I observed first-hand one of the downsides of being a winebibber long ago. In an area where my family once lived, there was a local chief who was so popular for all the wrong reasons. Both the young and the old would normally hail him, “Chief, chief!” That was not to honour him, it was all done in derision, the reason being that he was a drunk. Whatever time of the day you met him, there was always a spin to his walk and a slur in his speech. Forever drunk, never sober will be a good description of him. Keeping company with such men will endanger you.

In Proverbs 23:21, we are treated to the reason why we should not mix with winebibbers and gluttons. “For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags”. Look at this from two angles. A man who gives all his earnings to alcohol and surfeiting will be financially poor. He may lose his means of livelihood. One of the side effects of liquor is drowsiness and lack of concentration at work. Anyone who is not sober at the place of work risks losing his or her position. Even if financial poverty is avoided, a drunkard will be poor in other areas, character not being the least of them. When a man loses his character, he loses all. Let us close this meditation by having an expanded view of the subject. The focus has been to avoid mixing with winebibbers and gluttons, but the actual lesson is about association. All associations that have the potential of impacting us negatively are to be avoided. This boils down to saying that our close pals cannot be those who are not governed by the same moral fabrics of the word of God as we are.