The Bible on use of alcohol.

I have answered arguments thus far about alcoholic wine, but haven't made any arguments that are my own. So, I would like to go through the Bible and note some places where alcoholic wine is mentioned, sometimes encouraged, and where it seems there is no condemnation of its use in moderation. 

Let's look at the word "Yayin". "Yayin" refers to fermented, alcoholic wine specifically. If you wanted to refer to grape juice, you would call it `asis or `asis `anavim. And the people didn't go around drinking grape juice all the time.  In the following verses, Yayin is the word used for wine. I am not going to write all of the verses down here so you might want to have your bible ready. My intention is to show that it was part of their culture and was not something that was always abused or even frowned upon in moderation. 

First, let's look at ...

GENESIS 14:18 and forward. The high priest, Melchizedek, brings out Yayin and begins blessing the Lord before serving it. In this passage you have the high priest of God offering it, and this is the first time he is even mentioned in the Bible. There is also no indication that he did anything wrong. He seems to be in good standing with God. There is no way to twist this into anything other than him serving alcohol and God being okay with it without losing some integrity. 

GENESIS 27:34- Here Isaac drinks fermented wine as he passes on the blessing to his son. A time of celebration marked by wine. 

LEVITICUS 23:13 (also in Numbers 15 and 28) - Here alcoholic wine is offered to God. Take from that what you will. 

NUMBERS 6:20- after this was offered to God it was made clean. Normally, a Nazarite was not allowed to drink wine, but after this ceremony, even a Nazarite was allowed and blessed by God to drink alcoholic wine. 

DEUTERONOMY 14:26 - This is a great passage to read if you are interested in tithing, but here Israelites are encouraged to use their money for what they desire. Wine is specifically mentioned along-side strong drink.  This is another passage that you really have to have an agenda to deny that God condones drinking alcohol, in this case, even liquor. 

-->aside. I find Judges 13:4 interesting because it's the first command not to drink alcohol while pregnant. 

NEHEMIAH 2 beginning- Nehemiah, a man of God, serves artaxerxes wine. When he does, this begins the conversation that ended with the rebuilding of Jerusalem. 

JOB 1:13- Job's sons were eating and drinking wine in the eldest son's house as was customary and not condemned. 

PROVERBS 31:6 - here there is an encouragement to give wine to people who are sorrowing. Proverbs is a book full of warnings against wine, saying that it is not for kings to drink, but here it actually gives an encouragement to give wine to a sorrowing friend. 

ECCLESTIASTES 9:7 - Here Solomon gives an admonition to be happy and go drink your wine! 

SONG OF SOLOMON 5:1- Here Solomon does the same, but says that he is participating and even encourages people to drink abundantly. 

LAMENTATIONS 2:2 - I point this out because wine is always a symbol for joy and merrymaking. You won't find any of that in Lamentations. 

I'll look at some NT passages at another time.