We are told here in this scripture that Daniel refused to drink the king’s wine. But we aren’t specifically told the reason. As to his refusal to eat the king’s food, we can make some educated guesses. The meat was probably dedicated to the king’s idol gods when it was slaughtered. Some of it probably came from foods expressly forbidden to Israel, as a testimony to their unique relationship to the Lord. And then most likely Daniel probably felt that some of it was simply unhealthy. But then as to the wine, we are forced to make other guesses, because the food arguments don’t apply. For example, I have never heard it argued that wine was ever dedicated to idols. And despite the variety of sources for wine, I’ve never heard that it came from forbidden fruit. Ah, but what about the third argument – that it was unhealthy?
Let me begin in the same way that I began my message last summer. It is a difficult thing to absolutely condemn the drinking of wine, using only what the Bible says. But that is what I will try to do this evening. It is a difficult thing, but not impossible, especially when speaking to people who are the children of God. The drinking of wine and other alcohols does not appear to be explicitly condemned, and in fact it seems to be encouraged under certain conditions. But that doesn’t mean that the use of wine is generally encouraged.
I have not knowingly consumed a full swallow of any alcohol since early in my Christian life. The only possible exception might be some forms of it hidden in medicine, or as used by cooks, without my knowledge, in a restaurant or two. And my refusal to buy, drink or use alcohol is directly linked to my relationship to Christ. You could say that I am “fully persuaded in my own mind” that I should not drink that stuff. But more than this, I am convinced that no Christian should use alcohol.
And of course, I am not talking about drunkenness. There is no controversy about the evils and sinfulness of drunkenness. Both testaments are crystal clear about this point. “Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!” – Isaiah 5:11. “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness” – Romans 13:13. I Corinthians 6 tells us that drunkards are as rare in Heaven as fish on the moon. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” “Be not drunk with wine” – Ephesians 5:18. Drinking wine and other forms of alcohol is not the same as drunkenness, but there IS only one way to become drunk or to become a drunkard, and it begins with a simple sip. Refuse that sip, and I guarantee that you’ll never be drunk – you will never become a drunkard – you will never become an alcoholic. Despite other arguments – medical and social, I believe that God does have laws against alcohol. In fact it might be said that abstinence embodies the spirit of the Kingdom of God. And Daniel seems to imbibe of that particular spirit. As I suggested last week, it appears to me that Daniel refused the king’s meat because he had been taught the Word of God as a child. I think that it might be said that he refused the king’s wine for the same reason – God’s Word.
The second record of drunkenness in the Bible is recorded in Genesis 19:30-38. In this case Lot and his two daughters had been delivered from Sodom before its destruction. Wine was involved in the debauchery of Lot’s daughters. Remember that Daniel is in a very ungodly and immoral situation – perhaps not much unlike Sodom. He had little control over his life, and didn’t know what would happen to him next. He didn’t want to become a victim, and one step in his self-preservation was to make sure that he never lost control of his heart and mind through alcohol. If we want to stay in control of ourselves, the lesson is obvious – avoid mind-bending drugs, including alcohol.
One of strangest of all stupidities is the use of alcohol by decision-makers, like congressmen and senators. Alliances are made and finalized over drinks; decisions are made over drinks; lives are changed over drink. And such was the case when Isaac wanted to bless his elder son Esau. Yes, he was elderly and blind, but he was also intoxicated to some degree, when he thought that he had his hand upon Esau, while it was actually his conniving son Jacob. Isaac demanded some fine venison for supper, but Jacob made a substitution. “And he brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank.” How much of the success of that deception was dependent upon the wine that Isaac drank? It has been clearly proven that every drop of alcohol, not only kills the ability to think clearly at the moment, but it also permanently lessens the abilities of the mind for the future. Daniel was a very intelligent young man, and he wanted to become even smarter and wiser. As such his abstinence from alcohol and wine was a part of his self-discipline.
We aren’t really sure about Daniel’s parents and lineage. He might have been a nephew of king Jehoiakim, or not directly related to him at all. He might have been of the tribe of Judah, as were most of the people of Jerusalem, or he might have been a son of a priest or Levites, who had fled to Jerusalem for protection from the attacking Chaldeans. I suppose that it doesn’t really matter as far as why his father and mother taught him Leviticus 10:9-11. But they did teach him these verses – “And the LORD spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.” It may be unlikely that Daniel was the son of a priest, or that he would ever minister in the tabernacle. But he was a child of God, and he was commanded to put a difference between the holy and the unholy. According to Leviticus 10 – the abstinence from alcohol was a part of making that distinction. And it is for the same reason that you and I should not drink wine or strong drink.
Numbers 6:3 describes the vow and the characteristics of the Nazarite. Now, Daniel wasn’t a Nazarite in the exact definition of the term. But under the circumstances of his captivity, and his desire to serve and glorify the Lord, he may have pictured himself as a Nazarite to some degree. He had dedicated himself to the glory of his God. And if abstinence from wine was a requirement for those people, then it was good enough for him. Again, we are not unlike Nazarites ourselves – alcohol should be as foreign to us as Tagalog or Swahili.
Daniel knew these scriptures, and they were at the root of his decision to refuse the king’s wine. In Deuteronomy 21 there is a very sad and very serious law given to all Israel. We don’t have any record that it was ever expressly carried out, but it could have been. “If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.” Please notice that drunkenness was considered to be a major part of this rebellious and stubborn heart. Sometimes the alcohol flows in after the rebelliousness and waywardness have taken control. But sometimes drunkenness precedes the actual attack upon that parental authority. In either case, we can see its evil influence, and Daniel saw it too.
In our modern society, with all its medicine and science, expecting mothers are warned not to eat and drink certain things, lest they somehow cripple their unborn children. I believe the plague that we have in our world today with various kinds of sick babies is due in part to women’s refusal to heed the warnings of the experts. In Judges 13 we read of a woman, the wife of one Manoah, who was told by an angel that she was going to give birth to a very special son. This child would be Samson – one of the great Judges of Israel. “And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, & drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing…” Perhaps Daniel refused the king’s wine because in many ways it is unhealthy and dangerous.
Without a doubt Daniel had been taught the multi-faceted history of King David. He probably knew about David’s debate with the fool Nabal, and the awful murder that was avoided. When David sent to Nabal asking for some assistance and recognition of the protection that he had given to the flocks of the wealthy man, Nabal spurned the future king of Israel. And the scripture says that it was while he was in a drunken stupor that he proved to be such a fool. He had already completely lost the respect of his wife, and he nearly lost his life because of his drinking. And “it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.” How much did the alcohol contribute to Nabal’s death? Daniel wanted none of this either.
Later in David’s life, after his sin with Bathsheba, David found himself in a terrible pickle barrel. Even though the Bible says nothing about this, I wonder how much wine was involved with David’s sin with the wife of Uriah. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was unfit to drive his chariot that night. But then as David tried to cover his sin, he did his best to make Uriah loose his self-control by deliberately getting him drunk. Unfortunately for David, it appears that the man merely passed out. Two chapters later (II Samuel 13), Amon the son of David was murdered by his brother in a drunken brawl. Do you suppose that after all the rich meals, and heavy drinking, the boys in Babylon got into some drunken scuffles? Daniel wanted no part of that either. And as a bright young man, he had probably learned the history of his nation. He knew that there were several kings of Israel who had been murdered by either friends or enemies while they were drunk.
Of course, the Book of Proverbs was put together under the direction of King Solomon. Daniel knew that it was replete with warnings about wine, alcohol and drunkenness. He knew that before anyone could get drunk they would have to drink. He wanted to make sure that he’d never be drunk by making sure that he never drank the king’s wine. Proverbs 4:17 reminds us that violence often results from drinking. “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” Daniel was a man of the light and he certainly didn’t want to stumble. He possessed a certain degree of wisdom and he wanted to maintain it, so he didn’t drink. “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” Proverbs declares that drinking is a road that leads to poverty. It produces sorrow, unnecessary contentions and wounds where there shouldn’t be any. Daniel’s Bible even warns about the buzz and excitement that it sometimes brings. The thrill that it provides is not worth all its problems. “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”
Of course Daniel, never expected to become a king or prince in his own nation. But neither did he know what it was that the Lord had in store for him. Actually, he really did become a great prince, and therefore Proverb 31, which his mother undoubtedly taught him, really did come into play in his life. “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.” Daniel was in a difficult situation knowing the truth and being taught many untruths. He didn’t want to loose the ability to distinguish between the two. He owed it to himself never to dull his mind with alcohol or drugs. He knew that Solomon, who lived in a palace at least as luxurious as the one that he was in, had the opportunity to indulge in an almost unending parade of vices. He also knew that Solomon had tried liquor, but had to admit it wasn’t worth all the hype which television ads had given it.
Perhaps Daniel knew of his strange neighbors back in Judah – the Rechabites. He had probably heard of Jeremiah, and may have known of the prophet’s relationship to them. These “weird” people refused to drink wine – imagine that. “The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying, Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink. Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites; And I brought them into the house of the LORD…. And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine. But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever: Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters; Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians: so we dwell at Jerusalem.” Jeremiah was then commanded to use the Rechabites as an illustration of faithfulness and self-restraint. They had obeyed their earthly father Jonadab for years, but Israel refused to obey their heavenly Father. Daniel may have known some of these people and admired them. He too refused to drink wine; was that something that his father had commanded him?
Nearly a century before Jeremiah, the prophet Isaiah condemned drunkenness and wine. “Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!” “Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink.” Daniel knew that before someone became an alcoholic, drinking wine before breakfast, they had to begin with that very first cup of the king’s wine. He was not going to become one of them. Isaiah said, “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 judgment.” Daniel didn’t want to be one of those people.