Daily Devotions
It's Not For Kings to Drink Wine
Reading for July 9th: Proverbs 30-31
"It is not for kings, O Lemuel,
it is not for kings to drink wine…
Proverbs 31:4
Why did King Lemuel's mother give him this advice?
She explains in the next verse, "...lest they drink and forget what has been decreed." (31:5) Kings must know and understand the law so they might rule their nations with wisdom and justice.
It is not for kings to drink wine.
As "kings and priests" (Rev 1:6) we must be equally concerned about forgetting the law of God. We are given a similar exhortation to sobriety in Ephesians 5:18 to "not be drunk with wine." In the context of Ephesians 5 we read that we are no longer in darkness, but light in the Lord (Eph 5:6, 8). As children of light we are to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, looking carefully to how we walk (Eph 5:8-10, 15). We are not to walk foolishly, but to understand what the will of the Lord is (Eph 5:17).
It is not for kings to drink wine. Kings are to carefully consider the law of the Lord. Sobriety is imperative.
So before you get drunk (through alcohol or anything else that intoxicates), remember that you are a king!
Father, give us sober minds that we might always judge rightly.
