This is a shorter post that is intended to complement the post on the flood, the latter part of which dealt with Noah’s drunkenness. But here we look at the deeper significance of spiritual drunkenness that emerged late in prophetic writings. Though some of these prophetic pictures may be familiar, we’ve not seen a comprehensive deep dive into their implications for the Christian. That’s what we present it here.
Alcohol in Biblical Context – Practical Counsel
The unfortunate failure of Noah and his son Ham introduce the risks associated with alcohol consumption relatively early in Scripture. The Bible has much to say regarding consumption of alcohol, offering much practical counsel, particularly regarding drunkenness or the lifestyle of those who choose to drink in excess (Genesis 9:21-24; 19:32-35; Leviticus 10:9; Numbers 6:3; Deuteronomy 21:20; Proverbs 20:1; 21:17; 23:20; 23:30-31; 31:4-6; Ecclesiastes 10:17-19; Isaiah 5:11-12; 22:13; Ezekiel 44:21; Habakkuk 2:15; Romans 13:13; 14:21; 1 Corinthians 5:11; 11:21; Galatians 5:21; 1 Timothy 3:3; 5:23; Titus 1:7; 2:3; 1 Peter 4:3).
Though drinking is allowable, Scripture clearly prohibits drunkenness and warns against a lifestyle of carousing, excessive drink (drunkenness) and excessive food (gluttony). There are also warnings that alcohol can bring callousness to relationships and leadership obligations, including failure to honor one’s obligations before God.
Our lifestyles are to honor Christ and thus our relationships should be marked with love, lifting up our brothers and not behaving in ways that disadvantage others or put others at risk of sin and failure. It suggests that alcohol may serve as a litmus test of faithfulness before God. While allowed, there is an expectation that alcohol’s consumption will be governed by Christian love and wisdom, in contrast to the way in which alcohol is often abused among the pagan. If one is to indulge, there must be governance that brings honor to God.
Yet scripturally, alcohol is not merely a personal choice. It was deeply embedded in the cult. Sinaic provisions included drink offerings of wine (Exodus 29:40; Leviticus 23:13; Numbers 6:20; 15:5-10; 28:14; 1 Chronicles 9:29) that were poured out upon an altar. Its use in cultic offerings supports the acceptability of drinking.
Yet during the time of a Nazarite vow of dedication, abstention from alcohol was a requirement (Numbers 6). Thus, though consumption of wine was allowed, during times of special dedication, it was among a list of forbidden items. Wine was also emblematic of joy and associated with God’s blessing, suggestive there was no constraint upon its consumption (Deuteronomy 7:13; 11:14; 29:6; Psalm 104:15; Proverbs 3:10; 9:2-5; Isaiah 25:6; 36:17; 55:1; 62:8; Jeremiah 31:12; Hosea 2:8, 22; 14:7; Joel 2:19, 24; 3:18; Amos 9:13-14; Zechariah 9:17; 10:7). The lack of wine also became emblematic of judgment (Isaiah 5:10; 16:10; 24:7-9; Jeremiah 48:33; Lamentations 2:12; Hosea 2:9; Amos 5:11; Micah 6:15; Hag 1:11). With so much symbolism associated with wine, one should expect prophetic symbolism.
Spiritual Symbolism of Wine and Drunkenness
Alcohol as a Symbol of Sin and Evil
Wine and drunkenness took on deep spiritual significance in eschatological passages. This deepened significance is hinted early. Consider Deuteronomy 32:32-33, in which God’s enemies are described in terms of a vine of Sodom from the fields of Gomorrah, that produce grapes “filled with poison, and their clusters with bitterness. Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras”. It points to their evil.
That the grapes are bitter, filled with poison and deadly, show how dangerous Israel’s opponents are, emphasizing the need for Israel to faithfully follow God’s covenant and be separate from the Canaanites. “Venom of serpents” points to Satanic influence of Israel’s enemies.
Psalm 60:3 provides another example, where unfaithful Israel is given “wine to make us stagger”, implying God would allow Israel to behave in ways indicative of drunkenness, staggering or perhaps falling into sin in her inebriated state. Psalm 75:8 provides similar imagery regarding the nations:
. . . in the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the very dregs” . . .
The fullness of God’s judgments upon the nations is seen in their drinking all the wine to the dregs. They will not escape judgment, nor will judgment be lessened. Wickedness is further described, “they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence” (Proverbs 4:17). Violence from imbibing wine is later applied to the harlot Babylon in Revelation.
The picture of drunkenness was also applied to false prophets, “be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer. The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep; He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers)” (Isaiah 29:9-10; cf. Isaiah 28:7; Micah 2:11; Moab, Jeremiah 48:26). Their judgment leaves them in spiritual darkness where they cannot foresee future events. It is a picture consistent with the perspective of a drunkard whose focus is upon the present moment without consideration of the future.
Finally, later eschatological passages apply drunkenness to Satanic end-time schemes, exemplified in the drunken harlot Babylon, envisioned riding the Satanic beast (Revelation 17:6-7).
Drunkenness as a Symbol of Idolatry
In prophetic books, Isaiah 1:21-22 indicts Jerusalem, “see how the faithful city has become a prostitute! . . . your choice wine is diluted with water”. Israel made a poor choice to pursue idolatry rather than God, envisioned in her choice of diluted wine rather than drinking the “choice wine”, which is God.
As drunkenness was a sin, so God’s enemies were envisioned as drunkards about to fall in judgment (so Egypt, Isaiah 19:14; the nations, Isaiah 24:20; Joel 3:3; Ephraim, Isaiah 28:1; Edom, Lamentations 4:21; Nineveh, Nahum 1:10). One wonders if the prophets were pointing to their sin of idolatry given drunkenness was applied to idolators (Hosea 4:11; 7:5, 14).
In paralleling drunkenness with idolatry, Hosea introduced a theme widely applied by later prophets who declared judgment upon idolators in Israel (Isaiah 51:17-23) and the nations (Isaiah 49:26; 51:17-23; 63:6; Jeremiah 25:15, 27; 51:7, 39, 57; Ezekiel 23:33; 39:19).
The language is graphic, likening idolators to those drunk on the blood of the righteous, or drunk on their own blood as a judgment in talion (Isaiah 49:26). They would drink the cup of God’s wrath, often to the dregs, bringing madness. Of particular note are judgments uttered upon Babylon, who was envisioned as having made the whole world drunk, bringing the full cup of God’s wrath (Jeremiah 51:7, 39, 57). The nations who drank of Babylon’s wine were described as having gone mad, heightening Babylon’s guilt before God. Her destruction, envisioned as the deep sleep of a drunkard, is compared with the sleep of death.
These passages provide the basis for Revelation and are thus of great import to eschatology. In a broader sense, the prophets broaden prohibitions upon drunkenness by refocusing Israel’s attention upon the greater sin of spiritual drunkenness. Given the typical behaviors of drunkards with their callous and indifferent hearts, the symbolism is unsurprising. The reckless behaviors of drunkards to their families and communities fits well with the idea of spiritual behaviors that are similarly reckless (idolatry) and immoral (failing to uphold one’s spiritual responsibilities to members of the community).
It brings a two-fold message regarding behavior of God’s people. Proper behavior demands that those who drink, drink responsibly and behave responsibly such that God is honored. Out of control drinking points to an out-of-control lifestyle lacking righteousness, moral responsibility and indifferent to the things of God, a subtle form of idolatry. Inherent in the indifference to God, is an unpreparedness for His return and consequent rewards and judgments to follow. These thematic concepts are employed by New Testament authors.
New Testament Symbolism of Wine and Drunkenness
Christ envisioned His coming kingdom as new wine that could not be put in old wineskins (Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37-39). The picture hints at Christ’s mission as a new creation, not a reformation of the existing Sinaic covenant. In preaching repentance, both the Baptist and Christ attempted to prepare the hearts of the people for the profound changes ahead. The callous response of the religious leadership was revealed in their accusation that Jesus was a drunkard and glutton (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34).[1]
In effect, the religious leadership proved themselves guilty of spiritual drunkenness through their unpreparedness, their abusiveness and their opposition to Jesus and His mission. Their mentality was easily leveraged to provide future warnings to religious overseers during Christ’s absence, who similarly might be callous, abusive and unprepared for Christ’s return, behaving as spiritual drunkards (Luke 12:45; 21:34).
The unpreparedness of the Jewish religious leadership can then be contrasted against appropriate Christian living, in which believers are encouraged to be filled with the Spirit rather than filled (drunk) with wine (Ephesians 5:18). The groundwork for these views is likely based in Acts 2:13 and 1 Samuel 1:13-15.
The call to be filled with the Spirit rather than wine moves from the physical (wine), to the spiritual (the Spirit). Consistent with Old Testament teachings, overseers were not to indulge in excess wine (1 Timothy 3:8) nor were older women to be addicted to excess wine (Titus 2:3). They were to behave in keeping with God’s Spirit, promoting righteousness and living lives prepared for Christ’s return.
Most important is John’s end-time “woman” whom he called Babylon, the mother of prostitutes. She is the false church, the eschatological community of pseudo-believers that represent unrepentant Oholibah. Her failure to repent leads to continuing spiritual debasement into the mother of harlots, Babylon.
John envisions her having “made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries” (Revelation 14:8). Following the description is an angelic warning “if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath” (14:9-10).
Inferred in the description is the cooperative relationship between the harlot and the beast. Further, her guilt is imbibing the nations in idolatrous behavior that is likened to drunkenness, consistent with the warnings of Old Testament prophets. John shows that proper Christian behavior is not limited to responsible, God-honoring consumption of alcohol, but includes the more important requirement to abstain from all idolatry and to remove oneself from the idolatrous false church (Figure 1).
Spiritual preparedness requires a singular focus upon Christ and His kingdom and thus, total separation from Babylon, the “city” that represents the world. Failure to separate oneself from the harlot brings the accompanying risk of joining the community and kingdom of the beast, from which one will “drink the wine of God’s fury . . . poured full strength into the cup of his wrath”.
John’s reveals the danger the harlot poses to the church. The wine she causes the nations to drink is “maddening” (Revelation 18:3). All spiritual sensitivity is lost. Her wine of idolatry is intoxicating (17:2). Those under its spell fail to spiritually see that they are drunk on the blood of the saints (17:6), having unwittingly become a proxy in the army of the beast.
Some within the church embrace the idolatrous wine the harlot offers, becoming persecutors of God’s elect. No wonder then that God “gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath” (16:19). They receive the cup of God’s wrath as a winepress from which their blood is tread (14:19-20; 19:15). Talion is seen in God’s judgment, blood for blood, ironically trampled outside the city, as Christ’s blood was shed outside Jerusalem.
Concluding Reflections
With all the warnings concerning wine and drunkenness, it is easy to lose sight of the deeper spiritual significance of wine and viniculture. That wine is first mentioned after the new creation is significant, intimating the joy and celebrations that should accompany new creation and the purgation of sin.
That Jesus’ first miracle turned water into wine (John 2:3-10), also indicates a new creation has come in Christ, and with it, great joy and celebration (Matthew 9:15). It suggests our lives should be marked with spiritual joy and celebration, as the new creation has come! Though Noah (and Adam) failed in their gardens, Jesus, the last Adam, has triumphed in His. It calls for joy and celebration.
That Jesus chose not to abstain from wine must be understood in this context. It stands in contrast to the testimony of John the Baptist, who was to abstain from wine (Luke 1:15). John’s ministry was “in the wilderness” (Matthew 3:1; Mark 1:4; Luke 3:2), a flag that the new exodus had begun, and the people must prepare their hearts for the promised great ingathering of the diaspora to the land.
A parallel is found in Deuteronomy 29:5-6, “during the forty years that I led you through the wilderness . . . you ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink”. It would seem then, that God’s command that John abstain from drinking wine, was to signal the start of a new exodus, a new period of forty-two years in the wilderness in exile, during which there would be no wine drinking. Old Testament passages on viniculture, wine drinking and wine offerings were always associated with the land, with a full grape harvest indicative of God’s blessing upon His people in the land.
During the time God’s people are envisioned on a new exodus in the wilderness (Hosea 2:14), there will be no wine drinking as signaled by John the Baptist. This view is enhanced by the statement of Christ in Matthew 26:29, “I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom”, pointing to Jesus’ crucifixion and death as the beginning of the final great exodus in death and ingathering of God’s people in resurrection. [2]
Jesus abstains from drinking wine until all His people are secure in the new land, God’s heavenly land. There is further enhancement in Christ’s refusal to drink wine mixed with gall/vinegar on the cross (Matthew 27:34, 48; Mark 15:36; Luke 23:36), which seems to follow the pattern of a Nazarite vow (Numbers 6:2-3), in which vinegar made from wine or fermented drinks was prohibited during the tenure of the vow.
Could it be that Jesus, after partaking of the Passover meal, took a vow of dedication, abstaining from alcohol, fermented drinks and wine mixed with vinegar? If so, is the duration of the vow until His Parousia? It hints at deep spiritual significance in His actions and those of the Baptist, emphasizing the importance of the new prophesied exodus.
A second important picture that should not be overlooked is Yahweh’s envisioning His people as a vine or vineyard. They were to be fruitful and bring forth a harvest of righteousness but became a deviant and unfruitful vine. In light of John’s envisioning of the eschatological destruction of God’s covenant-community, one wonders if Israel’s fruitfulness was intended to include martyrdom, but God’s people became deviant, instead bearing blood-guilt in martyring God’s elect (Revelation 17:6).
The judgment of treading out the winepress of God’s wrath against the harlot and beast communities would certainly be justifiable (19:15). If God’s intention was that His people glorify Him (and His Son) through martyrdom, (which one should expect would bring a great harvest), there could be nothing more deviant and unfruitful than persecution and blood-violence against His saints. A judgment of talion would naturally follow, in which the guilty would have their blood tread in the winepress of God’s wrath.
If this view is correct, it gives much for Christian reflection. While it is appropriate for Christians to carefully assure their behaviors are God-honoring with respect to alcohol consumption, the far greater sin is spiritual behavior that resembles the lifestyle of drunkards and celebrants. Avoidance of alcohol will not guarantee a life that is devoid of unrighteousness, nor a lifestyle devoid of blood-violence and idolatry. John’s warnings reveal the fruit of those who imbibe the pleasures of Babylon. It leads to spiritual inebriation that eventually leads to idolatry and blood-violence against God’s saints.
This seems to be the greater sin that John reveals in his employment of wine and drunkenness. Physical drunkenness is easily identified, but spiritual drunkenness is not. It brings spiritual madness that inverts one’s values, making them blind to their persecutions of God’s elect. Should not church leaders shift the emphasis of teaching to address the greater sin of spiritual drunkenness?
[1] The abusive attitude of the religious leaders must be considered against the background of Deuteronomy 21:18-21, where the rebellious “son” who was a glutton and drunkard, was brought to the elders at the public square to be stoned. It shows the entrenched rejection of Jesus by the religious leadership, who were attempting to convey Jesus as rebellious before the people when the rebelliousness was clearly in evidence in their lives. They were behaving as spiritual drunkards, in a deep state of drunken slumber.
[2] This view is also supported by scant mention of wine in the Gospels, seemingly anticipating the second exodus.