It’s obvious in scripture that some wine is permissible to drink and other is not. This relates to alcohol. Scripture prohibits alcohol (Proverbs 23:29-35). However, all wine and strong drink is prohibited to the priesthood in the performance of their duties. I’m reading through the Bible twice this year and moving through it the first time, I arrived at Leviticus 10:8-11 earlier this week:
8 And the LORD spake unto Aaron, saying, 9 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: 10 And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; 11 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 was so important for Aaron and his sons not to be under the influence of alcohol that they were to take extra precautions by refraining from any wine or strong drink. What does drinking any alcohol do? If they were to be drinking alcohol of any amount, it would threaten their ability to do their job as a priest.
The drinking of alcohol could result in the execution of the priest by God like Nadab and Abihu were killed by God earlier in the chapter. God commands Aaron and his sons not to drink wine or strong drink, so that they would not be punished with death by God Himself. Leon Hyatt writes in his commentary on Leviticus:
Obeying this command would assure that they would not die for performing their duties incorrectly, but that assurance definitely implies that they would die if they disobeyed the command. The same stern penalty would result from disobedience to this command as from any other deviation from the instructions of Jehovah to the priests.
Refraining from alcohol would save the lives of the priests, but it would also enable them to “put difference between holy and unholy.” Drinking alcohol effects discernment. Any alcohol at all could impede a priest from discerning between what is unholy and holy. The mixing of the two is disastrous, a great offense to God, who is holy.
Lastly, abstaining from alcohol was a necessity to ensure the priest might teach the children of Israel all of God’s statutes, part of the job of the priest. God is saying that alcohol would get in the way of doing that. The passage doesn’t say “alcohol,” but since wine and strong drink could become alcoholic, the priest in his role could not even drink what might be non-alcoholic out of safety for not being influenced by alcohol in a detrimental way in his duties.
Is there a priesthood today? Every believer is a priest before God, the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer. Usually people like to focus on the benefits of being a priest, but not the responsibilities. If we look to the example of the Old Testament priest for lessons on the New Testament priesthood of the believer, we should acknowledge that the responsibilities outweigh the benefits. The responsibility should be the focus. We never stop our priestly duties.
Today we know when a beverage is alcoholic, because it is plainly labeled. No believer should drink alcohol. It impairs him from his duties. He loses discernment for what is holy and unholy. Alcohol results in a multitude of unholy thoughts, motives, and actions. It keeps a believer from being filled with the Spirit. The Apostle Paul commanded, be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess. Excess is riotousness. The wine possesses or contains riotousness. When it is alcoholic it is riotous. That is seen in Proverbs 23:29-35.
Our entire nation prohibited alcohol at one time for believers and unbelievers. Now professing believers advocate for and promote alcohol, serving it themselves. Habakkuk 2:15 warns:
Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!
Professing believers attempt to attract unbelievers and accommodate them by serving them alcohol, this sin a way to fit in. I’ve read recently of a group of professing believers bringing people over on the Lord’s Day and serving mimosas for brunch. God gave the threat of death to Aaron and his sons for drinking alcohol. Habakkuk directs a “woe,” a severe judgment from God toward those who serve it to others. Do not mock God by ignoring, rebelling against, or scorning what He says about this.
Alexander MacLaren writes on this passage:
Nothing has more power to blur the sharpness of moral and religious insight than even a small amount of alcohol. God must be worshipped with clear brain and naturally beating heart. Not the fumes of wine, in which there lurks almost necessarily the tendency to ‘excess,’ but the being ‘filled with the Spirit’ supplies the only legitimate stimulus to devotion. Besides the personal reason for abstinence, there was another,-namely, that only so could the priests teach the people ‘the statutes’ of Jehovah. Lips stained from the wine-cup would not be fit to speak holy words. Words spoken by such would carry no power. God’s servants can never impress on the sluggish conscience of society their solemn messages from God, unless they are conspicuously free from self-indulgence, and show by their example the gulf, wide as between heaven and hell, which parts cleanness from uncleanness. Our lives must witness to the eternal distinction between good and evil, if we are to draw men to ‘abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good.’
Both the Hebrew and Greek words for wine in the Old and New Testaments are permissible for drinking, except when they are alcoholic. Drinking becomes impermissible is when the beverage is alcoholic. In that day, one didn’t know exactly to what degree a product of the vine or the tree was alcoholic. One had to be careful at all times, but the priest couldn’t drink it at all. It was forbidden, because if it was alcoholic, it would impair judgment necessary in the most important work in the world, the worship of God.
I wanted to see what it was like to comment on this blog. It’s pretty easy.
Thank you for this.
Is it possible to know from Scripture what strong drink is? Is it the boiled down syrup made from grape juice, or is it a drink made from grains? I’ve run across people who think it is a hard liquor kind of drink. I’d like to learn why it is called “strong” drink.
Priscilla,
It’s a good question. Most of the time, shakar, the Hebrew word translated “strong drink” is alcoholic in its usage, to the point where you would think that it is speaking of alcoholic drink. “Wine,” however, is also sometimes alcoholic. If it was just a word for alcohol, it would “wine and strong drink” or alcohol and alcohol. Yayin (“wine”0 comes from grapes and shakar (“strong drink”) comes from grains and other fruits. There was no distillation process at the time, so there was no alcohol in the sense that we have today. Anything directly made from grain and fruit wouldn’t be alcoholic. It would turn so through a fermentation process.
There was no “hard liquor” in Bible times, because the distillation process didn’t come until later. In scripture shakar is usually alcoholic, to the point where the verb form was used for drunkenness. In a few instances, it wasn’t alcoholic drink in the OT. I believe Genesis 43:34 and Numbers 28:7.
Thank you, this is all very helpful.
Another question. Strong’s Concordance says shekar means “intensely alcoholic.” Somewhere I heard that a person has to be careful which lexicon to use. Do you have a recommendation?
Also, my husband is asking for books with parsing of Hebrew and Greek based on the texts underlying the King James Version. (I don’t know if I’m asking that right. I hope you know what I mean.)
Priscilla,
Strong’s Concordance gives something very basic and the word shakar does mean a drink from which someone could become drunken in most of its usages, so Strong’s isn’t wrong. It’s more complicated than that. It’s worth reading the following:
https://kentbrandenburg.blogspot.com/2009/08/debate-over-prohibition-of-alcoholic_12.html
There are several books that parse and locate every word in the underlying text and some of them are online. Look for a book, called a “parsing guide to the NT.” That language will find things.
Thank you so much.