Our last post shared 14 Reasons God Approves Wine in the Bible. But, the Bible also gives stern warnings against alcohol abuse. Ephesians 5:18 says it like this: Do not be drunk with wine.

Previously we shared:

• 7 Reasons Wine in the Bible Contained Alcohol
• 14 Reason God Approves Wine in the Bible

Today we will look at 30 warnings in the Bible about being drunk with wine (or any substance).

Do Not Be Drunk With Wine

I had wanted to share 28 reasons to not be drunk with wine, but I found 30 and went with it. I am sharing over twice the amount of warnings against drunkenness as I shared in defense of alcohol in moderation. Some of these warnings are life-threatening: and they are right out of the Bible. So take heed.

Do Not Be Drunk With Wine: 30 Warnings from the Bible

1. God forbids drunkenness in the Bible. Ephesians 5:18 says: “Do not be drunk with wine.” A direct command is always sufficient to demand obedience. But the following 29 warnings show many consequences and reasons to not be drunk with wine.
2. Drinking too much alcohol can lead to disgrace.  After the flood waters dried up, Noah planted a vineyard and got so drunk that he passed out naked in his tent. His son Ham came into the tent and “saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.” Shem and Japheth did the right thing and covered their father’s nakedness. When Noah woke up, he issued a curse upon Ham’s family since he rejoiced in his father’s disgrace. Read Genesis 9 for the story.
3. Overindulgence in wine can lead to incest. After God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot hid out in the mountains. His daughters suspected that he was the last man alive on earth and conspired to get Lot drunk so as to have sex with him and bring children into the world. Their plot was successful. Had Lot been sober, he would have never agreed to such vile behavior. Read Genesis 19 for the story.
4. The Bible warns that drunkenness will lead to immorality. Leviticus 18 explicitly warns against exposing your nakedness to those who are not your spouse. These warnings are ultimately against sexual immorality. Habakuk 2:16 makes a clear connection: “Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness.” Lamentations 4:21 repeats the same warning: “But the cup will come around to you as well; you will become drunk and make yourself naked.” Drinking too much alcohol can lead to wrongfully exposing your nakedness. Protect yourself from immorality: Do not be drunk with wine.
5. Drunkenness causes health problems. While I Timothy 5:23 recommends “a little wine” for frequent ailments, too much wine can cause a host of health problems. We will write about this from a scientific perspective in a future post. But many passages in the Bible talk about the physical ailments associated with alcohol abuse, including depression; red eyes; injuries; nausea; vomiting; and bitterness of soul. See Proverbs 23 and Isaiah 19:14 for more.
6. Heavy alcohol use is a tool for sexual abuse against others. As in the case with Lot’s daughters, men and women alike can use alcohol as a way to seduce people into a sexual relationship. Alcohol brings down the natural defenses. And once someone is intoxicated by wine or strong drink, they can lose all ability to refuse sexual advances. The Bible warns against this in Habakuk 2:15 saying: “Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness!”
7. Poverty is a result of heavy drinking. Drunkards have difficulty holding down a job; and they spend what money they do have on their sinful drinking habit. It is no wonder that Proverbs 23:21 says: “For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty. And drowsiness will clothe one with rags.”
8. Heavy drinking brings woe from God. Isaiah 5:22 warns: “Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink.” What are the woes? Read over this list of 30 items. You are sure to find plenty.
9. Alcohol addiction brings a natural woe from the abuse. God doesn’t have to act supernaturally to bring woe upon drunkards; they bring the woe upon themselves. Proverbs 23:29 says it like this: “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine;  those who go to taste mixed wine.”
10. Lingering long over wine causes bodily injury. A person who is drunk can easily injure themselves and never remember what happened. Bumps, bruises, scrapes, and even rape can occur during a drunken stupor. These are some of the “wounds without cause” mentioned in Proverbs 23:29. Protect your body from harm: Do not be drunk with wine.
11. Too much wine can cause hallucinations. Proverbs 23:32 warns of drunkenness that “Your eyes will see strange sights, and your mind will imagine confusing things.” These are hallucinations. AlcoholRehab.com says: “Hallucinations can cause people to do things they would otherwise not do. They may talk to themselves, remove clothing in public, become aggressive and irrationally violent towards people they care about.” In addition, the website warns: “This disconnection from reality is dangerous and potentially fatal.” 
12. Drinking too much causes confusion and disorientation. Too much alcohol causes an inability to think and walk straight. Isaiah 28:7 spells it out:  “And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink: The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink; They are confused by wine; they stagger from strong drink; They reel while having visions; They totter when rendering judgment.”
13. Excessive alcohol causes kings and judges to err. The above verse shows that not only is the mind and body disoriented, but so is judgment. That is why Proverbs 31:4-5 says that kings should not make decrees while they are drinking for they will “pervert the rights of all the afflicted.”
14. Drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. If a person is an excessive drinker, continually getting drunk without repentance, it is a sure sign that they are not a true believer in Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 6:9 gives one of the gravest warnings in the Bible: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” Do you want to inherit the kingdom of God? Do not neglect God’s command: Do not be drunk with wine.
15. Too much alcohol causes you to say perverse things. Proverbs 23:33 warns that he who lingers long over wine “will see strange things and your mind will utter perverse things.” Speaking perversity could be tied to hallucination, but it doesn’t have to be. A drunk person  can say all kinds of things that he or she would never say sober. 
16. Drunkenness itself is a judgment from God. Here are two verses that demonstrate that drunkenness can be a curse or judgment from God. Jeremiah 13:13: “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings that sit for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness!””’ And Jeremiah 25:27: “’You shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Drink, be drunk, vomit, fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you.”’'”
17. Excessive alcohol consumption perverts justice. This is closely tied with the fact that alcohol can cause judges and rulers to err. The result of their erring, in this case, causes a perversion of justice. Proverbs 31:4-5: “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to desire strong drink; For they will drink and forget what is decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.”
18. Intoxication is foolishness. With as much evidence as we have seen, it is fairly obvious that it is not wise to be drunk with wine. Proverbs 20:1 reiterates: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.” Want to be wise? Do not be drunk with wine.
19. Alcohol abuse can lead to violence against others. We’ve all seen plenty of bar fights on television. Perhaps you’ve seen one in real life. Proverbs 20:1 reminds us that “wine is a mocker” and “strong drink a brawler.” Again, it is obvious why he who “is intoxicated by it is not wise.”
20. Excessive alcohol can cause a killer hang-over. We’ve looked at some of the health problems the Bible associates with too much alcohol. Many (but not all) of these can be expressed in a terrible next day alcohol sickness called a hang-over. Symptoms of a hang-over can include: red eyes, nausea, vomiting, extreme headache, tiredness, and more. Reread Proverbs 23, which says that alcohol “bites like a serpent” and “stings like a viper.”
21. Too much alcohol can make you sick.  Again, there is a connection here with health issues and hang-overs. But Hosea 7:5 specifically mentions sickness resulting from too much wine: “On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine.”
22. Drinking in excess dulls the senses.  Hosea 4:11 warns that “Harlotry, wine and new wine take away the understanding.” The word understanding in this verse is literally “heart.” The heart in the OT refers to mind, will, and emotions. So every capacity to render a cognitive decision is impaired in drunkenness. Drunkenness dulls all the senses.
23. Alcohol consumption without moderation deceives. Isaiah 56:12 says: “‘Come,’ they say, ‘let us get wine, and let us drink heavily of strong drink; And tomorrow will be like today, only more so.'” These alcohol abusers have become deceived to believe that every day will be like the rest. James 4:15 reminds us we should say: “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
24. Drunkenness can make you do cruel things. Joel 3:3 records the depths of depravity one will go to get their alcohol fix: “They have also cast lots for My people, traded a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine that they may drink.” What a terrible testimony of the evils of alcohol abuse, that one would sell someone into slavery just so they could get a drink. A stellar reason God commands: Do not be drunk with wine.
25. Regular intoxication can lead the heart away from God.  Isaiah 5:11-12 implies that heavy drink can lead the heart astray from God: “Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink, who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them! Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine; But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD, nor do they consider the work of His hands.” Alcohol becomes more important than following after God.
26. Wine in excess can cause the heart to increase its lusts. Habakuk 2:5: “Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man, so that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself all nations and collects to himself all peoples.” In this verse wine betrays the haughty man to wander from home; increase his lusts to insatiable levels; and it inflames him to conquer that which does not belong to him.
27. Careless imbibing controls life and keeps you from regular duties. Isaiah 5:11: “Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink, who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!” Rising early and staying up late for the sole purpose of drinking alcohol leaves little time to pursue God ordained activities. The alcohol controls the whole life and keeps one from righteous productivity.
28. A drunkard is disqualified to lead the church. The title of overseer belongs to the pastors and elders of the church. I Timothy 3:2-3 instructs that “An overseer, then, must be above reproach… [and] not addicted to wine.” The same applies to deacons. Verse 8 of the same chapter says: “Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued, or addicted to much wine.” A person who is given over to alcohol abuse can not lead the church.
29. Alcohol abuse can impair memory. Proverbs 31:5 warns kings against ruling while intoxicated — “For they will drink and forget what is decreed, and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.” In addition, Proverbs 23:29 and 35 warn of similar forgetfulness. The drunk person receives  “wounds without cause” and gets beat up but they “did not know it.” These are only a few examples of lost memories resulting from too much alcohol.
30. Drunkenness contributes to depression. Again Proverbs 23:29 instructs us: “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? … Those who linger long over wine;  Those who go to taste mixed wine.” Does the depression lead to the alcohol abuse? Perhaps. But it does nothing to solve it, except a temporary forgetting. Proverbs 31:6-7 sits juxtaposed against Proverbs 31:4-5. The king is not to rule while intoxicated because he will forget what is decreed; while the one whose life is bitter “will drink and forget his poverty and remember his trouble no more.”

Do Not Be Drunk With Wine Conclusion

These 30 reasons make it clear why the Bible commands: Do not be drunk with wine. Yet, what if you are regularly intoxicated with wine? What if you identify as an alcoholic or an alcohol abuser and want to change? Many Christians, including myself, have been alcohol abusers. There is hope in Christ; He is eager to forgive. Turn to Him today.

Of drunkards, the Bible says: “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

He can justify you today if you will only trust in Him. He can change you into a person who can live up to the mandate: Do not be drunk with wine.

How does He do that? The rest of Ephesians 6:9 holds the key. He fills you with His Spirit. Ask Him to deliver you today and fill you to over-flowing.

Next: 18 Benefits of Wine for Your Health and Emotional Well Being

Return to: Biblical Health Study

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Reformed Health exists so you can take control of your own health and be all that God has designed you to be. The information shared on Reformed Health is the sole opinion of the author and is not meant to diagnose or treat any illness. None or our claims have been evaluated by the FDA or any other government organization. We are not medical doctors, nor do we have any medical doctors on staff. If you are having a health emergency, please call 911, contact your doctor, or visit a local emergency room. Always consult your doctor before engaging in any new exercise regime.

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Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

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© 2017 Mischelle Sandowich
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