starts to bud between you and someone else and at the moment it sparkles and you don’t feel the bite.
Maybe it’s just a note “I really like you” and it’s enough to send your emotions sky-high. But those emotions are meant for marriage between you and your future spouse. Those emotions intoxicates you.
Anything which intoxicates you has the potential to destroy you if it hasn’t done so already.
It says in v32 that “at the last it stings and bites” which implies it doesn’t happen immediately but it is the final destination of that sin.
Maybe you have a sneek-peek at a pornographic film or magazine or you are a peeping tom. But at the last it bites like a serpent and destroys you.
That bite of sin has poison in it which poisons you.
Now the same thing is true if you are intoxicated by a grudge. Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things. If you have a grudge against someone (whether what he has done against you is real or imagined) you start to see and imagine things which you believe is true.
A girl who has been flattered and is intoxicated with the flattery will start to believe how uniquely beautiful she is. As she looks at herself in the mirror she will notice things which she hasn’t noticed before.
However the problem is that if you are deluded you believe and are convinced of your delusion. And your eyes see perverse things and you imagine that you see those things actually happen. This Luciferian venom intoxicates you so that you see and experience those things which you believe.
Young people, don’t try out sin first before you turn to God. For you have no guarantee that God will give you repentance. It might be the last time and then you will stand before your Creator. Then there will not be another chance.
Young people are being destroyed in our country because of drugs and are dead before they are 20. As we preach at the schools we see misery and woe. We see sexually abused girls who had been abused by their uncles and extended family. And the boys’ faces speak of misery and regret and the youthful faces are gone. But praise God for the Gospel which delivers and saves these children. For many of them they meet God these days as they hear God’s Word.
We read in Matt 1:21, “and she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”.
This is a pillar. If you stay as the person in Prov 23 you are miserable indeed, but if you look to Jesus He will save you from your sin. Here is the ultimate hope and cure. He will save. He will redeem. He will save His people from their individual sins. He saves from the curse of sin in general but He also saves His people from their specific sins.
So firstly you must belong to Him. If you’re in bondage get back to God. Humble yourself before Almighty God and confess your sins as they are. Truly confess and turn away from your sin. Do not gaze on the sin again. Then you will find mercy.
Romans 6
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Here is the ultimate cure. Through Jesus sin shall not have dominion over you. If you truly repent and come to Jesus this is His promise to you.
Jesus promises that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9). Then we are no longer under the dominion of the serpent and sin but under the dominion of Him Who gave His life for us to save us.