And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household (Deuteronomy 14:26)
This is one of my favorite passages from Deuteronomy. There is so much to learn from that passage. It’s not about this being a law which is an almost-unbelievable law, but about the mind that dictates such law, the mind of God. This is coming from God, yes, God telling us to get whatever we want with the money, and even hard liquor. What’s the occasion? Joy in His Presence.
Now we know that later on, we find a new command in the New Covenant to exceed this law by not being drunk with hard liquor, but with the Holy Spirit, the very being of God.
“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” (Ephesians 5:18-21)
Trust me. We cannot submit ourselves to one another with hard liquor coming out of our nostrils. And we certainly would not be giving thanks to God while drunk with the spirit that is sold in the bottle but the Spirit of God, the Living Water from Christ Jesus.
As Jesus once said:
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:37-39)
Jesus is the well of the living water, the Holy Spirit. 