Episode Transcript
Carey Griffel: Welcome to Genesis Marks the Spot where we raid the ivory tower of biblical theology without ransacking our faith. My name is Carey Griffel, and welcome to another follow on episode from the last one I was just doing. Now for this one, I don't think you actually have to have listened to my last episode, but when we were talking about Noah and his drunkenness, I really didn't have time to get into the broader theme of alcohol through scripture, so I figured it was worth doing that now. And actually this is going to end up being a bit of a mini series because there are several things we have to talk about in regards to wine and alcohol and the way that the Bible uses that imagery.
[00:00:54] It's actually quite interesting because it's such a concrete thing. It's something that is so embedded in human society that it's kind of just this normal thing, right? And so it's one of those things where we might be missing the context that the Bible is presenting it as because it's very particular in some specific ways.
[00:01:18] So last time we talked about Noah and we talked about the creative and social purposes of wine and why he may have been a successful Adam and not a fallen one. And so we're going to continue that theme today. We're gonna trace the positive and joyful thread of wine through the Bible. What does scripture really say about wine as gift and how is it used? What does it mean? Why does God include it in his vision of blessing and worship?
[00:01:53] Now, this might seem on one hand, like a bit of a boring episode, like one of those fluffy feel good Christianese type of subjects where we're talking about blessing and flourishing and things like that, which are all things we like. But if you talk a little bit too much about that, it doesn't really relate to our lives in a way that really feels real. And that can be a problem. And that is also why I think it's good to have a concrete image of this blessing and flourishing.
[00:02:28] It's also the case that, honestly, as important an element as this is when we take the wine and the cup at the meal with our fellow believers, we aren't always thinking of the monumental impact and meaning that this seemingly normal act has. So I think it's worth a bit of effort to really dig into it a little bit of time to focus on that.
[00:02:54] But even in this episode, we're not gonna be able to avoid talking about judgment in regards to wine, which is a really important aspect itself. And we'll be getting into some interesting things like tithing and imagery of trees and cedars and why and how the Bible uses those.
[00:03:16] This episode is going to be part of at least a trilogy of episodes. Today we're talking about joy and the positive aspect of wine. Then we're gonna get into the cup of wrath, and that's the one you might be really interested in. Why does the Bible use wine and a cup as an imagery of wrath?
[00:03:38] Then we will also get into things like Covenant and the New Testament aspect of things as well as flowing that into the church and what it means for us.
[00:03:49] Now, we have to remember that we should never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line. But in the Bible, wine isn't always about death. More often, it is actually about life, joy and a table where God himself invites us to a feast. Now we are going to have to choose wisely, but not between poisoned goblets, but between joy twisted and joy rightly received.
[00:04:22] So let's talk about the terminology again. We kind of touched on that last time. Let's talk a little bit more about it. We have the Hebrew term shakar, which is often translated as strong drink. It's usually used in parallel with wine. Scholars think that this was probably typically higher in potency and most often was palm or date wine, although of course it could be beer or some other drink that came from grain. Numbers 28 7 is the only place where strong drink is not paralleled or coupled with wine.
[00:05:03] So we have wine, which is of course from grapes, and we have strong drink, which has to be made from something other than grapes. We know that shakar was intoxicating, and we know that because of the etymology of the word, because it's associated with the word to be drunk or the word drunkard or drunkenness. We see its effects described, and then we have places like in First Samuel with Hannah, who is defending herself against the charge of being drunk by saying she has drunk neither wine nor strong drink.
[00:05:42] It is possible that shakar was the original term for an intoxicating drink and it didn't have to do with any kind of specific material. So it might have included the idea of wine. So probably in Numbers 28, 7 it might actually be referencing wine even though it is using this particular term.
[00:06:04] Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible says about strong drink, quote, " Any intoxicating liquor. It was forbidden to Levites who were entering the tent of meeting, to those taking the Nazarite vow, to kings and rulers, and to John the Baptist. The writer of Proverbs 20 verse one suggests that the wise man does not become intoxicated by it. Isaiah pronounces woe on those addicted to it, in Isaiah five 11 and 22. Strong drink was used as a libation in the Levitical sacrifice, according to numbers 28, 7, and was permitted in the menu of the feast at the time of tithing in Deuteronomy 1426." End quote.
[00:06:54] Now we'll be talking a lot more about that one there at the end, but it's interesting because in Numbers 28, 7, which is the only place it's not paralleled with wine, again, if it is an earlier term that encompassed all kinds of ferment ed drink, then numbers. 28 7 might still be talking about wine specifically in the sacrifice.
[00:07:17] Okay, so then we have the term yayin, which is the most common term for wine, and it is indeed always fermented.
[00:07:26] Reading, again, from Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, it says, quote, " The word wine may be identified with the words for vine, vineyard, black grapes, and so forth. The vine, which brings forth the wine, was often identified in the near Eastern world with the tree of life. In both Egypt and Mesopotamia, a goddess was thought to protect the vine, the mistress of the heavenly tree of life. The goddess Sirius lived in the mountains of northwestern Assyria. Enoch 32 4 calls the vine the tree of knowledge. According to Jewish tradition, the vine was saved from the flood by Noah." End quote.
[00:08:14] All right, so that quote from first Enoch is quite interesting. Let's go ahead and read that. Enoch 32 verse three says, quote, " And I came to the garden of righteousness and saw beyond those trees, many other large ones growing there. Their fragrance sweet, large ones with much elegance and glorious. And the tree of wisdom of which one eats and knows great wisdom was among them. It looked like the colors of the carob tree. Its fruit like very beautiful grape clusters. And the fragrance of this tree travels and reaches afar. And I said, this tree is beautiful and its appearance beautiful and pleasant. Then the holy angel Raphael, who was with me, responded to me and said, this very thing is the tree of wisdom from which your old father and aged mother, they who are your precursors, ate and came to know wisdom. And consequently their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked and so they were expelled from the garden." End quote.
[00:09:23] That will probably have a little bit of an interesting connection when we go into the concept of the cup of wrath.
[00:09:31] But the third term that is translated as wine. Is tirosh, and in fact, it's usually translated as new wine. Now, some people will say that new wine is not fermented, and that new wine is in fact just grape juice.
[00:09:50] That's not the case though, because we see in Hosea 4 11 where both wine and new wine take away the understanding or literally take away heart. So they both get people drunk.
[00:10:06] The new Bible dictionary says, quote, " The term new wine does not indicate wine which has not fermented. For, in fact, the process of fermentation sets in very rapidly. An unfermented wine could not be available many months after the harvest, like in Acts two 13. It represents, rather, wine made from the first drippings of the juice before the wine press was trodden. As such, it would be particularly potent and would come immediately to mind as a probable explanation of what seemed to be a drunken state." End quote.
[00:10:47] Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible says, quote, " Few would question that at least some wine in the Old Testament was fermented. Some scholars argue, however, that certain forms of wine in the ancient world were unfermented. They contrast two Hebrew words for wine, concluding that one particular Hebrew word, which refers to fresh wine, meant only grape juice. The inconclusiveness of these arguments may be seen from the following points. One. The Hebrew word is found in primarily neutral contexts. Two. Often that particular word is found in context definitely including a fermented beverage. Three. The Ugaritic parallel to the term in question refers with certainty to a fermented wine. Four. The Septuagint's equivalents refer to fermented wine. Five. Fermentation in the ancient near East, unlike Greece, took only about three days. And six. The Mishna provides no such evidence of the practice of having unfermented wine. There seems to have been no attempts to preserve wine in an unfermented state. It may have been a near impossible task. A careful examination of all the Hebrew words as well as their Semitic cognates, and the Greek words for wine demonstrates that the ancients knew little, if anything, about unfermented wine." End quote.
[00:12:24] Now, a couple of other terms that we can toss in here with our terminology is sweet wine and sour wine.
[00:12:32] The term for sweet wine is just a word that is attached to the word wine, so it's probably just a particular type of wine, possibly wine from pomegranates.
[00:12:44] Now, sour wine is turned, and it's more like vinegar. Vinegar was used for seasoning foods and pickling vegetables, but also as an inferior drink and as medicine. The wine mentioned in Ruth two 14 is vinegar. Vinegar could be deliberately produced by encouraging extra fermentation of new wine in the open air or wine would simply turn into vinegar since acetic bacteria in wine turns wine sour when it is exposed to the air for any great length of time. And of course in the past it was very difficult to keep air away from wine for very long, if at all. So eventually wine would turn into vinegar and it would be a lower quality and it would be the kind of thing that more poor people would be drinking.
[00:13:36] Now, the process of creating wine included things like treading, pressing, fermenting, and storing, and these were all communal processes. They were all very carefully controlled. The idea of treading grapes was often a joyful communal act.
[00:13:56] Now, Judges nine is not a positive text, but it shows the positive nature of grape treading In Judges 9 27, it says, quote, " They went out into the field and harvested their vineyards and trod them, and they held a festival and they went into the temple of their God and they ate and drank and cursed Abimelech." End quote.
[00:14:21] So not really a positive thing, but they were celebrating and enjoying themselves. Right?
[00:14:27] In Isaiah 1610, it says, quote " And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful land. And in the vineyards, no one exults. No one shouts for joy. No treader treads wine in the presses. I have put to an end the jubilant shout." End quote.
[00:14:47] Again, not a positive text, but the reason it's not a positive text is that it contrasts with the usual joy and festivity of such a process.
[00:15:00] New Bible dictionary says, quote, " In metaphorical usage, the same characteristics are to be observed. Wine may represent that which God himself has prepared and which he offers to as many as will receive it from his hand. Yet on the other hand, it may equally well represent the intoxicating influence of Babylonian supremacy, which brings ruin." That will be more of what we'll talk about next time, but it has this double focus.
[00:15:31] Remember, we've talked about the connection with Genesis three and Genesis nine, and there is definitely a flow of idea from tree to vine. Wine marks abundance and blessing, and it appears frequently in agricultural blessing formulas with grain, oil, and wine.
[00:15:53] In Genesis 27, 28, wine is part of Isaac's blessing. And of course in Psalm 1 0 4 15 wine gladdens the heart of man. And this is really a touchstone verse for the theme of joyful wine.
[00:16:09] Let's go ahead and read a section here starting in verse 13 of Psalm 1 0 4. It says, quote, " You are the one who waters the mountains from his upper chambers. The earth is full with the fruit of your labors. Who causes grass to grow for the cattle and herbs for the service of humankind, to bring forth food from the earth and wine that makes glad the heart of man so that their faces shine from oil and bread that strengthens the heart of man. The trees of Yahweh drink their fill. The cedars of Lebanon that he planted where birds make their nest. The stork has its home in the fur trees." End quote.
[00:16:53] Wanted to read a little bit, both before the wine and after, because the whole concept here is of provision from God. And really interesting how the watering of the mountains seems to suggest that the trees drink something like wine from Yahweh.
[00:17:12] And Psalm 1 0 4 has some interesting parallels to what we'll talk about here next about Judges nine. Though judges nine is a prophetic parable and Psalm 1 0 4 is a creation hymn, both of these texts are drawing from the same sacred soil we might say. A vision of joy that's rooted not in power or control, but in God's purposes.
[00:17:40] In Judges nine, the vine refuses to rule because its calling is higher than that: to give joy. Now, the Book of Judges came before the Book of Psalms, right? But again, they're going to share this imagery that is pulled from creation.
[00:17:58] Let's give a little bit of context to Judges nine. First of all, we should remember the blessings and cursings of the end of Deuteronomy. This passage in Judges is definitely calling back to that time. Gideon's youngest son who had escaped being killed by Abimelech is speaking here. Of course, Gideon is also known as Jerubbaal.
[00:18:24] Reading from the New American commentary, it says, quote, " So far, Abimelech's plot seemed to be proceeding according to plan except for one small problem. As noted at the end of verse five, one of Jerubbaal's sons, Jotham, the youngest, had hidden from Abimelech and managed to escape his sword. The narrator had mentioned this small detail only in passing and had immediately resumed the main plot line concerning Abimelech as if the usurper would have it all his way. But the early reference to Jotham has created an expectation for a complication in the plot. We are not disappointed. In verses seven through 21, the focus shifts to this young lad who is presented as a positive character, unlike his half brother. In contrast to Abimelech, whose name reflects his ambition, Jotham's name is an expression of true Yahwistic faith. The Lord is perfect or honest. This will be confirmed by the manner in which God resolves the problems raised by Abimelech's conduct. In contrast to Abimelech, who seeks to rule by sheer power, Jotham is impotent. Since he is the only survivor of a family murdered by his half-brother, he cannot enter Shechem to make his point. Therefore, he must speak from the mountain outside the city and he must flee for his life as soon as he is through with his speech, precisely because he has no power politically, he chooses a powerful rhetorical device, the fable." End quote.
[00:20:06] Okay, so yeah, maybe there's like an actual reason why he wasn't in the city. But probably the point of being on the mountain is that he is pronouncing something very much like what we see at the end of Deuteronomy with the blessings and the cursings.
[00:20:24] Now the fable is really interesting one here, but let's go ahead and read Judges nine, starting in verse seven, quote, " And they told Jotham and he went up and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim and he cried out loud and said unto them, listen to me, lords of Shechem so that God may listen to you.
[00:20:47] " The trees went certainly to anoint a king over themselves and they said to the olive tree, Rule over us. And the olive tree replied, Should I stop producing my oil which by me gods and men are honored to go sway over the trees?
[00:21:05] " And then the trees said to the fig tree, You, come rule over us. But the fig trees said to them, should I stop producing my sweetness and my good crop to go sway over the trees?
[00:21:19] " And the trees said to the vine, You, come rule over us. But the vine said to them, Should I stop producing my wine that makes the gods and men happy to go sway over the trees?
[00:21:33] "So all the trees said to the thorn bush, You, come rule over us. And the thornbush said to the trees, If in good faith you are anointing me as king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade. If not, may fire go out from the thornbush and devour the cedars of Lebanon.
[00:21:54] " So then if you have acted in good faith and sincerity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house and have dealt with him according to his accomplishments, for my father fought and risked his life for you and delivered you from the hand of Midian.
[00:22:14] " But today, you have risen against the house of my father and killed his sons, 70 men on one stone, and you have made Abimelech the son of his slave woman, a king over the lords of Shechem because he is your relative. If you have acted in good faith and sincerity with Jerubbaal and his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech and let him also rejoice in you.
[00:22:41] " But if not, let a fire come out from Abimelech and let it devour the lords of Shechem and Beth-millo, and let a fire come out from the Lords of Shechem and from Beth-millo and let it devour Abimelech.
[00:22:55] " And Jotham escaped and fled and went to Beer. He remained there because of Abimelech, his brother." End quote.
[00:23:04] So very interesting story that he gives like it's a fable, right? It's not a parable because it's not using humans as its storyline, it's using something other than humans, which makes it a fable rather than a parable. There aren't very many fables or parables in the Old Testament, but this is one of them. Second Samuel 12 is an example of a parable in the Old Testament, and it might be the only actual example of a parable in the Old Testament.
[00:23:38] But basically what we have here is this fable about the trees seeking a king. The olive tree refuses, and it's too busy producing oil. The fig tree refuses because its sweet fruit is too valuable, and the vine refuses as well. And the vine's refusal is loaded with a whole lot of theological weight here.
[00:24:02] Now an interesting thing is that the bramble or the thornbush actually accepts the idea of reigning over the other trees. The plant that is mentioned here is probably called the Zizyphus Spina Christi.
[00:24:19] This is from the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary and it calls it the crown of thorns. It says it is, quote, " One candidate for the bramble or thorn bushes. It has traditionally been associated with the crown of thorns placed upon Jesus's head by the Roman soldiers and was named accordingly by Linneaus. It is common near the Dead Sea. This evergreen reaches up to 30 feet with an oval crown and leathery gray green leaves. Its yellowish green flowers bloom in summer. Mature fruit are edible and are marketed." End quote.
[00:25:00] So it's not just like some low bush here, but you're not going to expect this thorny tree to be the king. But very interesting how we have a connection to Jesus's passion here.
[00:25:14] Now another little bit of an aside is the concept of the Cedars of Lebanon. Lebanon was known for these amazingly great trees, and those trees were actually used for the construction of the temple. Cedar is also mentioned in relation to ritual cleansing.
[00:25:33] Reading from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, it says, quote, " In Leviticus 14 four, it, with scarlet and hyssop, was dipped in the blood of a clean bird, and this blood was then sprinkled over the healed lepers. While in numbers 19 six, it was used in the sacrifice of the red heifer. The cedar employed here would not be c lebani, since it did not grow in the wilderness. Probably some species of juniper was implied." End quote.
[00:26:08] But the fact that it's called cedar is going to call back to those ideas of the cedars of Lebanon. The cedars of Lebanon are a symbol of majesty, strength and provision. They are what you would think of as the king of trees, basically. And yet they're only mentioned as an aside in this fable.
[00:26:30] Psalm 1 0 4 16 says, quote, " The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted." End quote.
[00:26:41] So the trees are planted by God. They flourish under his care, and they stand as part of the well ordered creation as a very positive image.
[00:26:51] Again, in First Kings five, we see Solomon importing cedarwood from Lebanon to build the temple, which is God's dwelling place on earth.
[00:27:00] Isaiah 35, 2 has the glory of Lebanon linked to the glory of the Lord.
[00:27:06] The cedars of Lebanon can also be a symbol of arrogance or judgment, just like what we're gonna see with the cup of joy and the cup of wrath. We have two sides to things. We have positive glory, which is going to be connected to God's provision and salvation and presence. But also the other side of things with arrogance and judgment.
[00:27:32] In Ezekiel 31, Assyria is compared to a majestic cedar in Lebanon, and God brings it down in judgment for its arrogance. In Zacharia 11, we have a poetic judgment which says, " Open your doors. O Lebanon, that fire may devour your cedars." So Cedars are a sign of national pride and they are brought down. Just like what we see in Isaiah two 13, " Against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up." Like many good things in creation, the good is twisted and distorted. And so good things become a warning or a judgment.
[00:28:17] Now let's go back to Judges nine about the vine.
[00:28:21] Judges nine 13 says, " But the vine said to them, Should I stop producing my wine that makes the gods and men happy to go sway over the trees?" End quote.
[00:28:34] This term here is the new wine. Probably a symbol of ultimate happiness and intoxication. The idea of first fruits and things like that.
[00:28:47] Now another little bit of an aside here. Should this verse be translated as the gods and men, or should it be translated as God and men? It could go either way, quite frankly, and we can't really tell which, grammatically, because the term here is "elohim," which many of you know, elohim is a plural word, but it's also used for the singular God of Israel and God of creation.
[00:29:18] The subject of the sentence here is wine, so in order to tell whether or not elohim is singular or plural, we kind of need a verbal agreement. If you have a singular verb, then the word is singular. If you have a plural verb, then the word is plural. But if you have two different subjects, then that's not gonna help you out.
[00:29:43] But none of that really matters because elohim and man are not the subject of the sentence, they're the objects. So how do we decide whether or not it is gods or God?
[00:29:57] Most translations are gonna go with God. Probably the reason for the translation of God here is that we have Jotham who is giving a prophetic pronouncement, and he's talking to Israelites who ought to be worshiping the God of creation.
[00:30:15] But at the same time, he's talking to people who are not exactly in alignment with God. Abimelech has just murdered his 70 brothers to become king. The people of Shechem are supporting Abimelech and using funds from a temple of Baal-Bereith, which translates to "Baal of the Covenant" and is probably not referring to God. That is probably a fusion of Canaanite religion with covenantal language here. And that shows a deep syncretism. The Israelites were probably mixing Yahweh worship with Baal worship, or even outright replacing Yahweh.
[00:30:55] So Jotham says wine gladdens God or the gods and men, and using the word elohim, his audience is, well, they're not exactly covenant faithful. They've pledged themselves to Abimelech using silver from a Baal shrine. So is Jotham talking about Yahweh or is he playing on their confusion in using a term that they would be thinking of? Either way, the point kind of remains the same. Real joy comes from a gift from God. Right?
[00:31:31] Now is this parallel with Psalm 1 0 4 where it says that wine gladdens the heart of men, where it doesn't mention God or gods? It seems to be calling back to this in some form or is a parallel.
[00:31:46] If we look at the shared imagery and themes of Judges nine and Psalm 1 0 4, we have wine that cheers and gladdens. Both of those have an identical function of joy. Both Judges nine and Psalm 1 0 4 mention oil. We have the olive tree, and in Psalm 1 0 4 we have oil that makes faces shine. Both of those reflect anointing or blessing.
[00:32:15] We have trees in both. In Judges nine, we have the olive tree, the fig tree, the vine, the bramble and cedars of Lebanon. In Psalm 1 0 4, we also have the cedars of Lebanon, which are the trees of the Lord.
[00:32:31] In Judges nine, the trees refuse kingship to fulfill their ultimate purpose. So that is a reflection of the created order that we see in Psalm 1 0 4. There is a vocation that they are filling rather than taking power for themselves.
[00:32:49] Okay, so moving on. There are many places in scripture where wine is associated with provision, with first fruits, and with honoring God.
[00:33:02] In Proverbs three verses nine through 10, it says, quote, " Honor Yahweh from your substance and from the first fruits of all that will come to you. And your barns shall be full of plenty and your vats shall burst with new wine." End quote.
[00:33:20] Zechariah 10, seven says, quote, "And the people of Ephraim will be like a warrior and their heart will be glad as with wine, and their children will see and rejoice. Their heart will shout in exaltation in Yahweh." End quote.
[00:33:37] Ecclesiastes nine, seven says, " Go, eat your food with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart. For God already has approved your deeds." End quote.
[00:33:50] Isaiah 55, 1 says, quote, "Ho! Everyone thirsty, come to the waters and whoever has no money, come buy and eat, and come, buy without money. Wine and milk without price." End quote.
[00:34:09] I have to wonder how much that is going to relate to something we'll talk about with tithing.
[00:34:15] Of course, we all know that wine was associated with weddings, coronations, and major celebrations. Some examples there are in the first chapter of Esther, chapter 12 of First Chronicles.
[00:34:30] And also, the word for feast in Hebrew literally means drinking, which shows wine as essential to the very definition of celebration.
[00:34:41] Genesis 21, 8 with Isaac's weaning. It says, quote, " And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned." End quote.
[00:34:55] Genesis 26, 26 through 30 has the story of Isaac and Abimelech, a different Abimelech, and there is oaths being taken and covenants being made and feasting, and eating and drinking. Genesis 29, we have Laben and Jacob's wedding. Genesis 40, we have Pharaoh, celebration with the chief cupbearer being restored to office. Judges 14 is Samson's marriage.
[00:35:30] We will get into the concept of covenant here in a moment, but I also want to mention that wisdom's table includes wine. In Proverbs nine verses one through six, it says, quote, " Wisdom has built her house. She has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her slaughtering, mixed her wine, and also set her table. She has sent her servant girls. She calls upon the wings of the high places of town. Whoever is simple, let him turn here. As for the one who lacks sense, she says to him, come eat with my bread, drink with the wine I have mixed. Lay aside simplicity and live, walk in the way of understanding." End quote.
[00:36:18] That seems very related to what we read about in the Enoch, right, and the idea of the tree of wisdom or the tree of knowledge being associated with wine.
[00:36:30] Now let's talk about wine as joyful worship in covenant life. Of course, we have Melchizedek's offering of bread and wine in Genesis 14. That is all about covenant hospitality and priestly blessing. And quite interestingly, connects to tithing, giving a 10th, very interesting connection there with what we'll see with drink offerings and covenant.
[00:36:58] Let's read Exodus 29 38 through 46. And by the way, the measurement of a hin is about a gallon of wine, so we're gonna see a fourth of a hin, so a fourth of a gallon. Exodus 29 verse 38 says, quote, " And this is what you shall offer on the altar. Two 1-year-old male lambs every day continually. The first lamb you will offer in the morning, and the second lamb you will offer at twilight and a 10th of finely milled flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine as a libation with the first lamb. And the second lamb, you shall offer at twilight. You will offer a grain offering and its libation like that of the morning for a fragrance of appeasement. An offering made by fire for Yahweh. It will be a burnt offering of continuity throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of assembly before Yahweh, where I will meet with you to speak to you there. And I will meet with the Israelites there and it will be consecrated by my glory. And I will consecrate the tent of assembly and the altar. And Aaron and his sons, I will consecrate to serve as priests for me, and I will dwell in the midst of the Israelites and I will be their God and they will know that I am Yahweh, their God, who brought them out from the land of Egypt in order to dwell in their midst. I am Yahweh, their God." End quote.
[00:38:35] Leviticus 23 talks about the feast of first fruits. Starting in verse nine, it says, quote, " Then Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, speak to the Israelites and say to them, when you come to the land that I am about to give to you and you reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh for your acceptance. The priest shall wave it on the day after the Sabbath, and on the day of your waving the sheaf, you shall offer a yearling male lamb without defect as a burnt offering to Yahweh. And its grain offering shall be two tenths of an ephah of finely milled flour mixed with oil, and an offering made by fire for Yahweh, an appeasing fragrance. And its libation shall be a fourth of a hin of wine and you shall not eat bread or roasted grain or ripe grain until this very same day, until you present your God's offering. This must be a lasting statute for your generations in all your dwellings." End quote.
[00:39:43] Now we come to what I think is maybe the interesting passage in this whole series, to me. Deuteronomy 14. We mentioned it last time. We didn't get into any details of even what this was all about, but Deuteronomy 14 is about tithing. And I think there's a few things here that most of us have not noticed it before, and it's certainly not pointed out when people are preaching about tithing.
[00:40:12] Now I'm going to read this passage and we'll kind of dig into it a little bit here because I think it's really essential to see what's going on with what we can call the cup of joy. I also want you to think about the idea of justice here. We'll be talking more about the idea of justice next week, but I've mentioned it before, the idea that justice actually has two sides to it. When we think of justice, we often are thinking in terms of judgment and punishment, right? We will get to that part of it with the cup of wrath, as definitely part of what justice is about.
[00:40:54] But justice has a positive aspect. Justice is also about provision and salvation. And so I really want you to think about that while we're reading and thinking about the concept of tithing here. You have to have both sides of justice or else it's not justice. You have yes, the idea of punishment again, but you also have to have the idea of provision and nourishment for the weak and those who cannot provide for themselves.
[00:41:27] Alright, let's go ahead and read Deuteronomy 14 verses 22 through 26. It says, quote, " Certainly you must give a tithe of all the yield of your seed, which comes forth from your field year after year. And you shall eat before Yahweh, your God, in the place that he will choose to make to dwell His name there, the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your olive oil, and the firstling of your herd and your flock. So that you may learn to revere Yahweh, your God always.
[00:42:00] " But if the distance is too great for you so that you are not able to transport it because the place that Yahweh your God will choose to set his name there, it is too far from you when Yahweh your God will bless you. Then in that case, you may exchange for money and you shall take the money to your hand and go to the place that Yahweh your God will choose. You may spend the money for anything that you desire, for oxen or for sheep or for wine or for strong drink or for anything that you desire, and you shall eat it there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household." End quote.
[00:42:41] Okay, so the context here is that the people are in the land and now there is a centralized worship place, right? So they're all to meet at the centralized worship place. This is the place that God has chosen to make his name dwell. Lots of theology in just that aspect of things, right? But the idea is you're supposed to take all of your first fruits to the central location.
[00:43:10] Now, that's going to be difficult for some people. They're going to need to travel very far with all of their herds and all of the things they're bringing as their first fruits. And so there is provision here that instead of traveling with all of that, they can exchange those things in their localities for money, bring the money to the centralized location, and then spend the money at that central location for the things that they desire.
[00:43:41] So this is about actually participating in communal feastal gathering. Now, this is the context of what? The tithing. So most of us are thinking, tithing is like, we're giving a 10th of what we have made, and that 10th is going to someone else. It's like, gone from us, elsewhere. Right. But here we actually see that a good portion, at least, of your tithing is going to a communal feast where you are participating in that.
[00:44:21] So all of your tithing isn't just going to someone else. That's a point I don't see often made, right? Now, I don't think it's the case that what we have here is that people are coming together and that they're giving a 10th of their offerings for the year and that they're eating it all, right. Like it's gone in that one day. I don't think that's the point. Look at the beginning of this passage that I started reading. They're giving a tithe of their yield and they are eating. Well, they're eating with a portion of their tithing. So they're giving a tithing, but they're also using a portion of that tithing to eat together and to celebrate.
[00:45:07] And why? Well, so that they learn to revere Yahweh, your God. Part of that is communal, feasting and fellowship.
[00:45:18] Now, let's talk about tithing here for a moment, because it's not super clear just from the Old Testament texts. There's a few different texts that talk about tithing and we tend to lump it all into, oh, all tithing is about providing for the Levites, right? That's definitely part of it, but at least at a later time, there's three different tithings. Now, you can't quite exegetically and firmly pull out three separate tithings just from the Old Testament text, but there is definitely a distinctive difference between some sort of tithings that they're giving. They're not all the same.
[00:46:05] So the first tithing we can talk about is the Levitical tithe for the priests and the Levites, because they did not get a land inheritance. So they are not providing for themselves from the land. They need the other people around them to provide for them because they are providing a service to the people at large, right?
[00:46:28] So the Levitical tithe was the lifeblood of Israel's worship economy. It paid the priests, but it kept the presence of God at the center of the nation and provided the whole cult of the temple or the tabernacle. We see this in numbers 18 and in Leviticus 27.
[00:46:49] Numbers 18 21 through 32 says, quote, " Behold, I have given to the descendants of Levi every tithe in Israel as an inheritance in return for their service which they are doing, the work of the tent of assembly. The Israelites will not come near again to the tent of assembly or they will bear sin and die. The Levites will perform the service of the tent of assembly and they will bear their guilt, an eternal decree for all your generations. But they will not receive an inheritance in the midst of the Israelites because the tithes of the Israelites that are offered to Yahweh as a contribution, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance.
[00:47:31] " Therefore, I said to them they will not receive an inheritance in the midst of the Israelites. Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, You will speak to the Levites and say to them, when you receive the tithe from the Israelites that I have given to you from them, your inheritance, you will present a contribution from it to Yahweh. A tithe from a tithe. Your contribution will be credited to you like the grain from the threshing floor and like the produce from the press. So you will present your own contribution to Yahweh from all your tithes that you receive from the Israelites. From it, you will give the contribution of Yahweh to Aaron, the priest. From all your gifts you'll present every contribution of Yahweh from all its fat, the part that is sacred. You will say to them, when you're presenting its fat, the rest will be credited to the Levites, like a yield of the threshing floor and like a yield from the press. You may eat it anywhere, you and your household, because it is a wage in return to your service, in the tent of assembly. You will not bear any sin because you have presented its fat. You'll not defile the holy objects of the Israelites or you will die." End quote.
[00:48:44] So if you read that, it seems like every tithe goes to the Levites. But remember that just because a text says every or all, it doesn't actually mean every single thing ,necessarily, because it's got a context here. But clearly the Levites are to be sustained by the tithing of the land from around them because they don't have an inheritance of their own. The inheritance, meaning, land.
[00:49:14] Also, I will point out that it's talking about grain and produce from the press. Now, produce from the press is two separate things actually, because oil comes from a press, but so does wine, so probably it's combining those things. You have grain, oil and wine, those three separate things.
[00:49:37] Okay, so, but there's also a tithing for the poor. This is mentioned in Deuteronomy 14 and comes every third year. Deuteronomy 14 28 through 29 says, quote, " At the end of three years, you shall bring out all of the tithe of your yield for that year, and you shall store it in your towns. And so the Levite may come because there is no plot of ground for him or an inheritance with you. And the alien also may come and the orphan and the widow that are in your towns, and they may eat their fill so that Yahweh, your God, may bless you and all the work of your hands that you undertake." End quote.
[00:50:23] So, okay, it's a little bit ambiguous here now with everything that we've read. Is every tithe for the Levite, or is it only every third year that the Levite gets a tithe? Or is this third year tithe something different that is both for the Levite as well as for the poor? It's not real clear here, right?
[00:50:49] We're gonna read another section in Deuteronomy. This comes from Deuteronomy 26, verses one through 13. It says, quote, " And then when you come to the land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance and you take possession of it and you settle in it, then you shall take from the first fruit of all the fruit of the ground that you harvest from your land, that Yahweh your God is giving you. And you shall put it in a basket and you shall go to the place that Yahweh, your God will choose to make his name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office in those days and you shall say, I declare today to Yahweh, your God, that I have come into the land that Yahweh swore to our ancestors to give to us.
[00:51:33] " Then the priest takes the basket from your hand and places it before the altar of Yahweh, your God, and you shall declare and you shall say before your God. My ancestor was a wandering Aramean and he went down to Egypt, and there he dwelt as an alien few in number. And there he became a great nation, mighty and numerous. And the Egyptians treated us badly and they oppressed us and imposed on us hard labor. And we cried to Yahweh, the God of our ancestors. And Yahweh heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression. And Yahweh brought us from Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror and with signs and with wonders. And he brought us to this place and gave to us this land. A land flowing with milk and honey. And now look, I am bringing the first fruit of the fruit of the ground that you gave to me, Yahweh.
[00:52:31] "And you shall place it before Yahweh your God, and you shall bow down before Yahweh your God, and you shall celebrate with all of the bounty that Yahweh your God gave to you and your family, you and the Levite and the alien who is in your midst. When you are finished giving a tithe, all of the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, then you shall give to the Levite, to the alien, to the orphan, and to the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and they may be satisfied.
[00:53:02] " And you shall say before Yahweh, your God, I have removed the sacred portion from the house. And moreover, I have given it to the Levite and to the alien, and to the orphan, and to the widow according to all your commandment that you commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, and I have not forgotten any of them." End quote.
[00:53:23] Okay, so we have a lot going on here, right? We have the first fruits offering that are provided. We have a celebration where everybody is participating. The person who's bringing the offering, the Levite and the poor in the land, even if they didn't have an offering to bring, they are also to be involved in this celebration.
[00:53:47] Now, because of the different language of each of these texts, we can't quite tell whether they were doing things slightly different at different times, whether it was only the third year tithe that went to certain people at certain places or what's going on here.
[00:54:04] But definitely a portion of the tithe is for celebration. It's to be consumed in God's presence together with rejoicing. Deuteronomy 12 is another place where we see this. Starting in verse two, it says, quote, " You must completely demolish all of the places where they served their gods, that is the nations whom you are about to dispossess, on the high mountains and on the hills and under each leafy green tree. And you shall break down their altars and you shall smash their stone pillars and their Asherah poles you must burn with fire. And the images of their gods you shall hew down and you shall blot out their names from that place. You shall not worship Yahweh your God like this, but only to the place that Yahweh your God will choose from all of your tribes to place his name there as his dwelling shall you seek and there you shall go. And you shall bring there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes and your donations and your votive gifts and your free will offerings and the firstling of your herd and your flock. And you shall eat there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all your endeavors, you and your family, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you." End quote.
[00:55:24] So we have many types of gifts here as obvious in Deuteronomy 12. Tithes, donations, votive gifts, free will offerings, first fruits. All of those are mentioned as being gifts. So if we just kind of boil it all down to, they only ever gave 10%, that's not quite right. It's much more complicated than that.
[00:55:51] And so later, Jewish tradition we have in the Mishna and the Talmud, it clearly separates these types of tithings. We have a Levitical tithe, we have a festival tithe, and we have a tithe of the poor, and that became the standard rabbinic framework of all of this, which while that is later, it suggests an early recognition as well, that probably people well before the rabbinic time, probably even before the time of Jesus, they were separating out three separate tithings.
[00:56:28] Now, it's probably not likely that the ancient Israelites were giving 30% every year. It's more likely they rotated the tithe uses from year to year, or that the poor tithe was a redistribution of the festival tithe in the third year. Now, Levites are included because they would kind of be considered poor since they don't have an inheritance in land hand.
[00:56:58] Okay, so let's bring all of that together. Even if we have three separate tithes and they rotate or however that looked, we also have all of the other gifts, right? So we have 10%, but it was also more so it's not like there was some sort of, you only give 10% and there you go. And it all went to the priests. It actually was a much broader thing. And the point is also that tithing and giving was about joyful worship, not just obligation, and not only provision for the people who needed it.
[00:57:38] There were other ways people were provided for in the land as well. Like they weren't supposed to harvest to the edges of their fields because the edges of their fields were places that the poor could come and harvest for themselves. So the land itself is giving the people things.
[00:57:57] It wasn't to be a burden, it was an invitation to feast before God. And of course, wine and a strong drink are not only included, they are intentionally part of the process. And there's no dichotomy between physical delight and joy and celebration and spiritual devotion. It's not unfermented grape juice, sorry.
[00:58:25] They're transporting it. And so simply by the transporting, even if it's absolutely fresh juice, by the time they're drinking it, it has been fermented. Another thing to notice is that worship is embodied and communal. Wine was also stored in temple storehouses, as we see in first Chronicles 9 29. And again, it's just part of that first fruits offering, as we see also in Nehemiah 10, verse 37.
[00:58:57] Now there is a lot more we can talk about. There is the Passover tradition where wine is not included, at least not visibly in the first Passover.
[00:59:10] But I think we will leave part of that conversation to a later time. Because I do want to get into the judgment factor. So the idea here is we're talking about wine positively. We'll talk about it negatively and then we'll hook back into the positive aspects of wine.
[00:59:29] And I don't know how many episodes we're gonna do about that because there's just so much to say about it. But I don't want to overly press the issue as well. So we'll get a little bit more into that Passover tradition after we talk about the grape of wrath.
[00:59:43] But let's end on talking about wine and God's character and God's character being brought out with the idea of really concrete images that we have. The abundance of wine was absolutely symbolic of God's covenantal faithfulness and hospitality. And when you have covenant and hospitality between humans in a culture where that was a very important value, then you're also seeing that in a vertical way with God's covenantal faithfulness and hospitality.
[01:00:19] God's character is not just described in word and in deed that he does, but also in the items that he provides for people. Like we have milk and honey as a really potent image as well. We have bread and grain. We have wine and fruit and trees. And each of those different kinds of images is saying something different. Now, we've talked about frame semantics a little bit, and this would be a fun choice for you to go and find a passage where milk and honey are mentioned and lay out what that conceptual frame is.
[01:01:00] A couple of suggestions are Isaiah 60, verse 16, which says, quote. " And you shall suck the milk of nations and suck the breast of kings, and you shall know that I am Yahweh, your savior and your redeemer, the strong one of Jacob." End quote.
[01:01:20] You could compare that with the land of milk and honey.
[01:01:25] Another place to look is first Peter two, verses one and two, which says, quote, " Therefore ridding yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy, and all slander, like newborn infants long for the unadulterated spiritual milk. So that by it you may grow up to salvation." End quote.
[01:01:51] Deuteronomy 32, 11 through 14 says, quote, " As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreads out its wings, takes them, carries them on its pinions. So Yahweh alone guided him and there was no foreign god accompanying him. And he set him on the high places of the land and he fed him the crops of the field and he nursed him with honey from craigs and with oil from flinty rock with curds from the herd and with milk from the flock with the fat of young rams, and rams, the offspring of Bashan, and with goats along with the finest kernels of wheat, and from the blood of grapes, you drank fermented wine." End quote.
[01:02:41] Well, how's that for some imagery?
[01:02:43] Milk and honey have a different symbolic focus than grain and wine, although there's a lot of crossover and similarity. There are different frames being called up for both of those things, which means that there's different theological emphasis and there are different aspects of the character of God revealed in each of these things.
[01:03:07] I am going to kind of leave that for you guys to look at and investigate on your own. Maybe I'll do another episode where I actually get into all of that, because part of what I'm working on right here is looking at the aspects of provision as real concrete images in what we're eating and how that relates to God.
[01:03:29] And for Christians, we tend to really focus on that bread and wine as we kind of should, right? Because we have the idea embedded into our covenantal relationship with God in the Lord's table. And there's a reason that bread and wine in particular are part of that because they are covenantal in a way that milk and honey are less covenantal. But again, they have just as much of a potent imagery of who God is. And our relationship with God in those things.
[01:04:05] All right, so I'm gonna kind of wrap it up here. Look forward to more discussion about eating and drinking and all of those things that are tracking through scripture, as we do here at Genesis Marks the Spot. And I also wanna give a plug to the upcoming two Trees podcast conference that is called, Beyond the Gates of Eden.
[01:04:29] My presentation there is going to be very much about these ideas. So, part of why I'm excited about these kinds of themes landing where they are in my episode structure is to kind of help flesh out what I'm talking about in that conference. So for those who don't know about the conference, what the plan is, is we are doing several different lectures by several different people and they will be dropping at different months.
[01:04:59] So you will have time to listen to the lecture and to participate with other people around you with the lecture materials and hopefully have a discussion that is fruitful and that helps people study in a real world context. That is our hope for all of that. That is going to be coming up very soon, dropping the first episodes here in May, 2025, and going forward from there.
[01:05:28] Now, they will be available later. But if you participate within the actual month, then you'll be able to give questions to the lecturers for the live q and a at the end of the month or towards the end of the month. So please consider gathering together some people and consuming the content and providing us some questions to answer because that's going to be really helpful to people as well.
[01:05:55] And if this is successful and people actually end up studying with other people, then this might end up being a regular thing that is done. So please consider joining us with that.
[01:06:08] But I will end here by inviting you to consider where we encounter joy in right fashion. How do we receive the fruit of the vine in a way that honors God? What does it mean to receive joy as a sacred act?
[01:06:26] Consider times when you have experienced holy joy around table or in worship, or in community, or in relationship to God in any way.
[01:06:38] I will end by quoting Isaiah 25 verses six through nine, which says, quote," The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain, a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined aged wine. And on this mountain, he will swallow up the covering, which is over all peoples, even the veil, which is stretched over all nations.
[01:07:05] " He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces and he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth. For the Lord has spoken and it will be said in that day, Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation." End quote.
[01:07:33] Thanks for listening and thanks for participating. Thanks for the questions you guys give, and thank you also to those of you who help participate in providing for me in financial ways for this podcast.
[01:07:48] I thank you guys so much for all that you do. I invite you to go check out my website, which does have blog posts, including material for study with the frame semantics thing. Really appreciate all of you for all that you do, and thank you just for listening. Thanks to you guys for helping this podcast grow and develop and be what it is. I wish you all a blessed week and we will see you later.
