“Behold ... eating flesh and drinking wine ...
for tomorrow we shall die.” [Is 22:13]
“The new wine mourneth, the vine
languisheth, all the merry-hearted do sigh.
The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of
them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp
ceaseth. They shall not drink wine with a
song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that
drink it.” False days of happiness are over as
the judgements of God had now come upon
the land and its ungrateful inhabitants.
“There is crying for wine in the streets ... the
mirth of the land is gone.” [Is 24:7-11] God
notes in prophecy how rampant the use of
alcohol was amongst His beloved children.
“Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards
of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading
flower ... them that are overcome with wine!
... the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden
under feet ... 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 judgement. For all tables are full of vomit
and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.”
[Is 28:1,3,7-9]
“Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and
drunken, but not with wine … Behold I have
taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling,
even the dregs of the cup of My fury; thou
shalt no more drink it again.” [Is 51:21]
Over again, the Lord rebukes Israel using their
obsession with drinking wine as a spiritual
object lesson. “Yea, they are greedy dogs
which can never have enough ... come ye, say
they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill
ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow
shall be as this day, and much more
abundant.” [Is 56:12]
“Mine heart within me is broken because of
the prophets; all my bones shake: I am like a
drunken man, and like a man whom wine
hath overcome, because of the Lord, and
because of the words of His holiness.”
[Jer 23:9] Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet,” is
heartbroken over the influence of false prophets
in the land. He uses alcohol to symbolize his
broken hearted, shaken, defeated condition.
“Take the wine cup of this fury at My hand,
and cause all the nations, to whom I send
thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be
moved, and be mad, because of the sword
that I will send among them. Then took I the
cup at the Lord‟s hand, and made all the
nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had
sent me: To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of
Judah, and the kings thereof ... to make them
a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing and
a curse ...” [Jer 25:15-18] The Lord‟s disgust
with this rebellious nation reaches the limit in
this illustration of drunkenness. Insanity, fury,
violence, desolation, mocking, and a curse are
couched around the sustained use of alcohol.
“Babylon hath been a golden cup in the
Lord‟s hand, that made all the earth
drunken: the nations have drunken of her
wine; therefore the nations are mad.” [Jer 51:7]
14
[Is 5:11,12,22]
JEREMIAH
“Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and
they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly
know that every bottle shall be filled with
wine? ... Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants
of this land, even the kings that sit upon
David‟s throne, and the priests, and the
prophets, and all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, with drunkenness.” [Jer 13:12,13]
Drunkenness is viewed as a self-inflicted means
of punishment.
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neither consider the operation of His hands
… Woe unto them that are mighty to drink
wine, and men of strength to mingle strong
drink: which justify the wicked for reward
and take away the righteousness of the
righteous from him!”