It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to crave strong drink,It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes to say, ‘Where is strong drink?’It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; Nor for princes to say, Where is strong drink?
3 sermons cite this verse
… You remember how in the 31st chapter of Proverbs... In verse 4, we read this, it's not for kings, O Lemuel, it's not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to desire strong drink, for they will drink and forget what is decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. People who have the well-being of a nation in their hands should not drink wine or strong drink. If somebody needs strong drink, give it to the one who is in such agony because he's in the throes of death, and wine to him whose life is bitter. Rulers shouldn't drink. When the angel announced to Zacharias the birth of John the Baptist, he said that he will drink, never drink wine, nor strong drink all his life. First Timothy 3.3, where it says about elders that they are not to be paraoinas, paraoinas, oinas, wine, para, alongside. If you're an elder, you can't be alongside wine. You can't settle down at the table to drink. for the same reason that a king can't drink, because he can't function with a distorted awareness. …
"Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that are of heavy heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." Proverbs 31:6, 7. THESE somewhat singular sentences were spoken by the mother of Lemuel to her son, who was probably Solomon. She had already said to him, "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." But such a king as Solomon must have had an abundant store of wine of all kinds, so his mother urged him to give it to the sick and the sad and the poor who needed it more than he did. The Jews were in the habit of giving a cup of strong drink, usually with some potent drug in it, to stupefy those who were about to be executed. Perhaps that is the meaning of the words, "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish." We know, too, how persons who have been very weak and ill, on the very borders of the grave, have often been medicinally relieved by wine given to them which they could not possibly purchase for themselves. I believe this is the literal meaning of the text and that if any man should be wicked enough to draw from it the inference that he would be able to forget his misery and poverty by drinking—he would soon find himself woefully mistaken, for if he had one misery before—he would have 10 miseries afterwards! And if he were previously poor, he would be in still greater poverty afterwards. Those who fly to the bottle for consolation might as soon fly to Hell to find a Heaven and, instead of helping them to forget their poverty, drunkenness would only sink them still more deeply in the mire! …
This hope, then, does not puff up and does not lead to licentiousness. You can see why it is so. Gratitude leads to holiness. Any man who feels, "God has saved me and I am on the way to being made like Christ"—if he is a man at all, (and he must be to feel that), will say, "Now that I owe all this to God, how can I show forth my gratitude to Him?" He would be a brute, he would be a devil, he would be 7,000 devils in one who would say, "God is doing all this for me and, therefore, I will continue in sin." Well did the Apostle say of such men that their damnation is just! But where there is the good hope of Heaven, the man naturally says, "O my Lord, have You loved me so much and have You provided such a glorious portion for me hereafter? Then I will obey You in everything! I will serve You with my whole heart and soul. Help me to run in the way of Your commandments." Such a man, when led of the Spirit, also feels that holiness is congruous to his expectations. He expects to be like Christ. Very well, then, he says, "I will try to be like Christ. If I am to be the possessor of a perfect nature, the most natural thing is that I should begin to seek after it now." If the Lord intends to make you heirs of immortality to dwell at His right hand, does it seem right that you should now live as others do? Suppose you know tonight (and I hope many of you do) that, before long, you will be at God's right hand—does it not seem a shameful thing that you should go and become a drunk, or that you should be dishonest? King Lemuel's mother said to him, "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink." And surely it is not for children of God to drink the wines of sin and go after the sweets of iniquity! It is not for princes of the blood imperial, descended from the King of kings, to play with the filthy lewdnesses of this time and with the sins of earth. Surely an angel would not stoop to become a carrion crow—neither can we suppose it congruous, nor does it appear seemly, that he who is brother to the Lord Jesus Christ and who is to dwell forever where Jesus is, should be found in the haunts of sin! The very natural fitness of things, under the blessing of God's Spirit, leads the child of God to purify himself, since he expects to be completely like Christ before long. …