Wine Is A Mocker

Wine is a  mocker; strong drink is raging: and whosover is deceived thereby is not wise.  Proverbs 20:1

Each week as I read the newspaper or listen to the news, I see and hear over and over the tragedies that are occurring due to people partaking of alcoholic beverages. As a child growing up and even in my later teens, I learned first hand what alcohol can do to an individual and in a family. Before the salvation of my dad, there were numerous occasions in our household where alcohol ruled and reigned, and the result was a home life of constant fighting, less money to spend on the necessities of life, and sickness that would not have been prevalent if my dad hadn’t drinked.  My brothers and I, as well as other family members, were able to acquire beer and liquor at an early age which resulted in near fatalities on the highway and a brother who was a teenage alcoholic. Parents do not live to themselves—someone is always affected by what they do—someone is always watching.

According to the research I obtained from the Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the following information is true:

·   Every year more money is spent promoting the use of alcohol than any other product.  Perhaps through its elaborate and creative marketing, the most basic, yet important fact about alcohol is often overlooked—alcohol is a drug—the most commonly used and widely abused psychoactive drug in the world.

·  Even at low doses, alcohol significantly impairs the judgment and coordination required to drive a car or operate machinery safely. Low to moderate doses of alcohol can also increase the incidence of a variety of aggressive acts, including domestic violence and child abuse. Long-term effects of consuming large quantities of alcohol can lead to permanent damage to vital organs, several different types of cancer, malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies, sexual dysfunction, high blood pressure and lowered resistance to disease. Mothers who drink alcohol during pregnancy may give birth to infants with fetal alcohol syndrome which in turn may suffer from mental retardation and other irreversible physical abnormalities. These children are at a greater risk than other children of becoming alcoholic.

·  More than 100,000 United States deaths are caused by excessive alcohol consumption each year. Direct and indirect causes of death include drunk driving, cirrhosis of the liver, falls, cancer, and stroke.

·  65% of youth surveyed said they got the alcohol they drank from family and friends

·  Youth who drink alcohol are 50 times more likely to use cocaine than those who never drink alcohol.

·  Underage drinking costs the United States more than $58 billion every year—enough to buy every public school student a state-of-the-art computer.

With all these statistics, why then do the adults in our area continue to include alcoholic beverages in just about every recreational activity in which they participate? One is hard pressed to find a restaurant to eat in that does not advertise and even push the wine, beer and liquor agenda, yet we wonder why there is so much chaos in the lives of the people around us. Not only do those who participate in promoting the use of alcoholic beverages have to live and deal with the consequences, those of us who do not, have to suffer because of the lifestyles of others around us. These days if a person becomes an alcoholic and is unable to work, he is allowed to get a disability check, but when a person who has worked practically all their life becomes sick, they are told they must be prepared to return to work in order to receive income. How unfair is that?

From the Christian perspective, I would like to quote a few convincing verses from the Bible in order to show how God clearly feels about this matter.

Proverbs 23:20-21

Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

Proverbs 23:29-35

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. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick, they have beaten me and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.

Proverbs 31:4-7

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.  Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

Isaiah 28:7

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.

Habakuk 2:15

Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!