Is anybody out there? Have I bored you all to death with the figures of speech series of posts? OK, here is a related post, but hopefully one that will awaken you.
Debating on the subject of wine/alcohol/abstinence/moderation, a brother used Isaiah 65:8 as a proof text that new wine is non-alcoholic. Is that so?
Isaiah 65:8 Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
Seems to me this is a figure of speech. If we want to be literal, there are grapes in the cluster not a bunch of juice hanging there. What figure of speech is this? One of the twenty? Something else?
3 comments:
I would say # 19 would be the closest on this one. Grapes have always been the ingredient most associated with wine. One ingredient in and of itself does not make the whole.
I thought about that one or no. 12.
I think these usage is kind of like Job 28:5 -- As for the earth, out of it cometh bread... The bread does not come literally and immediately from right out of the earth, but the ground is the source of the growing of the thing that makes bread.
I think we get too wrapped up in what wine is what and alcoholic beverages in general.
We abstain from alcohol, not because it is alcohol, but because of its associations and the evil around it.
In England, it was common fare for even preachers to have a glass of brandy before dinner.It cerainly did not harm, and in fact was quite beneficial.
In Canada, however, I wouldn't go near the stuff because of its association with drinking alcohol.
Just my thoughts,
Cheers,
Jim
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