“Its drink offering is to be one-quarter hin for one lamb; in the Holy Place you are to pour out a drink offering of intoxicating liquor to Adonai. The other lamb you are to present at dusk; present it with the same kind of grain offering and drink offering as in the morning; it is an offering made by fire, with a fragrant aroma for Adonai.”-Numbers 28:7-8
Okay, today I’m about to explode a mistaken stereotype the gentile church has been promoting for just too dang long now.
Have you ever been taught that the Biblical wine used by the Temple Priests was actually grape juice?
Well, that’s just a bunch of hogwash.
The Hebrew word for wine is YAYIN.
And you know what?
That’s exactly what the word means, it means wine man.
And although it was relatively low in alcohol content, it was still an alcoholic drink.
It was used for BOTH some of the priestly rituals and as a nice beverage to have alongside meals.
Now there is another specific word used to refer to a STRONG alcoholic drink.
That Hebrew word is SHEKHAR.
For example, a Tequila Sunrise extra strong would qualify as being SHEKHAR.
The Complete Jewish Bible is right on in rendering SHEKHAR as “intoxicating liquor“.
Basically, SHEKHAR can refer to any strong alcoholic drink concoction with a significantly high level of alcohol content in it and definitely much stronger than YAYIN.
Strong beer or ale made from grains would also be considered SHEKHAR.
“Old wine” meaning wine that was left to ferment longer than usual would also be considered SHEKHAR.
As we can see clearly from verse 7, this SHEKHAR or “intoxicating liquor” was actually authorized by God Himself to be used twice daily in the TAMID (burnt offerings).
This is downright interesting.
What we learn from this is that both YAYIN (regular table wine) and SHEKHAR (strong drink) were authorized by HASHEM to be used in the sacred rituals.
And by the way, just in case you were wondering.
The SHEKHAR used in the rituals was ONLY “old wine“.
It wasn’t anything like strong beer or grain-based drinks.
How do I know this?
Because according to Torah, ONLY GRAPES ARE USED AS THE SOURCE FOR THIS KIND OF FERMENTED DRINK OFFERING!!!
Also, grape-based YAYIN and SHEKHAR symbolized joy before the Lord.
Finally, here’s another interesting fact about wine drinking that most people aren’t aware of.
You might find this tidbit of information to be quite mind blowing actually.
Well, here it is.
The priests were NOT forbidden from drinking YAYIN or table wine right before they began their Temple duties.
Yup, you read that right.
And let me say it again.
The priests were NOT prohibited from drinking YAYIN, a light alcoholic drink before engaging in their Temple duties.
However, they were prohibited from drinking SHEKHAR (the stronger alcoholic drink) while on duty.
And any Hebrew laymen who took the Nazarite vow was forbidden from drinking both YAYIN and SHEKHAR during the period of their vow.
So the gentile church is WRONG on two accounts.
First, that the Biblical wine was really just grape juice.
Second, that the priests were forbidden from drinking at all.
I’m done.
Leviticus 10:9 (NIV) “You and your sons are not to drink wine (yayin) or other fermented drink (sekar) whenever you go into the tent of meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come,
Actually they were but only when serving in the tabernacle.
True. Notice the title of this article: “The Priests Were NOT Forbidden From Drinking Alcohol BEFORE Going On Duty”.
Be blessed!
Levitical Priests were forbidden from drinking in the Temple like Leviticus 10:9. The strong wine had high alcohol content and they would pour it upon the sacrifice to make the fire hotter and give a sweat smell. It has both a practical and prophetic effect. It is not something they would drink. Unused temple wine was poured upon the ground.