PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old” (Proverbs 23:20-22).

The previous verse tells us to be guided in the right way. Here in this verse is a way that no Christian should be. These winebibbers are the wrong guides. A winebibber is one that has an unquenchable taste for liquor. Also avoid gluttons, “riotous eaters of flesh,” for both the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty. Just carried away with their fleshly appetites. Some folks eat to live, other live to eat.

Do not cultivate an obsessive love for food, it just leads to real problems in your life. Cultivate friends who will feed you in the way of righteousness—with spiritual food. Stay away from the wicked. It is a principle of separation.

There are some Christians who think that they are so strong and so spiritual that they can play around with people like that and not be affected by them. They are absolutely out of their gourd. “. . . a companion of fools shall be destroyed” (Proverbs 13:20). You just can’t do it. You can’t go into a mineshaft and not get dirty. People are foolish who think, “Well, I can take care of myself.” You can’t!

“For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty,” and if you are there on the day he does, you’ll go right down with him.

“. . . and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags,” notice how drunkenness and gluttony leads to laziness. Overeating and drunkenness leads to laziness, and laziness leads to poverty. Poverty leads to the welfare office. America is the great enabler when it comes to codling ne’er-do-wells. Instead of poverty, people on welfare are rich compared to the working man that pays his taxes and bills. Our government pays women to have illegitimate children. It is a national disgrace and shame.

“Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.”

Don’t be a proud know-it-all, they have a lot more experience than you do. They’ve been down the road a few more times than you have. Pride will keep a young man from listening to his elders. It got Rehoboam in a mess. He wouldn’t listen to the older, wiser men in the king’s realm but chose instead to listen to the young men of his own age—and they steered him horribly wrong so much so that he lost the greater part of his kingdom.

Daily Bible study is necessary if we are going to begin our day with the right attitude and the right spiritual diet. Proverbs has 31 chapters, and most months have 31 days, so let's read a chapter of Proverbs a day and see what God might have for us. As the Lord leads, share with us what God has shown you in a special way and by His grace let us build up a devotional repository. Let's keep our knives and forks handy for some daily bread! Ideally, a chapter or two of Proverbs will fit in nicely with a good plan of reading our Bibles through each year.

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