Our series is dealing with the United States in Biblical prophecy. We are looking at this out of the book of Isaiah.

Last time, we looked at the first of six woes mentioned in Isaiah: covetousness. Today we will look at the second woe.

The Six Woes of Isaiah: Woe #2 – Drunkenness

It’s interesting that of the six woes, this one God has more to say about than the others. We will look at Isaiah 5:11-17 passage by passage.

Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink, who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them! Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine; but they do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord, nor do they consider the work of His hands. –Isaiah 5:11-12.

The intention of this verse is to paint a picture of national drunkenness, with the goal being constant intoxication. Don’t think the United States is focused on alcohol? Watch the Super Bowl coming up in a few weeks and count the beer commercials!

A few alcoholism stats as they related to drunk driving:

• According to drunk driving statistics from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an estimated 17,419 people died in the year 2002 in alcohol-related traffic crashes, an average of one every 30 minutes.
• About three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives.
• Alcohol-related fatalities are caused primarily by the consumption of beer (80 percent) followed by liquor/wine at 20 percent.
• Drunk driving is the nation’s most frequently committed violent crime, killing someone every 30 minutes.

Related to the family:

• About 43% of U.S. adults — 76 million people — have been exposed to alcoholism in the family — they grew up with or married an alcoholic or a problem drinker or had a blood relative who was an alcoholic or problem drinker.
• An estimated 6.6 million children under 18 live in households with at least one alcoholic parent.
• About 43% of adults in the US (76 million people) have had a parent, child, sibling or spouse who is or was an alcoholic.

The issue God identifies as the root of all this is that when you are seeking to get drunk, you “do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord, nor … consider the work of His hands.”

Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude is parched with thirst. –Isaiah 5:13.

The middle part of this verse says that the glory of the people are “men of famine.” How many of us idolize those who have a reputation for drunkenness and carousing.

The first part of the passage echos Hosea:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. –Hosea 4:6.

What is this “knowledge” that God is speaking of? He tells us, also in Hosea:

Because there is no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land. –Hosea 4:1. (Emphasis mine.)

In the United States, the church is mostly accountable for this. If the church has failed to be salt and light to a dying world, then God will hold us accountable!

Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure; and Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it. –Isaiah 5:14.

“Sheol” is the grave. Sometimes referred to as “hell,” but the “grave” is a better translation. The thought here is that drunkenness leads to death. It’s a picture of the intoxicated gleefully skipping down the road to the grave, laughing all the way. But the laughter will soon end.

So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased, the eyes of the proud also will be abased. But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness. Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy. –Isaiah 5:15-17.

If there is one thing that God hates it’s pride. Worse, is a prideful drunk! So while the party may be going on now, someday God will have to judge the sin. God will be exalted in the end, to the abasement of the “man of importance” and the “eyes of the proud.”

The bottom line question is: can anything good come out of drinking to excess? Can anything good come out of the desire to get drunk?

What’s Next?

In the next installment, we will look at the third woe: the blasphemous act of parading and flaunting sin!

May He Increase!