This isn’t like a beer ad: good-looking people having a great time. It’s not champagne, either; it’s real pain.
The world, as described in Genesis 8, had a fresh start. Well, almost. The one thing that hadn’t changed was the human heart. God paints an honest portrait of humanity, warts and all. Imagine Noah, listed in Hebrews 11 as a man of faith, after that long time of walking with God, getting into trouble. “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12). Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine, gets drunk, and it makes him so unaware, he’s shamelessly naked. His son Ham makes fun of it to his brothers, like people today who are laughing and crying at all the wrong things. His brothers wisely cover up their father, avoiding the curse resulting from this shameful act. But more of that later. While the Bible never condemns all wine use, it does warn us in Proverbs 23:29-35, “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at the wine…Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things…saying: ‘… When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?’” The CDC says that alcohol abuse in the U.S. costs far more (due to under-reporting) than the estimated $259 billion a year. Worse, alcohol claims about 100,000 lives each year in America. And who can tell of the alcohol-related domestic and child abuse hidden behind closed doors? I, for one, have enough challenges in life without further diminishing my faculties. There’s something far better, says Paul in Ephesians 5:18 – “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.”