Today, our focus is on the tenth and the last in the list of warnings contained in Proverbs 23. “Do not look on the wine when it is red”, it says. Before this warning was sounded, we have a long list of dangers associated with wine. “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine” (Proverbs 23:29-30). Woe, sorrow, contentions, complaints, injuries, bloodshot eyes are all the terrible portions of a man given to wine. For these reasons, we are warned not to be deceived by its sparkles and redness.
This warning is close to the one given two days ago when we learned to distance ourselves from winebibbers and gluttons. The expanded lesson then was that we should be mindful of the associations we keep. Our relationships can sway us to the good or the evil way. There is an extension of the warning for today as well. It is not only wine we should avoid looking at but every evil that wants to enter our soul through the eye gate. What we see inspires what we think, say, and do. Until Eve saw that the forbidden tree was pleasant to the eye, she did not fall for the bait of Satan. In a world of Internet access with obscene pictures, a child of God has to draw the boundary of what to look at.