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 2nd 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.
