Proverbs 23:17-35: a reflection

17Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but rather fear the LORD all day long. 18Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off. 19Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path! 20Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat; 21for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags. 22Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old. 23Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding. 24The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him. 25Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice! 26My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways. 27For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well. 28Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men. 29Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? 30Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine. 31Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. 32In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper. 33Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things. 34Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging: 35“They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I will look for more.”

This passage gives a vivid warning about wine, but its wisdom reaches far beyond drink. Do not look at the wine when it is red, it says, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly; in the end it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Notice the two ends of the thing held up side by side: how it looks and feels at the start, sparkling, smooth, inviting, and how it turns out in the end, biting, poisoning, leaving a man confused and beaten and craving more.

That is the deception the passage exposes, and it is not only about wine. Many things that lead to ruin do not look or feel like ruin at the start; they go down smoothly, sparkle in the cup, feel good in the moment. The bite comes later. Folly rarely announces itself as folly; it presents itself as sweetness, and only reveals its serpent's fangs after we have swallowed it.

The wisdom, then, is to look past the immediate sweetness to where the path actually leads. Do not judge a thing only by how it sparkles going down; ask where it ends. The wise person sees the viper inside the smooth cup. And underneath it all is the deeper appeal of the passage: my son, give me your heart. The safeguard against being deceived by sweet-looking ruin is a heart given fully to God and his ways. Give him your heart, and learn to see the end of the road, not just the sparkle in the cup.

Lord, many things that lead to ruin go down smoothly and sparkle in the cup, and only bite later. Give me the wisdom to look past the immediate sweetness to where a path actually leads, to see the serpent inside the cup. And take my heart fully, so that I am not deceived by sweet-looking ruin. Here is my heart.