C4K said:
So you do say that Christ is the strong drink talked about in the passage. I appreciate your explanation of the passage. So this passage is not literal, but figurative and should be read this way?
6 Give [Christ] to the one who is perishing,
and [Christ] to those in bitter distress;
7 let them drink [Christ] and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.
Now, how do we know when "strong drink" is Christ and when it is alcohol?
Roger,
For today, I sincerely believe that is how we should apply it. Would you give heroin to the lost? or for the one dying, would you give a black widow spider?
If one does a careful and prayerful study, taking verses 6 and 7 into context with verses 8 and 9, one will see that it is not condoning the consumption of alcohol at all.
When you first read verses 6 and 7, they appear to contradict the clear teaching found in Proverbs 23:31 where Solomon clearly states we are not to have anything to do with alcoholic beverages when he said, "Look not thou...".
However, it is clear when taken in context it is speaking of those who have rebelliously chosen the road to destruction rather than the way of life.
Perish in this passage does not mean die as many want to make it mean. It means wander, fugitive, void, nomad, destroy.
God is not willing that any should wander through life without Him. That is why He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins... and not ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.
As to Solomon's day, no, I do not believe that even alcohol was an option except for those who God had turned over to a reprobate mind... one that even His Word could not persuade of Him.
They chose misery instead of life and peace. God gave them the desire of their heart.