Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine. (Proverbs 23:29-30)

Alcohol

If history has shown one lesson about the foolishness of man, it is the impact of alcohol on the world. The demon of the bottle has destroyed lives since the beginning of time. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and, along with his family, survived the flood because he was a righteous man living in an extremely unrighteous world. After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and was drunk. His son, Ham, saw his father’s nakedness resulting in a curse being placed upon him as a servant of servants to his brothers. Wine has enslaved the hearts of men ever since.

The daughters of Lot got their father drunk to commit incest with him and bore two sons. Under the Law of Moses, priests were forbidden to drink wine of any type when they went into the tabernacle of meeting. Disobedience would bring death. The reason God commanded them not to drink wine or intoxicating drinks is to distinguish between holy and unholy and between clean and unclean. God told Aaron the priests were to teach the people of Israel the law of the Lord, and this could not be done by someone who went after alcohol.

David got Uriah drunk trying to cover up his sin with Bathsheba. Isaiah describes the impact of alcohol as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. The prophet Habakkuk declared a woe on anyone who gave a drink to his neighbor, pressing him to the bottle, even to make him drunk. God condemns drunkenness under every law man has lived under. The Holy Spirit wrote that drunkenness would keep one out of the kingdom of heaven and out of the Book of Life. There are many consequences of what alcohol will do to the lives of God’s people and they are enormous. If a person wants sorrow in their life, let them follow after alcohol.

Trying to justify social drinking is like justifying social fornication. Some try to justify their desire for alcohol by appealing to Jesus turning water into wine while at a wedding feast in Cana. The honest student of scripture will not seek to use the words of the Holy Spirit to condone sin, and seeking to argue Jesus created 180 gallons of intoxicating alcohol is beyond comprehension. An examination of scripture will show that wine is used for both intoxicating and nonintoxicating drinks. Furthermore, Jesus would have sinned if he had created one gallon of intoxicating drink that would cause those at the wedding feast to drink. It should also be noted when Jesus changed the water to wine, the guests had already well drunk. They were not drunk (why would Jesus and his mother be at a drunken party?), but all the refreshments had been exhausted.

The wise man clearly shows the folly of drink. If you want to have problems in life, go after alcohol. Alcohol will bring anguish of heart, sorrow without end, fighting and conflict, bodily harm, and the real possibility of killing yourself and others. In a clinical word of clarity, going after drinking is just stupid. Few good things will come from it. The man and woman of God will refrain from drinking to keep themselves pure in body and mind before God. There are enough challenges in life to deal with stone sober than trying to unravel the wiles of the devil a little buzzed. How foolish.