How to Stay Hopeless

(Proverbs 31:7 KJV)  Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

This seems to be really strange advice.  It also gives us a clue to the problem with alcohol.  Maybe it is more an observation than an endorsement.   “Drink” (8354) to “forget” (7911).  I have never been drunk but I spent a lot of time around drinking when I was in the Army.  One of the things I noticed at the time was that people who had been drinking could not remember what had happened.  One of my favorite conversations went like this.

“I had a really great time last night.”

“Oh, what did you do?”

“I don’t know.  I can’t remember a thing, but I had a great time.”

What topped this off was that I could remember.  I remembered seeing him laying in a ditch where he had passed out after emptying his stomach.  No wonder he can’t remember.

So?  I think the Bible wants us to keep in contact with reality.  I don’t think this is giving us permission to get drunk but an observation of how some people hide from life.