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The answer to the above question, comes in the following verse, v.30 – ‘Those who linger long at the wine.’ The book of Proverbs presents two sides to wine. Wine can indicate the Lord’s blessing - 3:9-10 ‘Honour the LORD with thy substance … and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.’ However, Proverbs also issues two strong warnings about wine consumption. (1) ‘Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise’ 20:1. (2) ‘Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper.’ 23:31-32. Those overcome by the ‘venom’ of wine, lose all inhibitions and self-restraint. With senses numbed to potential danger, they become so foolhardy they are likened to one who lies down to sleep ‘on the top of a [ship’s] mast’ v.34. Heed the warnings!

“Who has … redness of eyes?’ - Proverbs 23:29

Paul counted it a great privilege to preach the Gospel, but he was aware that with this privilege came the onerous responsibility of making it known to all those he met on his extensive travels. As he journeyed, he viewed the Gospel as giving off ‘an odour of the knowledge of Christ in every place’, and as a well-travelled, itinerant preacher, Paul knew that not all men view the message positively. Experience told him that the majority reject it. To those who accept it, the Gospel is a message that brings the ‘sweet odour’ that speaks of life in Christ. To the rejectors, the message is objectionable and odious, and gives off only ‘the odour of death unto death.’ To preach the Gospel was not an easy task. It involved rejection, ridicule, hardships and tears, and so he asks the question, “Who is sufficient for these things?” – The answer comes in the next chapter – ‘our sufficiency is from God’.

“And who is sufficient for these things?” - 2 Corinthians 2:16

God is OMNISCIENT. That simply means God knows ALL things. Some have claimed after reading the Bible verse above, that the God of the Bible can’t be the true God, because His question to Adam indicates ignorance. This is not so! When the school teacher asks his young pupil, ‘Smith, what is 8 x 7?’, it isn’t because he, the teacher, doesn’t know the answer. He asked the question to see if Smith knew the answer! Likewise with God. He wanted to know if Adam knew where he was. Adam, because of his wilful sin, was now estranged from God. Adam might have replied, ‘I’m behind this tree’, but he needed to say, ‘I’m separated from You’.

“Where art thou” – Genesis 3:9

Saul of Tarasus was a young Jew who regarded Jesus of Nazareth as an imposter. Believing Him to be ‘dead and gone’, Saul, with fervent zeal, set about blotting out every remnant of His Name. Imagine his immense surprise, while on the road to Damascus to persecute more Christians, the risen Lord Jesus broke into his life in a dramatic way by asking, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" Saul learnt many things that day: things that would change the direction of his life dramatically. Foremost, was the fact that Jesus was ALIVE! Saul would spend the rest of his life declaring, by the spoken and written word, the glories of the One he once considered a charlatan! - He wrote ‘the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me’

“And he [Saul] said, Who are You, Lord?” - Acts 9:4

The arrival of John the Baptist on the scene stirred up much interest and the crowds flocked to see and hear him. John did not ‘tickle ears’ with his preaching, nor did he court the favour of the crowds. He was not a ‘man pleaser’, and to use a modern expression, we could say of John, he called a ‘spade a spade’. He was unbending in his appreciation of right and wrong. He certainly could never be likened to the tall reed bending to the dictates of the ever-changing wind.  John was fearless in his preaching and forthright in his condemnation of the Jewish leaders. “But seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, Offspring of vipers, who has forewarned you to flee from the coming wrath?” It appears the ‘fear of man’, which so often brings a snare, did not mark the Baptist!

"What did you go out ... to see? A reed shaken by the wind?” - Luke 7:24  

“Ask! What shall I give you?” - 2 Chronicles 1:7