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Proverbs 20 New Living Translation
20 Wine produces mockers; alcohol leads to brawls.
Those led astray by drink cannot be wise.
2 The king’s fury is like a lion’s roar;
to rouse his anger is to risk your life.
3 Avoiding a fight is a mark of honor;
only fools insist on quarreling.
4 Those too lazy to plow in the right season
will have no food at the harvest.
5 Though good advice lies deep within the heart,
a person with understanding will draw it out.
6 Many will say they are loyal friends,
but who can find one who is truly reliable?
7 The godly walk with integrity;
blessed are their children who follow them.
8 When a king sits in judgment, he weighs all the evidence,
distinguishing the bad from the good.
9 Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart;
I am pure and free from sin”?
10 False weights and unequal measures[a]—
the Lord detests double standards of every kind.
11 Even children are known by the way they act,
whether their conduct is pure, and whether it is right.
12 Ears to hear and eyes to see—
both are gifts from the Lord.
13 If you love sleep, you will end in poverty.
Keep your eyes open, and there will be plenty to eat!
14 The buyer haggles over the price, saying, “It’s worthless,”
then brags about getting a bargain!
15 Wise words are more valuable
than much gold and many rubies.
16 Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt.
Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.[b]
17 Stolen bread tastes sweet,
but it turns to gravel in the mouth.
18 Plans succeed through good counsel;
don’t go to war without wise advice.
19 A gossip goes around telling secrets,
so don’t hang around with chatterers.
20 If you insult your father or mother,
your light will be snuffed out in total darkness.
21 An inheritance obtained too early in life
is not a blessing in the end.
22 Don’t say, “I will get even for this wrong.”
Wait for the Lord to handle the matter.
23 The Lord detests double standards;
he is not pleased by dishonest scales.
24 The Lord directs our steps,
so why try to understand everything along the way?
25 Don’t trap yourself by making a rash promise to God
and only later counting the cost.
26 A wise king scatters the wicked like wheat,
then runs his threshing wheel over them.
27 The Lord’s light penetrates the human spirit,[c]
exposing every hidden motive.
28 Unfailing love and faithfulness protect the king;
his throne is made secure through love.
29 The glory of the young is their strength;
the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old.
30 Physical punishment cleanses away evil;[d]
such discipline purifies the heart.
I love the Book of Proverbs and every day I read one chapter of Proverbs. Since there are 31 chapters, I start the 1st of ever month and read chapter 1 and then the next day I read chapter 2 and so on the rest of the month.
John McArthur said:
“First of all, number one issue in gaining wisdom is to fear God…is to fear God. How do you know that? Back in chapter 1 verse 7, we read this, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy one is true understanding.”
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One of the issues I have learned about in Proverbs is concerning the issue of alcohol.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise (Proverbs 20:1).
ryan dunn Jackass dead in crash
Ryan Dunn and his friends moments before they died.
Flickr user Eric Lewis posted the image below with a caption that says the photo shows what’s left of Dunn’s car.
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Billy Sunday told a story that illustrates this principle and I heard this story while Adrian Rogers was my pastor at Bellevue Baptist:
I feel like an old fellow in Tennessee who made his living by catching rattlesnakes. He caught one with fourteen rattles and put it in a box with a glass top. One day when he was sawing wood his little five-year old boy,Jim, took the lid off and the rattler wriggled out and struck him in the cheek. He ran to his father and said, “The rattler has bit me.” The father ran and chopped the rattler to pieces, and with his jackknife he cut a chunk from the boy’s cheek and then sucked and sucked at the wound to draw out the poison. -He looked at little Jim, watched the pupils of his eyes dilate and watched him swell to three times his normal size, watched his lips become parched and cracked, and eyes roll, and little Jim gasped and died.
The father took him in his arms, carried him over by the side of the rattler, got on his knees and said, “God, I would not give little Jim for all the rattlers that ever crawled over the Blue Ridge mountains.”
That is the question that must be answered by everyone no matter what their religious beliefs. Is the pleasure of drinking alcohol worth the life of one of your children?
Here is a scripture that describes what will happen to a person addicted to alcohol:
Proverbs 23:29-35
(29) Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
(30) They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
(31) Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
(32) At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
(33) Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
(34) Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
(35) They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
- More than one-half of American adults have a close family member who has or has had alcoholism.
- Alcohol is a factor in nearly half of America’s murders, suicides and accidental deaths.
- The highest rates of current and past year heavy alcohol use are reported by workers in the following occupations: construction, food preparation and waiters/waitresses, along with auto mechanics, vehicle repairers, light truck drivers and laborers. 95% of alcoholics die from their disease and die approximately 26 years earlier than their normal life expectancy.
- Up to 40% of industrial fatalities and 47% of injuries in the workplace are linked to alcohol consumption and alcoholism.
- Absenteeism among alcoholics or problem drinkers is 3.8 to 8.3 times greater than normal.
- More than three fourths of female victims of nonfatal, domestic violence reported that their assailant had been drinking or using drugs.
- More than one third of pedestrians killed by automobiles were legally drunk.
- About half of state prison inmates and 40% of federal prisoners incarcerated for committing violent crimes report they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of their offense.
- Long-term, heavy alcohol use is the leading cause of illness and death from liver disease in the U.S.
- Alcoholics spend four times the amount of time in a hospital as non-drinkers, mostly from drinking-related injuries.
Probably the most telling is the last statistic: 95% of alcoholics die from their disease and die approximately 26 years earlier than their normal life expectancy.
The Daily Hatch 