Battle of the Boozer

It is not for kings, O Lemuel - not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.
Proverbs 31:4-5 NIV Ryrie Study Bible

Few would argue that it is not good to drink alcohol too much or too often. In fact, most people would agree that over indulgence of alcohol is pretty unwise for anyone not just a king. Interesting though, that chronic drinking seems to be looked over pretty regularly by women when seeking out a mate. Nearly 38 percent of divorced or separated women were married to alcoholics while a small 12 percent were currently married to an alcoholic. It doesn't take a statistician to figure out that alcohol can certainly ruin a marriage.

I don't think that Lemuel's mother was knocking anyone for the occasional glass of wine. What I think she was stressing is the regular consumption that would cause one to start craving. One of the risks one takes in this kind of behavior is just that. A craving or a yearning to continue to indulge, to partake more often and to have more every time. Any recovering alcoholic will tell you that the craving for alcohol drove them to the brink of madness. They felt as though they were unable to resist. This is probably one of the most demoralizing situations one can face. The craving can drive one to miss work, not follow through on committments, lie, cheat and worse. The craver doesn't seem to understand that they don't have to give in to the craving. The craving controls the person. You can sustitute alcohol in this passage for any other thing that controls your thoughts and feelings to the point of being driven to satisfy it. This is the kind of thing that will ruin you, me and yes, a king.

I know this first hand. My craving for food did exactly what is described. The craving or obsession with food and eating not only caused a significant weight gain but along with it came the hidden drive to always want to be alone, so that I could fulfill my need to eat whenever I wanted to and without anyone impeding my insatiable appetite. I never wanted to be without food if at all possible.

I didn't get that way overnight. No one ever does. Isn't that always the way with sin? Sin seems to be that trickling brook in the mountains, bubbling and streaming down. Small enough to step over, hardly making a splash as you pass. But the water gains speed. With speed, more water. Rapidly it gains down the mountain and other streams join it. Now you can't step over and you have to be careful crossing so you don't fall in. The little brook is now a river. Not too much further down the mountain now, you couldn't cross the river if you tried. Not only could you fall in but you could be killed if you got your foot caught on a rock trying. The flow of the water would instantly take you to the bottom and hold you down.

The problem with addiction is that no one wants to be an addict and no one wants to ruin their life with an addiction. It just happens so some and one never knows who that someone is until it is too late. So sad, you have to be in it to know and when you know it's already too late.

The Lord warns us many times in scripture to just not 'go there' with alcohol. In fact, he warns us about participation with those who drink too much as well. Proverbs 23:20-21 says "Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.*

Ladies, if being married or courting a man who overindulges doesn't seem to be too bad a fate let me fill you in on a few more statistics from the National Institute On Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Studies in the general population indicate that fewer women than men drink. It is estimated that of the 15.1 million alcohol-abusing or alcohol-dependent individuals in the United States, approximately 4.6 million (nearly one-third) are women (1). On the whole, women who drink consume less alcohol and have fewer alcohol-related problems and dependence symptoms than men (2,3), yet among the heaviest drinkers, women equal or surpass men in the number of problems that result from their drinking (3). Drinking behavior differs with the age, life role, and marital status of women. In general, a woman's drinking resembles that of her husband, siblings, or close friends (3). Whereas younger women (aged 18-34) report higher rates of drinking-related problems than do older women (3,4), the incidence of alcohol dependence is greater among middle-aged women (aged 35-49) (5).

The data proves that God is not kidding when he speaks out about drunkeness and keeping company with drunkards. If his word were not enough, he has the data that proves it!