Don't Wear Yourself Out to Get Rich

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1. Observe

   What is the description of the drunkard (vv. 29-35)?

   • Glamorous
   • Woe, sorrow, strife, complaints, needless bruises, bloodshot eyes; wine bites like a snake, poisons like a viper; sees strange things, utters perverse things; ends with "they struck me, and I was not hurt... when will I wake up? I want more wine"
   • Pleasant
   • Brief

2. Observe

   What does v. 26 ask, and why is this most intimate?

   • Money
   • Behavior change
   • "Give me your heart" — the heart itself, the seat of love, will, desire, and decision; this is more intimate than any external compliance because it asks for the actual person, not just their actions; love asks for the heart because it cannot be content with managed behavior alone
   • Public allegiance

3. Interpret

   How does future hope change present envy?

   • It doesn't
   • Future is irrelevant
   • Envy thrives when the present view of those who prosper is taken as the final picture — if their prosperity is permanent and yours is not, envy makes sense; but if there is a future hope that will not be cut off, present prosperity is the temporary lot of those who lack it eternally; this is the same logic that resolved Asaph's crisis in Ps 73 (the sanctuary giving eternal perspective); holding the future actively in mind shrinks the apparent magnitude of present injustice
   • Future is fiction

4. Interpret

   How does an addiction pattern get started?

   • Random
   • Inevitable
   • Through repeated indulgence that physically and psychologically alters the brain's response — early pleasurable experiences create reward pathways, increasing tolerance requires more to achieve the same effect, withdrawal creates demand, rationalization disguises the deepening dependency; what begins as choice becomes compulsion; the proverb's warning is to recognize the early stages while choice is still operative ("don't look at the wine when it sparkles") rather than waiting for the slavery that follows
   • Suddenly

5. Apply

   Is there a goal one is wearing oneself out to achieve?

   • None
   • All exhaustion is wise
   • Honest examination identifies specific goals consuming disproportionate energy — wealth accumulation beyond need, professional advancement at family's cost, status seeking that demands constant performance, possessions that promise satisfaction never delivered; the cost of stopping might include lost income, lower social standing, missed advancement; the proverb's observation is that the wealth flies away anyway, so the exhaustion is for what won't last; the rest gained by stopping is for what actually endures
   • Stopping is failure

6. Apply

   To what has one given the heart?

   • Heart is neutral
   • Heart is given to nothing
   • Honest reflection identifies the actual governance of one's inner life — what one most desires, what one most fears losing, what determines one's mood, what shapes one's decisions; the answer is often not what one would profess (God) but what actually rules (career, family approval, financial security, comfort, image); the call is to give the heart to God consciously, deliberately, repeatedly, against the pull of competing loyalties; the heart is given by daily choice, not single decision
   • Heart cannot be given

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