<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Rockfort: Proverbs 31:6-- "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts."
Do you obey this verse, or do you defy it?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Let's look at the whole passage:
Proverbs 31:4-7, "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more."
#1 - Wine and strong drink causes a person to forget God's law.
#2 - Wine and strong drink causes a person to have a perverted judgment. In other words, he loses his God-given common sense.
#3 - Strong drink is for the one who is about to die. It will deaden the pain (and also send him to the grave quicker).
#4 - Wine is for those with heavy hearts so they can drown their sorrows (and wake up with a hangover the next morning).
These verses are not a scriptural command, as you presume, but they are illustrations to show the effects of alcohol on the human body.
Proverbs 23:29-35, "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again."
[ September 21, 2001: Message edited by: Pioneer ]