Sipping Saints and Alcohol Consumption

Bible studies are intended to help us to dig a little deeper so we can gain an understanding of what God’s Word says and teaches.  Bible studies are to help us to become more Christlike and teach us how to live holy in an unholy world. 

Bible studies are not written to condemn the hearer but rather to admonish and teach us how to be more like Jesus.  The ways of the world are not the ways of God.  God has called us to separation and holiness. 

The Bible warns that there is a way that seems right to man but the end are the ways of destruction (Prov 14:12).  So, keep an open heart and an open mind as we open God’s Word to learn what He is saying to His people. 

 

SIPPING SAINTS
What does the Bible really say about Alcohol?

 

The United States has become a sodden society where many are unable to cope with life without a drink or two to ‘get them through’.

PEOPLE TURN TO ALCOHOL to escape problems – but rather than escape problems, alcohol is a mocker and will actually cause a person to wallow in their problems even more than without it. 

Alcohol increases the risk of suicide in heavy drinkers because rather than drowning out their sorrow, it causes them to wallow and drown in their sorrow.

 

STATISTICS:

According to statistics from 2018, 14.4 million adults ages 18 and older have Alcohol Use Disorder. (9.2 million are men and 5.3 million are women)

The leading cause of preventable death in the United States each year is from tobacco related use.

480,000 deaths per year in the U.S. is from cigarette smoking.
41,000 of those deaths are from 2^nd hand smoke exposure ---- think of the kids!

The second leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. is from poor diet and lack of physical activity.

The third leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. each year is from alcohol-related causes.  Approximately 88,000 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women die from alcohol related causes annually, making alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the U.S.

Facts: 7.7% of deaths among men globally is alcohol attributable. 
And 2.6% of deaths among women globally are alcohol related.

CONSEQUENCES:

Affects on health - Destroyed livers, raised blood pressure, mood swings, mental, etc

Hangovers – passing out, vomiting

Loss of critical judgment and slow reactions

Birth defects in children of mothers who drink while pregnant.

We see an increase in underage drinking.  Kids will not do as you say as much as they will do what they see you do.  That’s why it is so important that we are a godly moral example to our children.

Nearly 10% of U.S. children live with a parent who has alcohol related problems. (study was from 2012 – percentage is higher now since covid hit and alcohol consumption has increased.  They knew that and is the reason they allowed liquor stores to be open yet tried to keep the doors to Churches closed tightly when that is the only place that people can find real hope!)

Children who grow up in a home where alcohol consumption is common are at a greater risk for emotional problems than children whose parents are not alcoholics. And they are 4 times more likely to become alcoholics themselves than other children. 

Most children of alcoholics have experienced some form of neglect or abuse in the home. Some suffer from the painful after-effects of a parent dying from either alcohol related illness or suicide from increased alcohol consumption.

Bottom line: CHILDREN ARE THE INNOCENT VICTIMS WHO SUFFER THE MOST FROM ALCOHOL ABUSE!

~ ~ Is it any wonder the Bible warns against Alcohol consumption?! ~ ~

What does the Bible say about alcohol?

**Keep in mind: There are varying Hebrew words which were all translated to the English word ‘wine’ yet had different meanings. 

Things that meant one thing when originally translated do not have the same definition now as they did back then. 

Example: gay used to mean ‘happy’, now it describes something that is perverse

The ‘wine’ mentioned in the following verses will typically be the Hebrew word yah’-yin meaning ‘effervesce; wine as fermented, intoxication’ (H3196).

The ‘strong drink’ mentioned in the following verses will typically be the Hebrew word shay-kawr’ meaning ‘intoxicant, intensely alcoholic liquor’. (H7941)

 

Proverbs 20:1 – wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

Proverbs 31:4 – it is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink.

          Why? Because it affects their judgment!

Isaiah 5:11 – Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!

Isaiah 5:22 – Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

Isaiah 28:7 – They also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are wallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

God required separation from the world and Holiness!

Leviticus 10:9 – those who ministered before the Lord in the Tabernacle were not permitted to drink wine NOR strong drink.

God said if they did, they would die.  Intoxicating drinks affect their ministering. God wanted them to be holy and consecrated fully to Him, not altered or inhibited by the alcohol.

Nazarites took a vow which separated them unto God - they were not permitted to drink wine (fermented - H3196) nor strong drink (intensely alcoholic liquor – H7941) nor drink vinegar of wine nor from strong drinks (vinegar obtained from fermenting fruit juices or beer - H2558) nor were they permitted to drink any liquor of grapes nor were they permitted to eat grapes in any form (most likely to avoid any chance of alcoholic consumption) – Numbers 6:3-4 

John the Baptist’s mother was not permitted to drink wine nor strong drink while pregnant with him and John, the forerunner of Jesus who preached for everyone everywhere to repent, was not permitted to drink alcohol all of his days – God didn’t want him to be influenced or inhibited against preaching the Truth of Righteousness and Holiness through the influence of alcoholic beverages.

As the Children of God, we should be separated completely and wholly from the world so that no one can accuse us of any unholy actions.

 

ALCOHOL AND ITS INFLUENCE
Have you ever seen someone under the influence of alcohol? They’ll say and do the craziest things that they are later embarrassed about.

Have you ever stopped to think about why liquor stores have the word “spirits” connected to it? Drinking can put you under the influence of spirits that are not of God.  That’s why the Word of God and Pastors warn against it!

The most dangerous thing about alcohol is that a person cannot shut down a craving for it without the help of the Lord.  Alcohol enslaves, inflames, and renders powerless all who surrender to it.

But there is hope through Jesus Christ! By Him, we are made overcomers!

James 4:7 instructs:

          *Submit to God
          *Resist the devil
          *and he WILL FLEE from you

I’m sure we all have at least one family member who has been affected by alcohol addiction.

My great uncle drank himself to death.

My dad’s brother just passed in March 2020 from alcohol intoxication. So many times they found him in a drunken stupor. One time, he was found face down in the snow suffering from frostbite – yet he still would return to the bottle after he was released from the hospital.

His daughter would post about how she was trying to drink her sorrow away, yet her posts revealed the alcohol was just taking her deeper into depression. The alcohol was not helping alleviate the sorrow.  Instead, it was intensifying it.

I deal with calls and texts often concerning my dad and his addiction to alcohol as well as calls concerning other family members.

Alcoholism doesn’t just affect the person who is drinking.  They don’t think or realize how it affects the ones who love them.

 

Biblical example…

Lot (nephew to Abraham) moved close to the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and eventually moved his family INTO the city. Those cities were so wicked and perverse in their ways and it began to affect his children and wife.

The wickedness was so great that God said He was going to destroy them.  But first, God sent angels to deliver Lot, his wife, and 2 daughters out of the cities before they were destroyed. 

They were told not to look back upon that sinful place but Lot’s wife did and she turned to a pillar of salt.  Lot and his daughters kept going and eventually found shelter in the mountains. 

The mountains were just a resting place, not a final destination, but his daughters thought they would forever be without a husband and children.  So that night, his daughters, who had learned the wicked ways of those perverse cities, decided to get their father drunk. 

Lot was so drunk with alcohol and sorrow that he did not recognize that he was being promiscuous with his own daughters. That was considered wickedness before the Lord.

Those daughters each bore a son who became enemies that vexed the Israelites (Abraham’s descendants) – they were the Moabites and the Ammonites. 

Sin can have long lasting consequences. 

Some say:

BUT JESUS APPROVED OF DRINKING WINE….

Did He really?

People like to use the example of when Jesus turned water to wine at the wedding in Cana.

The wedding had been going on for 3 days. If they were drinking intoxicating drink, they would have been too drunk to know the difference once Jesus arrived. 

Keep in mind: not all wine is alcoholic any more than all cider is hard.  The word ‘wine’ did not mean back then what we take it to mean now.   It was the word used to describe the juice from the fruit. 

The intoxication came the longer the wine (juice) set and fermented into decayed wine. But this was new wine – new fruit juice.

The wine served at the wedding was a sweet fruit juice. How could Jesus and why would Jesus approve of serving something that His Word expressly speaks against?!  He didn’t!

Remember Jesus served His disciples ‘wine’ and bread at the last supper.  That ‘wine’ was symbolic of the Blood that He was about to shed for our sins.

There is no way that ‘wine’ was fermented and intoxicating because Jesus’ body never saw decay. Intoxicating wine is made from decaying and fermenting juice. 

It is revealed through Scripture that it was the ‘fruit of the vine’ that was in that cup. (Matt 26:27-29) supporting that it was not alcoholic wine.

Jesus is the Creator and Giver of Life, not of death.

Jesus exampled the refusal of taking intoxicating drink into the body even while in excruciating pain at the point of death when He refused to drink wine mingled with myrrh that was offered to Him to help numb the pain He was experiencing while on the Cross. (Mark 15:23)

Jesus could not and would not partake of something that His Word warned against!  It would be contrary to His sinless character.

Some try to use the Scripture where Luke admonished Timothy to drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities. (1 Tim 5:23)

The point of Luke’s admonition is found within this verse.  It appears Timothy was having some trouble with his stomach and bowels.  Luke was a physician.  As a physician, he was not promoting consumption of alcoholic beverages.  He was prescribing a medical treatment for Timothy’s often infirmities. 

 

We can see not only is there Scripture after Scripture that warns against drinking alcoholic beverages but statistics as well as medical evidence reveal that intoxicating drinks are not healthy or wise to ingest.

God, by His direct act, does not make alcohol.  The laws of nature, if left to themselves, do not produce it. Grapes ripen, and if not eaten, they then rot and decompose but do not become wine. The manufacture of alcohol is wholly man’s device.  It is man who created intoxicating alcohol, not God.

God would not created intoxicating beverage and then warn time after time in His Word not to drink it. 

God’s Word will never contradict itself.  We have to follow what God says, not what man thinks on this subject.

God’s Word warns against it for our own good! And the good of our family!  Because….

Alcohol is a very effective dissolving agent:  it dissolves families, it dissolves marriages, it dissolves friendships, and jobs, as well as bank accounts, but never will it ever dissolve your problems.

75 SCRIPTURES CONCERNING CHRISTIANS AND ALCOHOL

Unknown who compiled this list but THANK YOU!!!  I have expounded on some of the Scriptures for better clarity and understanding.

CHRISTIANS are NOT to DRINK ALCOHOL 
HERE ARE 75 BIBLE REFERENCES to PROVE IT : 

1) Genesis 9:20-26 - Noah became drunk; the result was immorality and family trouble.

2) Genesis 19:30-38 - Lot was so drunk he did not know what he was doing; this led to immorality and conception of 2 sons through his 2 daughters.

3) Leviticus 10:9-11 - God commanded the priests not to drink so that they could tell the difference between the holy and the unholy, the clean and unclean, and so they may teach the children of Israel all the statutes of the Lord.

4) Numbers 6:3 - The Nazarites were told to separate themselves from wine and strong drink. They were not to eat or drink anything from the grape vine, whether it was moist or dried grapes.

They could not drink vinegar of wine (H3196 - intoxicating banqueting wine)
nor vinegar of strong drink (H7941 - intensely alcoholic liquor/strong drink)..
They were not to drink any liquor of grapes (H4952 - Steeped juice to let the juice diffuse as it rests).

5) Deuteronomy 21:20 - A drunken son was stubborn and rebellious.

“…This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a
glutton and a drunkard.”

6) Deuteronomy 29:5-6 - God gave no grape juice to Israel nor did they have intoxicating drink in the wilderness.

“…ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye
might know that I am the Lord your God.”

7) Deuteronomy 32:33 - Intoxicating wine is like the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.

8) Judges 13:4, 7, 14 - Samson was to be a Nazarite for life. His mother was told not to drink wine or strong drink. 

9) 1 Samuel 1:14-16 – Accused of being drunk, Hannah assured Priest Eli that she had drank no wine/she was not drunk.  She responded she was not a daughter of Belial.  (H1100 - Belial means: without profit, worthlessness, wicked, evil, naughty, ungodly) 

10) 1 Samuel 25:32-38 - Nabal died after a drunken spree.

11) 2 Samuel 11:13 - By getting Uriah drunk (the husband of Bathsheba), David hoped to cover his sin of adultery.  He was hoping Uriah, in his drunken stupor, would return home to his wife and therefore the conceived child could be thought to be his.  But Uriah fell asleep with David’s servants so the plot backfired.  David sinned three times – by committing adultery and by getting Uriah drunk and then having him killed.

Habakkuk 2:15 – Woe to him who giveth drink to his neighbor, that puttest thy
bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!

12) 2 Samuel 13:28-29 - Amnon was drunk when he was killed.

13) 1 Kings 16:8-10 - The king was drinking himself into drunkenness when he was assassinated

14) 1 Kings 20:12-21 - Ben-Hadad and 32 other kings were drinking when they were attacked and defeated by the Israelites.

15) Esther 1:5-12 - The king Ahaseuerus, ruler of Persia, gave each one at his banquet all the drink he wanted. The king was intoxicated when he commanded the queen Vashti to come.

16) Psalm 75:8 - The Lord’s anger is pictured as mixed wine poured out and drunk by the wicked.

17) Proverbs 4:17 - Alcoholic drink is called the wine of violence.

18) Proverbs 20:1 - Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

19) Proverbs 23:19-20 - A wise person will not be among the drinkers of alcoholic beverages.

Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. Be not among
winebibbers (H5433 – become tipsy, drunkard); among riotous eaters (H2151 – to be loose morally) of flesh (H1320 – nakedness, mankind).

20) Proverbs 23:21 – For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty.

21) Proverbs 23:29-30 - Drinking causes woe, sorrow, fighting, babbling, wounds without cause and red eyes.

          Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling?
          Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?
          They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

22) Proverbs 23:31 - God instructs not to look at intoxicating drinks.

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup,
when it moveth itself aright.

23) Proverbs 23:32 - Alcoholic drinks bite like a serpent, sting like an adder.

24) Proverbs 23:33 - Alcohol causes the drinker to have strange and adulterous thoughts and utter perverse things.

25) Proverbs 23:34 - Alcohol makes the drinker unstable and do unsafe things.

26) Proverbs 23:35 - Alcohol makes the drinker insensitive to pain so he does not feel when he is hurt.  Alcohol is habit forming….they go back to drinking again once they’re awake.

27) Proverb 31:4-5 - Kings, Princes, and others who rule and judge must not drink alcohol. Alcohol perverts good judgment.

28) Proverbs 31:6-7 - Strong drink could be given to those about to perish but better anesthetics are available today.

29) Ecclesiastes 2:3 - The king tried everything, including intoxicating drink, to see if it satisfied. It did not. (Ecclesiastes 12:8)

30) Ecclesiastes 10:17 - A land is blessed when its leaders do not drink.

31) Isaiah 5:11-12 - Woe to those who get up early to drink and stay up late at night to get drunk. It causes them to not regard the work of the Lord nor consider the operation of His hands. Basically, they forget God in their drunkenness.

32) Isaiah 5:22 - Woe to "champion" drinkers and "experts" at mixing drinks.

33) Isaiah 19:14 - Drunken men stagger in their vomit.

34) Isaiah 22:12-13 - The Israelites chose to drink because their future looked hopeless to them.  Yet, that would not help to purge them of their sins.

35) Isaiah 24:9 - Drinkers cannot escape the consequences when God judges.

36) Isaiah 28:1 - God pronounces woe on the drunkards of Ephraim.

37) Isaiah 28:3 - Proud drunkards shall be trodden down.

38) Isaiah 28:7 - Priests and prophets stagger and reel from beer and wine, err in vision, and stumble in judgment.

But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the
way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are
swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

39) Isaiah 28:8 - Drinkers’ tables are covered with vomit and filth so there is no place clean.

40) Isaiah 56:9-12 - Drinkers seek their own gain and expect tomorrow to be just like today.

 

41) Jeremiah 35:2-14 - The Rechabites obeyed their father’s command to drink no grape juice or intoxicating wine and were blessed (vs 18-19).

The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to
drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father’s commandment: notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto Me.

42) Ezekiel 44:21 - Again God instructed the priests not to drink wine.

43) Daniel 1:5-17 - Daniel and his friends refused the king’s intoxicating wine and was blessed for abstaining.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the
portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

44) Daniel 5:1 - Belshazzar, ruler of Babylon, led his people in drinking.

45) Daniel 5:2-3 - The king, along with his nobles, wives, and concubines, drank from the goblets which had been taken from God’s temple. Mixing the unholy with the holy.

46) Daniel 5:4 - Drinking wine was combined with praising false gods.

They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron,
of wood, and of stone.

47) Daniel 5:23 - God sent word to Belshazzar that punishment would be swift for the evil he had committed.

48) Hosea 4:11 - Intoxicating wine enslaves the heart.

          Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

49) Hosea 7:5 – Drinking can make a person sick and cause them to join with scorners.

50) Joel 1:5 - Drunkards awake to see God’s judgment.

51) Joel 3:3 - The enemy is judged for selling girls for wine.

52) Amos 2:6-8 - Unrighteous acts of Israel included the drinking of wine which had been taken for the payment of fines.

53) Amos 2:12 - Israel is condemned for forcing Nazarites to drink wine.

The Nazarites were to be set apart for God and not drink alcohol yet they
pressured and convinced the Nazarites to drink it. 

54) Micah 2:11 - Israelites are eager to follow false teachers who prophesied from intoxicating drinks.

55) Nahum 1:10 - The drunkards of Nineveh will be devoured.

56) Habakkuk 2:5 - A man transgresseth by wine.

57) Habakkuk 2:15 - Woe to him that gives his neighbor drink to make him drunk.

58) Habakkuk 2:16 - Drinking leads to shame.

59) Matthew 24:48-51 - A drinking servant is unprepared for his Lord’s return.

60) Luke 1:15 - John the Baptist drank neither wine nor strong drink.

61) Luke 12:45-46 - Christ warned against drunkenness.

62) Luke 21:34 - Drunkenness causes hangovers (surfeiting). Drunkenness will cause a person not to be ready for the Lord’s return.

63) Romans 13:13 - Do not walk in drunkenness or immorality.

64) Romans 14:21 - Do not do anything that will hurt your testimony as a believer.

65) 1 Corinthians 5:11 - If a Christian brother is a drinker (among other things), do not associate or eat with him.

66) 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 - Drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God

67) Galatians 5:19-21 - Acts of the sinful nature, including drunkenness, will stop a person from inheriting the kingdom of God.

68) Ephesians 5:18 – Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess (G810 = unsavedness)

69) 1 Thessalonians 5:6-7 - Christians are to be alert and self-controlled. People typically drink and get drunk when it is night and dark outside.

70) 1 Timothy 3:2-3 - Bishops (elders) are to be temperate, sober, and not given to wine.

71) 1 Timothy 3:8 - Deacons are to be worthy of respect and not drinkers.

72) 1 Timothy 3:11 - Deacons’ wives are to be temperate and sober.

73) Titus 1:7 - An overseer is not to be given to wine.

74) Titus 2:2-3 - The older men and older women of the church are to be temperate and not given to wine in behavior as becometh holiness.

75) 1 Peter 4:3-4 - The past life of drunkenness and carousing has no place in the Christian’s life.