Leviticus 10:11, commentary and pictures

The verse lays upon the priests the charge to teach the people of Israel all the laws the Lord had given through Moses. Such teaching could only be done with clear and unclouded reason able to distinguish between holy and unholy, clean and unclean, and right and wrong. For this reason God forbade Aaron and his sons to drink wine or strong drink when entering the tabernacle, so that with every power preserved in full force they could discern correctly and instruct the people. Nadab and Abihu show the danger, for having benumbed their brains with wine they lost the sense of the difference between the sacred fire from heaven and common fire, and offered forbidden fire and were slain in judgment. The prohibition reaches to the close of time for all who minister in holy office and bear serious trust, since anything in eating and drinking that unfits the mind for healthful exercise is an aggravating sin in those who must be examples, teach rightly, and decide questions of judgment and law.

Teaching Requires Clear Discernment

The charge is laid upon the priests to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord spoke to them by the hand of Moses. That teaching duty belongs to those appointed to sacred service and to sacred office, and it embraces faithful instruction in the distinctions God gave through Moses. Fermented drink confuses the senses and impairs the powers needed for such service, so clear judgment is bound up with the work of teaching.

Faithful teaching required the full use of clear, unclouded and undimmed reason, with powers of discrimination and discernment kept clear and unconfused and judgment correct. Only thus could the teachers put difference between holy and unholy, between clean and unclean, and discern between right and wrong in their dealings with the people, and then present all the statutes to Israel. God therefore forbade Aaron and his sons to drink wine or strong drink when going into the tabernacle or sanctuary, as a statute forever, so that with all their powers preserved in full force for constant action they could discern correctly and instruct the people. The prohibition kept their reason unclouded and protected their judgment and discernment, enabling them to distinguish holy from common and clean from unclean and to teach those distinctions.

Nadab and Abihu illustrate the danger, for having indulged freely in wine they became partially intoxicated and brain-benumbed. In that state they lost a realizing sense of the difference between the sacred fire which God let fall from heaven and commanded priests to use and commanded to be kept burning continually upon the altar, and the common fire He said they should not use. They presumptuously transgressed God's express command by offering common fire with incense, contrary to His express directions, and with the full and clear use of their reasoning powers they would have recoiled with horror from such transgression. Any deviation in sacred worship insults God and is punishable with death, so judgment speedily followed and they were consumed, and death was their penalty.

In the setting of their deaths the need to distinguish and uphold God's requirements is emphasized, and Aaron's failure to train his sons in obedience and reverence shows the importance of faithfully teaching and enforcing God's commands.

Temperate Habits for Lasting Service

The prohibition given to the priests was not for that age alone but reaches from generation to generation to the close of time, binding in this dispensation all who minister in holy office, instruct the people, and hold positions of serious responsibility and trust. The same direction and the same reasons still apply, so that clear, unclouded reason must be preserved to distinguish sacred from common and clean from unclean and to teach all the statutes spoken by the hand of Moses. Only those who keep soul, body, and spirit in conformity to natural law to preserve the right balance of mental powers are fitted to teach truth and to decide important questions of judgment and law.

Anything in eating and drinking that disqualifies the mental powers for healthful and active exercise is an aggravating sin in the sight of God, especially for those who minister in holy things. Such must at all times be examples to the people and be in condition to properly instruct them, and be fitted to decide important questions of judgment and law, including doing justice for the widow and the fatherless and ruling justly. By contrast, liquor-and-tobacco slaves with beclouded intellect and debased soul are unfitted for such holy or civil trust. The law thus protects sound judgment in carrying out both sacred responsibilities and just rule.

Gratifying appetite by drink debases the faculties, beclouds the intellect, enervates the brain, weakens nerve power, perverts the senses, benumbs moral power, dethrones reason, and bewilders the brain. It gives the destroyer opportunity to enter and dishonors God by breaking strict temperance. It leads to choosing the common in place of the sacred, belittling God's requirements, making His holy law of none effect, weakening the physical powers and debasing the morals so that eternal things are placed on a level with common things and right and wrong is not discerned. Yet putting the cup to the lips makes a person responsible for all acts committed under its influence.

Those responsible for others must keep appetite and habits under strict control and remember that God watches their work. Those who have to do with sacred things must do nothing that mars the perfection of their work, remembering that a heavenly Watcher constantly beholds their work and the spirit brought into it. God will not work a miracle to keep men from the consequence of deliberately departing from light to indulge appetite. This warns physicians in caring for patients as well as others responsible for sacred duties.

The command is the same positive test given to the first parents about the tree of knowledge, impressing the necessity of strictly temperate habits. Since his success on the point of appetite in Eden in causing the fall, Satan has plied this temptation with wonderful success and exults in his work, studying from cause to effect and working perseveringly to this one end to compass the ruin of the world. If he can lead astray the heads of families through appetite he is mostly sure of a harvest in their children to the third and fourth generation. For children generally inherit the appetites and passions of their parents intensified and often grow up without redeeming influences but with unfavorable surroundings and examples, weaker in physical and moral power than their parents, producing physical, mental, and moral feebleness.

Fermented liquor is not a natural production; the Lord never made it and has nothing to do with its production. The best wine created at Cana was free from all fermentation, the pure juice of the grape as a safe drink for all humanity. Christ never placed fermented liquor to His own lips or to His disciples' lips but looked down the ages at what wine would do to users and set a right example. Paul in advising Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake and often infirmities meant only unfermented grape juice and never advised what the Lord had prohibited.

That preserved history taught Daniel and his fellows in Babylon, who knew it and counseled together over it. They decided not to use wine as beverage lest by use it become pleasant to them and be preferred before water. They avoided it as a snare that creates love for itself in order to protect physical and mental development, having learned from Nadab and Abihu that wine could injure physical and mental powers and confuse the senses so that sacred and common could not be distinguished.

Those who come nigh to God in the sanctuary where His presence is manifested, especially those so favored as to have witnessed His glory in the mount, must practice careful self-examination and sanctification in order to discern holy things and teach His statutes. Drinking wine when officiating in holy things is forbidden because gratifying appetite debases the faculties, beclouds the intellect, and disqualifies for sacred office. The positive command to keep holy the seventh day is unchanged by general disobedience, because God placed His sanctity upon that day, and right and obedience to God are always and everywhere the only safe rule. This direct and solemn command to teach reaches from generation to generation to the close of time, requiring all who instruct the people and hold positions of trust to be men of strictly temperate habits and principle.