“Wine is a mocker; Strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1).
Few things in this world overpromise and underdeliver like alcohol. Promising the “high life”, alcohol mocks your gullibility by delivering a low life of woe, sorrow, contentions, and devastated health (Prov. 23:29). Offering you a way of escape from your worries and anxieties, alcohol multiplies them exponentially. Strong drink offers peace but delivers conflict. To believe the lies of the liquor industry is to live a life of sheer folly.
The concrete and overwhelming evidence which proves every syllable of this proverb saturates Biblical and secular history. Noah, Lot, Ahasuerus, and Herod, for example, were mocked and humiliated by the alcohol they consumed. In every case, the direction of a winebibber’s life has been astray from the path of righteousness and wisdom. Its serpentine bite and viper-like sting (Prov. 23:32) have been felt by everyone who has foolishly disregarded its mocking.
Those led astray by alcohol are not wise.
