My friends, family and church family know that I do NOT drink alcoholic beverages. One thing that becoming a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17) did for me is to make me uncaring of what other people think of my decisions. I no longer feel pressure to go along with the crowd, neither the worldy nor the "religious" crowds! My choice has been made because of the experiences I have had in my family with alcoholics and the effects of alcohol on family members. I have shared many times in teaching at The SWC about this subject. NO, Jesus did NOT drink non-alcoholic wine! He may have had grape juice at times, but if the Bible says He drank wine, then He drank wine! The same wine everyone else was drinking! THAT is why they called Him a "winebibber" (Matthew 11:19). The difference being that Jesus never sinned! We are told in the Word of God NOT to be drunk (Ephesians 5:18). SO, though Jesus DID drink wine, He never drank it to the point of, or for the purpose of, being drunk with wine. Why am I discussing this today? Because today in our Spoken Word Bible Reading Plan we read Proverbs 23. In this Proverb Solomon addresses drunkenness. Look at verses 29-35:
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness and dimness of eyes? 30 Those who tarry long at the wine, those who go to seek and try mixed wine. 31 Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the wineglass, when it goes down smoothly. 32 At the last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. 33 [Under the influence of wine] your eyes will behold strange things [and loose women] and your mind will utter things turned the wrong way [untrue, incorrect, and petulant]. 34 Yes, you will be [as unsteady] as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, and [as open to disaster] as he who lies upon the top of a mast. 35 You will say, They struck me, but I was not hurt! They beat me [as with a hammer], but I did not feel it! When shall I awake? I will crave and seek more wine again [and escape reality].
Do you get a better idea of what it was that caused Solomon to acquire 700 wives and 300 concubines, many being foreign women who turned his heart away from the God of the Bible (1 Kings 11:3-4)? I truly believe that Solomon was a drunkard! Later in his life, after all of the trouble he had, he repented of his ways and wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes which exposes the futility of a life NOT lived for God! Understand that this was the WISEST of men (2 Chronicles 1:7-11; 2 Chronicles 9:22)! THIS is what drunkenness can and will do to otherwise good and Godly people! SO, be WISE with the choices that YOU make! Choose to be like Solomon in his youth, when he desired nothing more than the Wisdom of God to make proper decisions with his life! AMEN! Here is Hillsong with "I Surrender" because that is MY cry to HIM! I desire HIS will for my life! How about you?
Shalom in Him!
