Bottom of the Bottle

“It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are stagnant in spirit, who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good or evil!’” Zephaniah 1:12 NASB

Stagnant in spirit – Do you suppose this is a verse for alcoholics? The Hebrew idiom (haqqopeim ‘al-shimrehem) is literally, “the congealed dregs of old wine.” Maybe it only applies to those of us who have at one time or another tried to get that last drop out of the bottle. Or maybe not. Maybe this word picture really captures the idea of men who can’t move on, who are stuck trying to extract that last drop, who are fixated on what needs to be left behind. Some things that start out good end up coagulated. Some things that were refreshing when they were first tasted turn out curdled and bitter when we don’t let them go. Some things were meant to be enjoyed and left behind. The spiritual journey with God is not stagnant. It flows. It is a sojourn along the way toward a city not made with human hands. But sometimes we settle. We get stuck where we are. We drain the bottle and keep tipping it up to get more. We become people of the dregs. We forget that God has moved the camp and we are left behind in the winery, trying to find sustenance in an empty bottle.

The fruit of the Spirit is constant refreshment, a new flavor to life, a progressive enjoyment of God’s goodness. Old wine in old bottles isn’t part of the package. The fruit of the Spirit is to be decanted, removing the dregs. It is to be drunk with passionate enjoyment. Le-hayim! “To life!” But not life stopped. “To life—continuing!” “To moving ahead, to going, to the journey, to growth.” Leave the empty bottle. It has nothing to offer any more.

Sometimes those empty bottles are treasured as reminders of past pleasures, of the “good old days,” of former loves and lovers. Sometimes it’s hard to let go. Sometimes we use those bottles to recall moments of delicious intoxication with life, especially when we are under duress. We pick up the old bottle and try to get one more taste of what we remember. But all that’s really there are the dregs. God flows with new wine, new life, new joys. Holding on to those “left overs,” even when it seems that they are the only things that keep us going, is a form of “stagnant in spirit.” Of course, as far as God’s message to Zephaniah is concerned, the real spiritual alcoholic is the one who believes that life is in the bottle. He thinks that God is absent from his world. Neither good nor evil will befall him. All that remains for him is the memory of past pleasures. He thinks God will not notice if he opts out of life as it is. But this is not God’s purpose. No matter how sweet the wine once was, God is moving on—and so must we if we are to follow in His footsteps. Memories of godly acts and godly people are great encouragement and, perhaps, greater consolation. But they are not intended to be our stopping place.

There is a particular seduction of “stagnant in spirit” that addicts know only too well. It is the seduction of recalling the state of emotional intoxication that once diverted us from the journey forward. It is a return to those moments when life could be put on hold, when we felt protected, immune to the pain of vulnerability. But it is seduction, not reality. It is the insanity of stopping so that a better past can catch up with us. If you find yourself returning to some re-imagined yesterday, perhaps you need to examine why that empty bottle seems so glorious.

Topical Index: stagnant in spirit, haqqopeim ‘al-shimrehem, Zephaniah 1:12