The Personification of Drunkenness

We'll take your Bible and turn back to Proverbs chapter 20. We only read one verse earlier. That was verse one of chapter 20. And I think I said this earlier, we will only divide one verse. We'll spend most of our time right here in verse one. And this is what I advise you to do. Any of those other scriptures that I reference or read, jot those down, make it a good habit, develop the habit of writing those verses down.

Go back and read them 'cause messages like this with other scripture references, really they're just like a giant puzzle that the Lord brings to us and it all fits together to be able to communicate certain truths, many truths, really one major, major truth. Now I know when the subject of alcohol comes up, there really can be much discussion. There can be much debate. Even with some, it can come down to downright arguing and fighting over that one particular subject. Some Christians say that it is okay to drink alcohol while some Christians would say that it is a terrible, grievous sin to drink even a little bit.

Certain churches, even certain denominations seem to believe that alcohol is okay to drink while others, they might see it totally, totally different. I have read and listened to very respected pastors on this subject, church leaders, and they have entirely different convictions on the use of alcohol. As a matter of fact, one respected commentator that I read this week, he said that he didn't even believe that Jesus turned the water into wine. Now that shows you his position. That's really a stretch. That's really adding to what the scriptures say. And we can also see how churches in certain regions of our country view alcohol differently.

Christians in churches really on the West Coast, they may view alcohol differently than Christians in churches down in the Deep South where we are, the Bible Belt. Even Christians in different countries can view alcohol differently. I know of a pastor who spent some time, some years on the mission field. Specifically, he was in Europe and even more specifically, he was German. He was in Germany. And the churches there that he was connected with, they really had no problem with the use of alcohol. Now I think you see my point. I think you see where I am going. There are lots of different opinions when it comes to the subject of alcohol.

Now the subject of alcohol is seen here in verse one, really as it is seen throughout the scriptures. It's really relevant in our day for several reasons. There's even an urgency attached to this subject for several reasons. First of all, because of the debate. I've already mentioned the debate. This discussion or debate could come up in one of our small group Bible studies. It could come up in the life of your Sunday school class. It probably has. People we know within the church can have differing views on alcohol. And this can be a difficult, even really a divisive subject with certain people.

Also alcoholism or drunkenness is a big, big problem in our culture. Many of you know people who have a problem with alcoholism. Some of you may even have an alcoholic in your family. This week I heard the testimony of a very famous pastor. If I called his name, you would probably know who he is. He said that he grew up with an alcoholic father. And growing up in our neighborhood, we had a man in our neighborhood that was an alcoholic and that really made an indelible impression on me and my family. So this subject of this problem can be personal for us.

But third, what has really caught my attention is how many people are turning to alcohol during this time of shelter in place or quarantine during this pandemic, this coronavirus pandemic. You might not know it, but alcohol sales have skyrocketed. They have skyrocketed during this coronavirus crisis. I jotted down some information from some articles that I read this week from CNN Business dated April the 1st. This is the title of the article, Boo Sales Are Booming As People Stockpile Alcohol. Isn't that alarming? Another article titled from the Mississippi Business Journal from March the 23rd.

And the title of that article is, Liquor Sales Are Up During The Epidemic. Now that's Mississippi, so that's alarming as well. But then another article from MarketWatch, US Online dated April the 2nd. This article is very alarming. And it's titled Alcohol Sales Jump, 243% During The Coronavirus Pandemic. That's a number that'll grip you. I think you see what I mean. But the fourth reason why this is relevant for us is we are in our study through Proverbs. And in chapter 20, we're just at our next chapter. And really and surely this verse jumped out at me even a couple of weeks ago. You might laugh at that.

You might say, "Pastor, you're being opportunistic." Well, chapter one, in chapter 20, verse one, I want us to see that we have a warning here. Now in our study through Proverbs, we haven't seen this yet. This is the first warning concerning alcohol within the book of Proverbs. But there are several other places where we find this teaching. Over in chapter 23, in several verses in chapter 23, we see more teaching and more warnings. And the teaching in these verses is very powerful. And in my opinion, it is much needed. It is much needed. Now here I wanna share with you my approach. I wanna share with you my approach.

I wanna take the time to study this subject. Tonight we're gonna be right here in chapter 20. And next week, we're gonna skip over to chapter 23. I feel the need that we need to alter our normal chapter by chapter approach and dig a little deeper. I want us to take these verses and put them all together to go deeper. So these messages will be a part of our series, Wisdom for Christian Living. But these messages can stand alone. These messages can be set apart as teaching to use on the subject of alcohol. And I believe this will be very helpful in the life of our church.

I believe these messages can help you grapple with this and your own personal convictions. And I believe there are others out there. I believe there's at least one out there that maybe this could be life and death for you. Maybe in a way in which no one really knows. Now I wanna start off by giving us some background information, some biblical context. Now this definitely will not be exhaustive. This will be very broad, but this information will help us approach these verses properly. Now let me explain what I mean by approaching these verses properly or this subject properly.

If you come to the discussion about alcohol with any misconception, you will not be able to approach these verses properly. Let me state that again. If you come to the table to discuss what the scriptures say about alcohol and you have one or two terrible misconceptions, it will prohibit you from seeing what the scriptures say. Now I'm gonna say a little more about that as we progress along. But what about this background, this biblical context? First of all, wine and the fruit of the vine was a common beverage in the Old and the New Testament times.

If you or anyone else were to say they did not drink alcoholic beverages in the Old Testament or the New Testament, then you are just tearing pages out of your Bible. You are claiming that the earth is flat. It is a false claim. That is one of those terrible misconceptions that will not allow you to approach these verses properly. In Old Testament times, harvesting the grapes and treading the grapes in the wine press was seen as a very joyous and very a big celebration. There was lots of laughter attached to these events. There was singing, there was even dancing. And we see this in Isaiah chapter 16 and chapter 65.

Truthfully, the absence of singing and dancing during the time of the grape harvest and the treading out of the grapes, the absence of singing and dancing was seen as a sign of judgment. And we see that in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is a very, very sad book. And within the Old Testament law, there was even a tithe of wine to be given back to the Lord. Now within the Old Testament, there are certain passages which speak of wine being used both for good and bad. Genesis chapter 14 verse 18, Psalm 104 verse 15, Ecclesiastes 10 verse 19, speak of wine being used for good.

But conversely, Genesis 9.21 and Isaiah 5.11 and Isaiah 28.3 or 28.7 speak of wine being used for bad. I wanna read two of these passages. Psalm 104 verses 14 and 15. Listen to what the Lord says here. You caused the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart. See, that's wine being spoken of in the good. But notice Genesis 9.20 and 21. Noah began to be a man of the soil. This was after the flood.

And he planted a vineyard, verse 21, and he drank of the vine and he became drunk and he lay uncovered in his tent. That's a negative example. Now all of these verses and observations show us that wine was a common drink within the Old Testament times. And of course there were certain hard restrictions for some. Leviticus 10 tells us that priests were forbidden to drink alcohol. The Nazarites, they were forbidden as well. Samson was a Nazarite, so he was forbidden to drink alcohol. Samuel, he was a Nazarite, so he was forbidden to take alcohol.

And then also that last of the Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist, he was a Nazarite, so he was forbidden from taking alcohol. Now specifically, what about the New Testament? I guess what I'm saying is moving on along. What about the New Testament? Someone might say, well, the Old Testament was different from the New. Well, that would be a false claim as well, terribly false. That misconception can skew your ability to understand this verse and these other verses and the subject. Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine. In John two, we see that Jesus was there at a wedding there in Cana of Galilee and they ran out of wine.

His mother came to him urging him to intervene and he provided more wine through a miracle. And it was considered the best of the wine. And this was a very public and well-known miracle. This was not done in secret. The apostle Paul shows us the New Testament usage of wine, really in a medicinal circumstance. In first Timothy five, Paul urges young Timothy to take some wine for health reasons. Clean water was a very, very big problem in their day. And here Paul is telling Timothy not only to drink water, but take wine as well. It seems that Timothy was abstaining from drinking wine and now Paul is urging him to do otherwise.

But there are many warnings in the New Testament as well, meaning Ephesians five tells us, Paul tells the Ephesian Christians not to be drunk with wine because it leads to a whole host of other sins. In Galatians chapter five, Paul lists drunkenness as one of the acts of the sinful nature. Simply wine was an alcoholic beverage and it was used in both Old Testament times and New Testament times. Drinking alcohol was never condemned except for certain people or offices. I have mentioned the Old Testament Nazarites, even at times Paul would make a Nazarite vow. But drinking alcohol was never ever condemned in the scriptures.

It was drunkenness that was always condemned. Let me repeat myself 'cause I don't want anybody to misunderstand me or misquote me. Drunkenness is always, always condemned in both the Old and the New Testament, always. Now there were different types of wine in the Old and New Testament. In Old Testament and New Testament times, they had strong wine, they had weaker wine, they had new wine, we see that in Hosea 4.11. They had sweet wine, that's listed or spoken of in Isaiah 49.26. Simply they had some wine that was really not that strong and then they had some strong wine which had lots of alcohol content.

Now we'll get to some of that information really next week because we'll continue the subject next Wednesday night. Now tonight, for our message tonight, I want us to look at verse one of chapter 20. We will look at a few other passages and no doubt some of the passages that I have mentioned and will mention, they will grab your attention. So again, write those down so that you can study them so that all that the Lord wants to give us will be in our minds and in our hearts. Now let me give you the title of the message. Tonight we will be looking at what I call the personification of drunkenness. Write that title down, this really helps us.

This is what I call the personification of drunkenness. Now at this point, before we really dive into the message, I want to give you a strong, strong warning here. I want to give you a very strong warning. Do not ignore this teaching. Don't be foolish. I use that word on purpose. Do not be foolish. All throughout the Proverbs, we've learned that the man or the woman or the young person who rejects sound teaching, they reject God's word, they become a fool. It is foolish to look at the word and reject it. To ignore God's word and God's teaching is to jump off the cliff of foolishness. So listen up, don't ignore what we are going to study.

So let's look at our verse again. I'm gonna read it in several translations because there are a few different ways that we can see this verse. The English Standard version, I read that earlier. Wine is a marker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray is not wise. The New American Standard, I use that quite often. Wine is a marker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated is not wise. And then the King James, wine is a marker, strong drink is raging, not a brawler. And whoever is deceived, therefore, are thereby is not wise. Now I will come back to some of the different translations a little later.

I wanted to read those to have those in your mind and in our hearts. So let's start off with what I call the body of the message, our first major truth. Number one, I want us to see this vivid picture. I want us to see in the verse that we have a vivid picture. Now here in verse one, we have what Bible scholars call a personification. That's where the title comes from. This is what is called a personification. Although this is one verse, we have a very, very vivid picture. Now I'll show you what I mean. But first I've got to ask you a question. What is a personification? There's some of you who have thought that, you've wondered that.

What is a personification? A personification is to give human attributes, our characteristics, our behavior traits to something that is not human. I'll give you an example. Because we have been on quarantine, we have eaten more meals at home. We have more meals at home and more meal time at home and I'm thankful. And I'm very thankful that my wife has done a good job at keeping the refrigerator and the freezer stocked and the cabinet stocked. But you know something? There's something in our freezer that calls my name. Every now and then I just hear Blue Bell ice cream calling my name, calling my name. Now I want to ask you a question.

Does that cart in the Blue Bell actually call my name? No, that's a personification. Some of you men will understand this. There's something happens in the life and the mind and the heart of certain men in the fall of the year. You know the weather begins to change, the leaves change and some of you men would say, you know I hear the deer woods calling my name. See those are personifications. Because we know that ice cream or anything in the refrigerator can't call our name nor do the deer woods call our name. Well here we see that wine, our strong drink, they are given human qualities. Now think about it. Wine can't mock.

Strong drink can't brawl or rage. Wine and strong drink are inanimate objects but they are given human characteristics or behavior for a purpose. Now we've seen this before. All throughout chapters one to nine we saw the personification of wisdom. Yes, the personification of wisdom. This is all poetic language and it is meant to attract the reader. It is meant to captivate their attention. This is a teaching tool. It's a teaching tool. Now notice, wisdom is personified or pictured as a beautiful woman. Remember that? We had the beautiful woman of wisdom crying in the public places. Remember the beautiful woman of wisdom?

She was crying in the noisy streets. She was crying in the markets. She was crying at the city gates. Wisdom was calling the man away from foolishness and away from foolish living. Well here wine and strong drink are pictured as mocking, brawling, raging. Wine and strong drink are personified to grab the attention of the reader. Now I thought about a good context, good example, a good way to paraphrase this in our day. Think about it. Look at our American politics. Our American politics. The Democrats and the Republicans. The Republicans and the Democrats. They are always mocking each other and brawling and raging against one another.

It's loud, it's ruthless, and it is never ending. Both sides accusing the other. They blame and rage. They seldom lay down their weapons and work together. And even when they seem to work together, it is just a part of their plan to amp up the fighting and the brawling and the raging and the assaulting. Listen, verse one is a vivid picture. It is a vivid picture. We can paraphrase this verse by using our American politics and we really would not ruin the meaning. So give me the liberty. We can paraphrase this verse like this. Wine and strong drink are like a bunch of politicians. Wine and strong drink are always mocking.

They are always accusing. They are always fighting and raging and revolting. Strong drink is just like the Republicans and the Democrats when they're all locked up in one room. So this is a vivid picture. You see, this is a personification. And we see that all through the Proverbs. So notice, let's move on. I want us to see, number two, I want us to see this vexing behavior. Now we're gonna get really into the text here. Number two, I want us to see this vexing behavior. Go back to the verse. Wine is a mocker. Strong drink a brawler. And whoever is led astray by it is not wise. Now within the personification, we do see certain behavior.

Again, an alcoholic drink can't act like a man. It can't. It is the man who acts this way when they are controlled by that alcohol. That is what is meant to be seen in the verse. Now there are two behaviors that we see here. This is troubling. This is disturbing behavior. I use the word vex to be honest with you to keep my alliteration going. So some of you might've been tricked by that word vex. This is troubling, disturbing. This is vexing. So first, notice the drunk is a mocker. Isn't that what we see? Wine is a mocker. The drunk is a mocker. All the translations that I mentioned earlier use the word mocker.

The word mocker is the same as scoffer. We've seen the scoffer all through the Proverbs. Here we kind of see this mocking, this scoffing in two ways. First, it is the drunkard who becomes the mocker. Without the alcohol, he might be quiet. Without the alcohol, he could be level headed. But after a few drinks, he becomes loud mouth. He becomes that scoffer. But second, it is the alcohol that makes the man the scoffer. Again, before he drinks, he might not act like a scoffer at all. In a way, the wine is mocking through the drunk man. Now question, what is this scoffing? What is this mocking? The drunk will mock what is right.

He will mock what is clean and good. Oh, the one that's under the control of drink, he will scoff at what is godly. He will scoff at what is pure and holy. Oh, the one that is under the control of strong drink, they will reject correction. They will laugh at the serious things in life. They become cynical. They become rude. They become the scoffer of the good. So we see first the drunk, he is a scoffer, a mocker. And then second, notice the drunk is a fighter. Go back to the verse, wine is a mocker, strong drink, a brawler. The King James uses the word raging. The English standard uses the word brawler.

Now this speaks of the man who has lost self control. He is loud mouthed and even violent. He may be nice. He could be level headed and never combative. But after the drink, he changes. The alcohol makes him violent. The alcohol makes him combative, even a fighter. Again, we see these actions of the man and the actions of the drink. The man becomes the fighter. He becomes a loud mouth brawler, but it is the drink doing that work in him and through him. Now question, what is this fighter, this brawler? What does this brawling look like? This is the man who would never abuse his wife or children, but when he gets to drinking, he changes.

He would never fight his friends, but when he gets to drinking, he becomes another man. A man, this man, he abuses his wife and kids when he's drinking only to try to apologize the next day. So in summary, what do we see here? Very, very vexing behavior, disturbing behavior, troubling behavior. This is awful. Again, we see two things. First, the man who is a drinker, he becomes the mocker and the scoffer. The man who gets to drinking, he becomes loud mouth, violent and abusive. He becomes a brawler, but we see that it is the drink. The alcohol within the man that is doing this. The man is controlled by the drink.

Now an application, what must we see here? Remember, we've got to take the scriptures and apply that to our life. We need to see that alcohol can and will affect many people just like this, but we must see how this happens. Think about this, women and children are abused, why? Why? Because the man gets to drinking and what happens? He becomes this mocker. He becomes this brawler. He becomes this fighter and he comes home and he abuses his wife. He abuses his children. Things he said he would never do, he begins to do. Marriages, they go to the divorce courts, why?

Because the man will not refuse to quit drinking or the woman will not refuse to quit drinking. They become the mocker, they become the fighter and ultimately it ends up in the divorce courts. Fights and shootings and stabbings happen, why? Because that level-headed man or that even-killed woman gets to drinking, they go to be a scoffer and a mocker, a brawler and a fighter and what happens? They break out in violence. Children ultimately dislike or even hate their parents, why?

Because they grow up in a home with an alcoholic mother or an alcoholic father and they become a mocker and a scoffer and a fighter and violent and it's a life and a home filled with scoffing and mocking and fighting and violence and brawling, why? And ultimately the children grow up and they don't even like their own mother and father. Very nice ladies. Oh, very nice ladies end up being mockers and fighters and violent, why? Because of what we see in these verses. This is very, very vexing, disturbing, troubling behavior. So let's move on. I want us to see our third truth within the message. Go back to the verse.

Wine is a mocker, a strong drink is a brawler, there's the vexing behavior and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. Now, this is what I'm calling number three. This is a very important warning. This is a very important warning. Here at the end of the verse, we have the can and the will. The can and the will. Now I'm gonna continue to flesh that out. There are some who drink and they do not end up as mockers and brawlers, but then there are those who go down this road. That is an all too familiar fact and there is an important, very important warning here. Now I wanna go back to the different versions.

The English standard translate this into the verse, led astray, the new American intoxicated by, the King James deceived thereby. What do we see? This man is led astray by the drink. They are intoxicated by the drink. They are deceived therefore by the drink. This word can be translated infatuated. We see this word infatuated in chapter five, verses 19 to 20. In chapter five of Proverbs 19 to 20, we have another warning. Solomon is warning not to be infatuated or intoxicated by the adulterous woman. He is saying do not be led astray by her body. He is calling this young son, his young son, to be intoxicated by the body of his own wife.

And we see this same teaching in Isaiah chapter 28 about the drink. In Isaiah verse 28, verses one, two, and three, and seven and eight, in verse 14, Isaiah says that drunkenness leads to mocking. Isaiah shows the drunk staggering under the influence of the drink. They are reeling from the strong drink. The drunkard is swallowed up by their love for wine, their love for strong drink. The picture in Isaiah is the one who is led astray. They are deceived. They are intoxicated by being intoxicated. Now in summary, what do we see here? I think this is a two-fold warning. Yes, two-fold. The first pertains to drinking and drunkenness, excess.

Drinking and drunkenness is not wise. That mistake leads to the trout. Drinking and excess leads to being deceived, being led astray, being intoxicated with becoming intoxicated. You see, this leads to being intoxicated with becoming intoxicated. But there's another warning. Drinking and excess will surely make a man or a woman act foolishly. Allowing the drink to take hold of the life will always lead to sinful, foolish, damaging behavior. One commentator summarized it all just like this. The drunkard's folly is compounded by folly. Now in application, what do we need to learn here? We must take serious this warning.

We must take this warning serious. Do not be led astray by the drink. Do not be intoxicated with becoming intoxicated. Do not be deceived by the drink. What does it say? Because it is not wise, it is foolish. But you know we have a picture here. I'll illustrate this by telling you a story from my childhood. Many of you in the life of our church know that I had a grandfather that lived to be rather old. He lived to be 99 and a half, really in a few days. And I spent quite a bit of time with my grandfather. But growing up, my grandfather always had animals. He just loved animals. He had chickens and guineas and cows and all of that good stuff.

And I remember growing up when my grandfather had those animals. He had chickens and guineas and such. Oh, if a varmint got in the chicken pen and got one of his guineas or chickens, oh, he was gonna set a trap. I was with him many a day when he would take those traps and he would set them out. And he was laying an ambush for whatever was catching his chickens or guineas. And many times it would be somebody's dog. Sometimes you'd go to take that dog out of that trap and he would fight you. Sometimes you'd go to get that dog out of that trap and he was so glad to see you. But listen, what am I trying to show you?

What do we see here in the verse? Don't be like a dumb dog being led astray. Listen, don't be led to the trap. No woman or no man starts off by saying something like this, hey, I just wanna become a drunk. But when they fall into that trap, look what happens. What does the new American say? Wine is a mocker, strong drink, a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it. Look, they're intoxicated by the drink. They're intoxicated by being intoxicated and it is not foolish and it is a trap. And when a person is intoxicated, their senses are dulled, their judgment is impaired, their good judgment is skewed, it's even gone. So don't be stupid.

Don't be so stupid to be intoxicated with being intoxicated. If that's the case, you've lost your senses. You've lost your good judgment. Your good judgment is impaired. Do not let the frame of your mind lure you. Do not let the frame of your mind be warped so as to lure you to the drink. And I think about how many good men, and I use that term loosely, good women, fine upstanding people have been led astray because they were intoxicated with being intoxicated and ultimately they fell in the trap. Now as I begin to move to the conclusion, I wanna point out three individuals. Remember the title of the message?

We're dealing with a personification. The personification of drunkenness. So since we're dealing with a personification of drunkenness here, I wanna show you a few people. Now I want you to listen, be a good student and follow me because this will highlight what I believe the Lord is teaching us. The first person, take righteous Noah. Y'all remember who Noah was? He was a righteous man. He was so righteous that when God judged the earth, what did he do? He rescued Noah and his family. But what did Noah do? What did Noah do?

The scripture say in Genesis nine, after the flood, after it had subsided, he planted a vineyard, he harvested of the vineyard, he got drunk and he exposed himself. He lost his dignity. Evidently one of his sons sinned when he came upon his father in his nakedness. And it goes on to say that Ham's descendants were cursed and they became the Canaanites and they were later defeated by Israel. Now look where the drink led Noah. It had an effect on his son and his son's descendants. The second individual is Lot. Remember Lot, he was rescued from Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, what happened to Lot? Probably the worst.

At the end of his life, the end of so many calamities in Genesis 19, what do we see? Simply after Lot had lost everything, he lost his home, he lost his wife. He ended up into the mountains with two of his daughters and to preserve their family line, his daughters got him drunk and they slept with their father. Yes, go read it. And the descendants from those incestuous relations became the enemies of God. Now notice, Lot's descendants became the enemies of God because of the drink. And then third, in the life of the church, this is a group. In the life of the Corinthian church, this was the corporate sin.

In Corinthians chapter 11, simply some in the church, the church there at court, they were abusing the Lord's supper and there were many sins that were going on there. But one of the sins that they were committing is they were actually getting drunk at the Lord's supper, the Lord's supper celebration. And Paul said some of them had become sick and even died because they're abused of the supper and drunkenness was a major problem with that situation. So look where the drink took them. Now what is my point with the entire message and those examples? There are serious ramifications to drunkenness.

Listen folks, this is not Otis the town drunk off of the Andy Griffith Show. This is life and death. This is ruining one's life. This is ruining one's marriage. This is ruining one's family. This is ruining children. This is ruining even the descendants and even their heritage. So what do we see? It's the personification of drunkenness. Now I will share this with you before we begin to close. I will share with you where we're going next week. Like I said earlier, we'll skip on over to Proverbs 23 and we will look at the portrait of drunkenness. You can begin to study ahead. Verses 29 to 35 are very, very powerful.

As a matter of fact, we might have to take this into part one and a part two. This is a portrait of drunkenness. And oh, I pray that the Lord will so do a work in you that you will never be like a dumb dog, a dumb dog and fall into the trap of drunkenness. Let me do as I always do. I wanna pray over what we've looked at and what we've studied. When I ask the Lord to take it and seal it in our minds and do a work within us so that we would not be just Here's of the word, we would be doers of the word. So let's pray.