Listen, my son, and be wise, and set your heart on the right path: Do not join those who drink too
much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
Verses 19-21 comprise a single wise saying. Verse 19 is a familiar proverbial father-to-son refrain while verses 20-21 represent another rather common theme in Proverbs.
A “listen, my son, and be wise, and set your heart on the right path” type of directive can be found in almost every chapter of the book. If we could all just stay open to such messages, how much different our daily lives might be!
A “listen, my son, and be wise, and set your heart on the right path” type of directive can be found in almost every chapter of the book. If we could all just stay open to such messages, how much different our daily lives might be!
“Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat.” At issue here is a preoccupation with satisfying our own desires. While feeling good for a while, it’s a bad life-focus.
Such priorities ultimately short-circuit our real life purposes. Because “drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.”
“Drowsiness” is where this self-satisfying lifestyle leads and we’ll find ourselves “become poor” and be clothed “in rages.” This is not how any of us want to end up!
But this message is for all of us – including those who don’t struggle with food or drink. We all have our own battles and struggle with our own unwillingness to make right choices.
Self-indulgence is not the best way to go. Rather, a deliberate and daily focus on God’s plan will connect us to the real satisfaction in life for which we are searching!