Discerning Between the Holy and the Unholy # 4

Discerning Between the Holy and the Unholy # 4

Now we turn to the fundamental reason why those Old Testament priests had no discernment.

"Do not drink wine ... when you go into the tabernacle of meeting" (Lev. 10:9)

It seems most probable that Nabad and Abihu lost their discernment due to drinking intoxicating wine or drink. Thus we have God's command concerning the priests, that the priests should not drink wine or intoxicating drink when they were to enter the tabernacle to serve. But what about the priests in Ezekiel's day, those who were serving in Jerusalem during the time of Babylon's rule over the city? Why had they lost their discernment, as we have noticed in Ezekiel 22:26?

To answer this question we must turn to the prophet Isaiah, who prophesied 100 years or somewhat more before the final fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 B. C. Here is what Isaiah prophesied concerning the priests:

"But they also have erred through wine, and through intoxicating drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they are out of the way through intoxicating drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment." (Isaiah 28:7).

"They also" in this verse, according to commentaries, speaks of the spiritual leaders in Judah. Isaiah either had insight into the condition of the priests at the time he spoke, or he foresaw the situation in future days. In either case, we can see that God's word emphatically tells us that there was a real drinking problem with the spiritual leaders in Jerusalem,and this led to their lack of judgment. Therefore, we can conclude that most probably the failure of the priests in Ezekiel's day to distinguish between the holy and the unholy things was again caused by drinking intoxicating drink. Lack of discernment by the priests seems to have a definite cause in Scripture: drunkenness with wine. Even in the future temple these matters are again placed together (Ezekiel 44:21-23).

There must be a spiritual lesson here for New Testament application. Spiritually speaking, it must mean that spiritual leaders, or any New Testament believer as a priest to God, can be under some intoxicating influence that causes them to lose discernment concerning the holy and the unholy things. We can see from the three examples in today's church given above that this lack of discernment, and thus the drunkenness, is quite prevailing.

What is this intoxicating influence that seems to have universal effect?

The answer lies, I believe, in the book of Revelation:

"Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, 'Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication." (Revelation 17:1-3).

The great harlot here has this name on her forehead: "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth." (Rev. 17:5). This final form of Babylon, at least in part, is a spiritual counterfeit of God's kingdom, the New Jerusalem pictured in Rev. 21 and 22. The theme of Babylon stretches across the pages of Scriptures, and
develops over time. It is a great theme full of significance. To understand some of its significance, one must look at the origin of Babylon in Scripture. The seeds of beginnings in Scripture topics always give us light.

Babylon had its beginning as outlined in Genesis 11. The original Semitic name of the city was Bab-il, which meant  "gate of God." This name certainly means that the focus of the city was religious worship. History tells us that ancient towers or terraced ziggurats were built for the worship of pagan cities. The tower at Babel was most surely one of these temple-towers.

When God confused the languages there, He called the place Babel, which was a word play on the original name, because the Hebrew word Babel sounded similar to Bab-il. However, the word Babel meant "confusion" in reference to the confusion of the languages by God. This noun derives from the root word "balal", which means to mix, and it was for a thorough mixing of oil with flour in the meal offering (Lev. 2:4-5). According to the dictionary, the idea of confusion involves the mixing of things together so that it is difficult to discern the individual elements. Thus, the cardinal principle of Babylon (the Greek name for Babel) is that of mixture. Mystery Babylon, as seen in Revelation 17, is a religious system where things of God are mixed together with things not of God.

This system is a "great harlot." She is not the wife of Christ, but this is part of her pretension by claiming to be God's church. She is dressed outwardly as a queen, being "arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls." (Revelation 17:4). The gold and precious jewels denote things of God (Rev. 21:18-19), such as some Bible truths. Yet, she is not pure, but a mixture, because in addition to her outward adorning of jewels she holds "in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication." (Rev. 17:4).

~Tom Finley~

(continued with # 5)