"Bars, Lounges, and Nightclubs in Ancient Israel"     

I would like to know if any of you have ever seen the words "bar", "nightclub" or "lounge" in Scripture.  I have never noticed those words in the Bible myself, how about you folks?

Nonetheless, is it posible to imagine that such places existed in the Hebrew nations before the time of the Messiah?  No, I can't even for one moment think that any such place would have been found in any of the cities or suburbs of the ancient Israel nation, although there were clearly places called "inns", and I can easily show you before we are done here today, why places aimed solely at the drinking of alcohol were not, and could not have been welcomed places in biblical ancient Israel.

Now, of course I will admit that there may have been places that may have begun to resemble such places, but only in the worst times of national backsliding and apostacy, where we could perhaps actually imagine them being somehow in the mix during the times of Sodom and Gomorrah's great wickedness, etc.  I would however surely say that they were certainly not there due to biblical encouragements in any way, being instead what one would expect in such times of complete corruption and perveseness, where yes, one might have found such types of places cropping up as sneaky but quietly growing extensions of prostitutes' homes or other criminal dens that had begun to muscle-in to the towns that were growing exceptionally sinful.

But in the true times of Israel's proper respect for the Father, there were surely never any bars or lounges, and I myself can also say that I dont recall ever having seen any such places mentioned in the secular writings of Josephus or Philo either, when writing about the Hebrews and early Jews.

In any case, the biblical picture of a life in the nation of Israel, and Jerusalem, was one of family togetherness, not as it is today, where families now survive in spite of themselves, not for the support of themselves as they were back then.

But we might also consider the way the moral structure was, and the actual culture itself being integrally built in and around the Father's commandments and instruction for their lives.  It was a true and complete welcomed church/state system of wholesome perfection!  Consider in your mind's eye how the Temple was the central meeting place, and this was whether it was in a portable tabernacle form and travelling with the early nomadic Hebrews, or in permanant towering stone form later in their history, we never see any mention of any place called a bar, lounge, or nightclub.  We can read the entire Old Testament and won't hear the slightest story to ever mention anything even remotely sounding like any places that could even fit such a description, agreed?  Well, again, at least not in times when Israel was in the Father's better graces, eh? 

Nonetheless, it was clearly not the habit of the Hebrew people to gather just to drink, as they were a much more responsible people, so there was no need for such places.  It was also well known that this was because there was a heavy responsibility level put on all souls, that regardles of the type of alcohol, etc, all participating/contributing parties would be lawfully held to pay the price for any damages done while under the influence, being both him who provided the opportunity and substance, and he who had overly consumed the alcohol, so I would suggest that any above casual drinking was a very seriously discouraged past-time for every Hebrew adult that would have a tendancy to imbibe in such things too often or too heavily.  Let's look a little closer into the moral chemistry here...

Again, it was not the habit of the Hebrews to gather just to drink, but to gather for the more respectful things like feasts and festivals, and occassional weddings, etc, but even then, drinking was kept at a minimum, and if allowed at all in any man's home, was carefully monitored in such homes and the public meeting houses they were responsible for, etc.  My point is, that there were no places laid aside specifically for the past-time of drinking alcohol, as would later become very common with those like the Romans and Greeks.  And why is that?  Its very simple once you understand the new discoveries about Father's law that we are discovering today, because excess of such substances was seen as something that had the potential of landing one in front of the judges of the time, under some very serious charges, and in many cases it could be very heavily punishable, as we will see in a moment.

There were inns, as I said before, but inns were basically somebody else's home that had but a couple extra rooms, and one would layover there for a night or two while travelling and would be subject to the inn-keeper's rules, bed-time habits, etc, which would also sometimes include the availability of an occassional wine for the weary traveller, but not for the express purpose of consuming excessive amounts of alcohol.  Why is that?  Well for starters, if a member of your Scriptural Hebrew community was found to be a drunkard, and so obsessed that he was unable or unwilling because of his or her obsession to "provide for" his or her family (which could not just include food, clothing, etc, but also and/or even being negligent in the protecting of one's family or townsfolk from criminals or oppressive tyrannies such as we have now), they were scripturally deemed worse than an infidel, and therefore shamed by the rest of that town or surrounding community, by concepts that traversed both Testaments with moral maxims such as "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (1Ti 5;8)  and...  perhaps even to the point that in some cases they would be outcast or "that soul shall be cut off from his people", a fate more shameful to face than death for the men of that time.

Today we have so much free time and so little of a responsible respect for others as we "overdo it" when we "go out" on the weekends, etc, that we have actualy created this entirely new 'way of life' known affectionately as "drinking" or "partying" in our age, with this trend having spattered roots all throughout history in the pagan nations, and having begun slowly over the last couple centuries in our own (once Puritan) nation itself.  This "partying atmosphere" has been the product of an industrialized and fully apostate world now, a world that no longer sees drunkenness for the shameful irresponsible sin that it is, but as 'a disease that some people have', where we instead are conditioned to merely feel sorry for them and allow them to feel our sympathy (rather than our rebuke) as they go through life with somewhat of a social pass for their "weakness".

In our own generation's own era therefore, we have no real recollection of a time when drinking to excess was a characteristic that got you properly shamed and labelled as being totally irresponsible in your community, and of course, since we have also been steered far and away from the Father's laws, statutes and judgments (regarding the negligence laws that He yet has firmly in place in Scripture), one would also not know how folks of the ancient Hebrew past would have fearfully quivered in their boots to even consider setting up a place where folks could gather just to endlessly consume alcohol.   The Bible's precepts on various forms of negligence would have had such folks, well, shall we say, in "deep doo doo" with all of the folks in their town or city, and up against a Scriptural tribunal facing serious repercussions if one of their "customers" were to have caused any serious damage while having been under their roof drinking to such conditions of recklessness.  This is why we also see the passage in Habbukkuk 2:15, that also clearly infers such a shameful reminder to those innkeepers who would let such "temptable" folks become too intoxicated while on their property, as they would be the ones in trouble as well, not just the drunkard who may have socked some other traveller's teeth out who was only trying to have a peaceful dinner at that inn.  The words "Woe to him..." in that very passage means that there is coming a very terrible consequence for what this individual or nation has done.  I would never want to be found in a compromised position where a "woe" is pronounced against ME!

We could go on and on with examples, but the bottom line is, once the "laws, statutes and judgments" were more and more dissipated out of the picture due to Rome's clever "Dispensation" trickery and such (that put THEM in charge of the "law writing" over the peasantry), there was no longer a need for folks to be so "responsible" for others, which then also played right into the hands of the growing Roman tyrannical global scheme, as it put the one-ness of such social misbehaviors right into the lap of their own waiting governing bodies and paid "soldiers", and later "peace officers" and even yet in our own time, "Police", to then "take care of" such "code breakers".  It thus took yet another piece of biblical authority away from the previous Bible/church morality model, a system which once used to be the complete "Book of the Law" of the Israel nation, being the "laws, statutes, and judgments" of the Old testament world (and re-begun in our American Puritan era but for a short time), where people were more mature and thereby more responsible for their own actions.

People of such times were also forbidden to participate in "a common purse" in previously unheard of things like "insurance" that would later take care of such damages for you when you were negligent (irresponsible) and drove your car into your neighbor's living room or something when you were smashed out of your gourd.

You can perhaps now see many ways that, with the laws, statutes and judgments gone, the responsibility levels of the world spiralled out of control like a plane going down in flames.

Innkeepers would have never made it very far in the Old Testament times if they had boozed-up their guests as they do now, and bar owners today are actually never really given any true punishments when they "puttest the bottle to thy neighbor's lips", but they are instead often magnificently rewarded by our spoiled heathen society for having the most spectacular nightclubs and specialized places of sin, being perhaps what we might call... "a Roman orgy of booze".

So, can we imagine that it would have been commonplace for men to invite crowds of alcoholics into their homes hoping to sell them more and more wine and spirits back in the days when the laws, statutes and judgments would bear a burden of "Lex Telionis" upon their heads?  Would they have wanted to face the very serious punishment of Lex Telionis for one of their drunk customer's having taken out an eye of another innocent man who may have only been innocently passing through town that night?   Heavens no!

Remember: "Lex Telionis" is latin for the old Testament's "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" sentencing system.  Hypothetically speaking, if one of your well-lit customers just simply staggered out of your inn (let alone if it was a place publically inviting folks to come and get REALLY drunk) and he then, on the way out of your establishment, accidentally knocks some wine kegs off of the delivery fellow's wagon and kills the neighbor's child who had happened to be passing by, what likely would have happened to the innkeeeper?  That's right, he'd be found somewhat responsible and therefore the parents of the dead child and the town's folks would have that irresponsible innkeeper tried and perhaps stoned to death for being so irresponsible.  Which again is also why there should be no "insurance" schemes in any true believer's world today as well, to protect these irresponible people, which is also why insurance (being homeowner's or business insurance here I suppose) is also unbiblical in Father's perfect world, as it is a literal handy scapegoat for the sinners among us to feel that they can just casually continue on in their reckless ways without a care in the world as to who or what they may hurt.

Such places, even if they had been fortunate to not have any drunken mishaps to shut them down, would have been so massively shamed and cursed by the townsfolk, that customers would have had to visit such places in utmost secrecy, not unlike how one might have quietly visited a house of ill repute.

Is it a little easier after reading this, to see how far we have been deceived and thereby strayed form the wholesomeness of the Father's better ways?

I hope that I have shown some new ways to see why "hanging out in bars, or lounges" has many previously unreported "bad sides" that today's "lawless" churches never taught us, themselves not loving the Father's law, because they never wanted to hear about it, to then only cause them guilt about their own irresponsible offenses against that law system--a law system that is still wholesome and perfect!

The Bible teaches us to be responsible, so that we can love one another with a genuine and conscientous concern for others!  

Should we not try to get back to these ways?

-dwaine

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