The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Proverbs 23:29-35, “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
30 Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to taste mixed wine.
31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly;
32 At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will utter perverse things.
34 And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast.
35 “They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.”

Questions always provoke internal responses, whether or not the response is verbal. I encountered that recently when the scribe-nurse asked me a litenany of medical questions. Do you smoke? No. Do you drink alcohol? No.
Solomon commenced our verses today with six provocative questions. Then he proceded in the succeeding verses to denounce the consumption of the alcoholic beavrage because in the end it “bites…and stings like a snake.”

There is little question but that Solomon himself had experienced the adverse effects of wine. It affects vision so that one sees “strange things.” It wrinkles the mind, causing the user to say and engage in perverse things (Latin perversus) –things that face the wrong way. There is sufficient trouble in the world without provoking more by drinking. I was at Yankee Stadium one night when a group of young men, aged late 20s to 30s, had been drinking. They were on the verge of an all-out brawl all because one of them spoke disrespectfully of another one’s mother.

When I listen and learn what some of our elected officials are proposing for legislative approval, I have to believe that they have been drinking. “But,” you say, “people drank wine in biblical times.” Yes, but in those earlier days pure water was mixed with wine. Even the Roman, who were known for heavy drinking, mixed water with their wine –sometimes six parts of water to one part of wine! It’s interesting, too, to note that persons today, when arrested for crimes, will quite often seek to shift the blame for their illegal activities on the alcohol they had consumed.

Keep your mind free from “wrinkles.” Don’t engage in alcohol or drugs or anything that hinders clear thinking. Focus on clarity of thought. Seek to imitate Christians, who function correctly with clear intelligence. Listen to Solomon! Stick with Scripture! Let your life be always to the “praise of His glory.”

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom