A parable of woes: 4. Woe to the insolent!
I. WANTON WICKEDNESS.
1. Symbolically set forth. The image employed is that of giving to one's neighbour drink from a bottle with which "vengeance," "fury," or "wrath," or, according to another interpretation, "poison," has been mixed, in order to intoxicate him, that one might have the devilish enjoyment of looking on his nakedness, as Ham did on that of Noah, or generally of glorying in his shame. To infer from this that the bare act of giving to a neighbour drink is sinful, is not warranted by Scripture (Proverbs 31:6; Ecclesiastes 9:7; 1 Timothy 5:23), and is going beyond the intention of the prophet, who introduces the "picture from life," not as an instance of one sort of wickedness in itself, but as a symbol of another sort of wickedness on the part of the Chaldean. Still, the action selected by the prophet has in it several elements of wickedness which are worthy of consideration. It the mere giving of drink to another is not sinful (Proverbs 31:6), the doing so out of malice ("adding venom or wrath thereto") is, while the sin is aggravated by practising deception in connection therewith ("mixing poison therewith"—"drugging the wine," as the modern phrase is), and intensified further by the motive impelling thereto (to be able to gloat over the neighbour's degradation), and most of all condemned by being done against a neighbour to whom one owes not wrath but love, not casting down but lifting up, not exulting in his shame but rejoicing in his welfare. The words can hardly be construed into a condemnation of those who give and take wine or other drinks in moderation and to the glory of God; but they unquestionably pronounce him guilty in God's sight who deliberately and maliciously makes his fellow man drunk in order to enrich or amuse himself at that fellow man's expense.
2. Historically acted out.
II. APPROPRIATE PUNISHMENT.
1. Of Divine sending. Jehovah's goblet, of which he had caused the nations to drink, should be handed round to the Chaldeans and other guilty nations and individuals, who should all be compelled to drink of it (Psalms 75:8).
2. Of terrible severity. It should be as shameful as that which the Chaldeans had inflicted upon the nations. It should cause him also to be drunken, and should expose his foreskin to others (cf. Isaiah 47:3). It should cover his glory with shame as when the attire of a drunken man is bespattered with his vomiting. Of sinners generally it is written that "shame shall be the promotion of fools" (Proverbs 3:35).
3. Of retributive character. The wickedness of the Chaldean should return upon his own pate. The violence he had done to Lebanon (the Holy Land or the fair regions of the earth generally) should rebound upon himself. The destruction of the beasts, i.e. practised upon wild animals which, by their incursions, cause men to assemble against them, should crush the Chaldean who had become as a ferocious beast (Pusey); or the destruction inflicted by the Chaldean on the wild beasts of Lebanon and other districts by cutting down the wood thereof for military purposes or for state buildings, should return upon them with avenging fury (Keil). The same law of retribution obtains in the punishment of sinners generally (Matthew 7:2).
Learn:
1. The sin of drunkenness.
2. The greater sin of making others drunk.
3. The acme of sin, exulting in the moral overthrow of others.
4. The certainty that none of these acts of sin will go unpunished.
5. The fitness that this should be so.
A parable of woes: 5. Woe to the idolatrous!
I. IDOLATRY AN ABSURDITY. It must ever be so. The notion that any figure fashioned by man out of wood or stone, silver or gold, however carved or gilded, can either be or represent the Infinite and Eternal One, carries the stamp of unreason on the face of it (Psalms 115:4-8; Isaiah 44:19; Jeremiah 10:5).
II. IDOLATRY A FRAUD. Set up as gods, and worshipped as such, graven and molten images are a hideous imposition upon man's credulity, being
III. IDOLATRY A RUINATION. It brings with it a woe upon all who are deluded by it. It entails upon them God's curse (Deuteronomy 27:15) and endless sorrow (Psalms 16:4) and everlasting death (Revelation 21:8).
LESSON. "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21).