And Nazirites may foreshadow the 144,000.

Still, fairly slim evidence to base a lifestyle on. Humans have other issues that are more prevalent and cause more greif, but are not vetoed.

Connect that one for me.

John the Baptist as forerunner.

Deu 14:
22`Thou dost certainly tithe all the increase of thy seed which the field is bringing forth year by year;
23and thou hast eaten before Jehovah thy God, in the place where He doth choose to cause His name to tabernacle, the tithe of thy corn, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herd, and of thy flock, so that thou dost learn to fear Jehovah thy God all the days.

24`And when the way is too much for thee, that thou art not able to carry it -- when the place is too far off from thee which Jehovah thy God doth choose to put His name there, when Jehovah thy God doth bless thee; --

25then thou hast given [it] in money, and hast bound up the money in thy hand, and gone unto the place on which Jehovah thy God doth fix;

26and thou hast given the money for any thing which thy soul desireth, for oxen, and for sheep, and for wine, and for strong drink, and for any thing which thy soul asketh, and thou hast eaten there before Jehovah thy God, and thou hast rejoiced, thou and thy house.

27As to the Levite who [is] within thy gates, thou dost not forsake him, for he hath no portion and inheritance with thee.

28`At the end of three years thou dost bring out all the tithe of thine increase in that year, and hast placed [it] within thy gates;

29and come in hath the Levite (for he hath no part and inheritance with thee), and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who [are] within thy gates, and they have eaten, and been satisfied, so that Jehovah thy God doth bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou dost.

So you eat and drink and have a party together with your family and your pastor and the deacon and the bible worker paid with your tithe money. And dont forget to include any food or drink your soul desire (though I guess there would be scarce any strong drinks in that category in this group..).
And every third year you take your tithe money and distribute it among the homeless shelter and the immigrant support organisation and the deacon and the cantor and bible worker who live without proper income.

Num 28:
3`And thou hast said to them, This [is] the fire-offering which ye bring near to Jehovah: two lambs, sons of a year, perfect ones, daily, a continual burnt-offering;
4the one lamb thou preparest in the morning, and the second lamb thou preparest between the evenings;
5and a tenth of the ephah of flour for a present, mixed with beaten oil, a fourth of the hin;
6a continual burnt-offering, which was made in mount Sinai, for sweet fragrance, a fire-offering to Jehovah;
7and its libation, a fourth of the hin for the one lamb; in the sanctuary cause thou a libation of strong drink to be poured out to Jehovah.


This is interesting as it shows how strong drink was part of the daily offering to God. (I guess it is regarded better to offer strong drink to God than to drink it, though it also proves that strong drink is "clean" food as nothing unclean was permissible to be offered to God.)


Num 6
2`Speak unto the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, When a man or woman doeth singularly, by vowing a vow of a Nazarite, to be separate to Jehovah;
3from wine and strong drink he doth keep separate; vinegar of wine, and vinegar of strong drink he doth not drink, and any juice of grapes he doth not drink, and grapes moist or dry he doth not eat;
4all days of his separation, of anything which is made of the wine-vine, from kernels even unto husk, he doth not eat.

You mentioned the Nazarites gordonb1. It does not only mention wine and strong drink, the Nazarite law, but also grape juice and raisins. You cannot both at the same time be a Nazarite and partake the communion table as the rule on wine does not concern the alcohol but anything which has grown on a wine-vine. So I wonder, gordonb, when was the last time you took the communion cup and bread? And what did you substitute the grape juice with?
(IMO, the fact that Moses sees a need to speak separately on wine and grape juice here clearly shows that there was a difference between grape juice and wine at the time of this books writing.)

Thinking that there is nothing wrong with drinking alcohol is thinking that there is nothing wrong with teaching one's children to drink alcohol.

Rosangela,

The solution is simple enough. We just have to decide that in our opinion, the texts quoted above are among those texts which were made obsolete together with the Jerusalem temple some 2000 years ago.

The distinction between clean and unclean referred only to meats, and didn't include drinks. Besides, the fact that something was offered to God doesn't mean it could be consumed - one example of this is blood.

It is also important to realize that there were some rules in the OT which didn't express God's will in relation to a given subject, but were just dispositions to regulate less-than-ideal practices which already existed among the people, like polygamy, divorce, etc. This might be also true of alcoholic beverages.

Surely this would not apply to anything commanded to take place within the daily worship rituals of the temple?