“ Girl you ain’t much fun since I quit drinking”
I enjoy driving down south on my way to Florida and listening to local radio stations country songs. This song brought a smile on my face because the words brought about memories of my youthful Friday night single carefree days before having to cope with the realities and responsibilities of marriage and adulthood.
Then I wondered what the wise King Solomon had to say about drinking. After all wine is an alcoholic beverage and mentioned numerous times in the Bible and King Solomon Proverbs.
I surmised what he may have said to the Queen of Sheba about drinking, based on his proverbs, in the following novel excerpts. The novel is a contemporary application of a story form to promote understanding of proverbs and ancient wise sayings in relation to our modern times.
I chose three topics he related to wine other than for nourishment.
Excerpts
Respite
“A poor man may drink wine to find respite from intolerable poverty and unbearable toil. Wine is an effective medicine at times for one to bear pain, toil, and sorrow. However, while wine will help to comfort someone for a short time, the next day, he will face the same misery. Wine drunk to excess will effect judgment, vitality, and stamina and shorten life span. Yet, there are appropriate times to wisely make use of wine and alcohol (opiate) as a medicine during extreme times of sickness or misery in their life.” Give alcohol to a man who is going to die, and wine to those who are sad, that they may drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more. (Proverbs 31:6, 7)
Leadership
“As for your question asking why a wise man appears serious and somber when addressing matters brought about by fools. Foolish actions caused by drunkenness may destroy friendships and cause poor judgment. I have purposely engaged in drinking to excess so I can attest to know the danger in drinking wine to a point of drunkenness, especially for a king or person of authority. Those with authority must be on their guard to think clearly, as they administer justice.” It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, a thirst for alcohol is not for rulers; lest the drink and forget the laws and deny justice to the poor. (Proverbs 31, 4, 5)
Friendship and Moderation
Bilqis became silent for some time as if she was deep in concentration of my explanations. Then she asked her next question in a tone of exasperation.
“Solomon, your explanations seem to focus only on the serious issues of friendship. Does being wise mean you must always think only in serious somber terms? Do you ever feel the need to let yourself go and do something spontaneous, yet foolish with your friends? Have you ever danced with joy and partied with your friends until you are dizzy from drinking too much wine? What about the aspect of wisdom and friendships that brings personal pleasure, joy, and laughter with a friend to celebrate together?”
I paused for a while before I continued and pondered about myself on her question. Was her impression of me that I was too serious and somber in my bearing? Was she searching for more joy and entertainment in her life? I set aside my personal thoughts and continued to answer her concerns.
“Bilqis, wisdom enhances friendships and strengthens the spirits of friends. A wise man understands the value of friends and the joy of friendship. Being wise does not impede a person from being spontaneous or enthusiastic to do the things that bring joy and happiness with friendship.”
“A wise man chooses his friends for their character and reputation rather than their wealth. Apoor man can be more worthy of praise and have more true friends than a rich man because of his reputation of wisdom, love, and charitable deeds. Good friends do not require that they be rich or poor, or must drink wine together to enjoy and foster their friendship. True friends choose you for your blessed and noble reasons.”
“Wisdom teaches us all things in life should be done in moderation. Honey is a nourishing food, with medicinal virtues which promote health. However, if you eat too much of it, you will vomit same as if you drink too much wine.”
“Treat a friend with the same moderation, so you do not over-cultivate the relationship and foist yourself upon them. If you are never away from their door, your presence intrudes on their privacy and leisure. Instead of enriching his life, you will take away from it. He will have enough of you and come to resent your interference by seeking him out to frequently.” If you find honey, eat what suffices you, lest you have surfeit on it and vomit it up. (Proverb 25:16)
Source:
As A Lily Among Thorns – A Story of King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, and the Goddess of Wisdom by Rudy U Martinka.
Available as an eBook at most sellers. Read an excerpt by clicking below.
http://amazon.com/gp/search?field-author=rudy+martinka&index=books
Reference Song HERE
Toby Kieith- you aint much fun
One of the things the Bible does not seem to do is address alcoholism. Instead, it speaks of being a slave to sin. Yet I would assume people got themselves addicted in Biblical times.
http://www.gotquestions.org/sin-alcohol.html
Apparently, God considers the matter of drunkenness strictly a moral problem, not a disease. I wonder if we do right when speak of alcoholism as a disease, but I have known people close to me who could not control their desire to drink to excess. So I dread the answer.
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You reply is an interesting subject to peruse on the subject of truth in regards to sin, addiction, and disease.
The Bible tells the truth, drunkenness and drugs are a sin, an immoral action.
Our nanny government muffles the truth about drinking and drugs from individuals to imply a person has no control or responsibility for their addictive disease.
Government should require all TV and radio stations provide free daily public broadcasts to remind all of us of the true adverse effects of alcohol and drugs have on Americans, especially our youth.
For example, when a person buys drugs from a gang, he or she becomes a responsible contributor to the gang war and murder rate.
When a person drinks and drives, he or she is a menace on the road.
The real rates for a heroin addict to ever recover is less than ten percent and the daily cost for their drugs will average up to two hundred dollars a day.
Most crime and prostitution is a result of drug addiction.
All uncontrolled alcohol and drugs effect normal brain function.
We used Radio America to broadcast facts to our political adversaries. The drug adversaries are here and now in the USA and our inept politicians are asleep on the enormity of these problems in my opinion. Either that or our elite political leaders do not believe we can handle knowing the truth. Or perhaps someone or some industry is making a lot of money on alcohol and drugs and do not want the public to know the real truth.
Morality, responsibility, or moderation no longer become considerations once a person becomes an alcohol or drug addict. And once they do, the recidivism rate is high.
Regards and good will blogging.
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If government required TV and radio stations provide free daily public broadcasts to remind all of us of the true adverse effects of alcohol and drugs have on Americans, especially our youth, eventually those broadcasts would be advocating alcohol and drugs.
Alcohol use is already a moneymaker for the entertainment industry. I expect they expect to profit from “recreational” drug use too.
We can legislate morality, but there a limits, usually due to unintended consequences. To legislate against the improper use of alcohol and drugs, we must insist upon holding the users accountable for their conduct, not other people. Right now, it is as you say.
That’s a recipe for making the problem worse.
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TV and radio advertising works. It should be used in my opinion to help awaken many comatose Americans to learn and understand facts, not political ideas or propaganda. There are too many falsehoods being spread around to diffuse the truth and influence young minds. The statistics for addiction keep growing higher for alcohol, drugs, and communicable diseases, and resultant crime. Old saying is “if it works, don’t try to fix it.” Well it ain’t working now in my opinion.maybe because we ain’t trying very hard to try to fix it.
Regards and good will blogging.
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I agree TV and radio advertising works, but it works for those who pay the bill.
Consider the public school system. When parents relinquished control over who pays the bill to politicians, what was the result? Do parents now have control over what their children are taught or do a bunch of different competing interests? In other words, do too many politicians effectively sell the choice of instructors and what is included in the content of the curriculum to the highest bidder?
My point is that there are some things government must do, and we must struggle to keep the government from abusing the powers we give it to do those things. Everything else we are better off doing as private citizens and as members of voluntary associations. Otherwise, the government becomes to powerful for us to control.
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I am posting a new topic, King Solomon’s Kiss shortly in which I mentioned your blog and our comments we have exchanged. Thank you for your opinions and comments which I value. . .
Regards and good will blogging.
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“The Bible tells the truth”. I agree. God’s word is truth. It questions the answers of the world and answers the questions of the world. The wise make decisions with that in mind.
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There are many that agree with your ststement. However, based on the news reports, there are also many who do not agree based on their actions.
Thanks for your comment. Regards and good will blogging.
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Thank you for stopping by my blog and liking it. I am happy to see so many stopping by your blog – our world needs reminders to look for wisdom from the Source – God’s Word!
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and when you want to go a little wild, do it with friends who truly care for each other, and no one will step over the cliff, the friends will make it clear, but with a little tact hopefully, good read, thanks
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