(November 2010)
When I was a teenager I only had a few clues about Christianity. I knew about the Sabbath and that the Roman Catholic Church was a farce. I did not know where to get more instruction let alone if it was even available. I also lacked the desire to go and search for the truth in the Bible. I did not yet know that it was the true word of God.
I did however take an interest in wineskins, those leather pouches for holding wine, and contemplated buying one at one point. My friend and I drank quite a bit of wine and we thought it would be a good idea to carry wine with us strapped to our shoulders. I opted not too buy as money was scarce and if I bought the wineskin I would have less money to buy wine.
That Jesus’ first miracle was the turning of water to wine wore out its call to drink as I grew older. I got tired of pretending to understand the reason for the miracle. At the age of 25 I decided to start reading the Bible. I seriously needed help in understanding it and came across the Plain Truth Magazine at the age of 30, about five years of reading latter. After a quick and great enlightenment in just a few months I decided that I wanted to get baptized.
Now, over twenty five years later, I find that I still have an interest in wineskins.
What do wineskins represent?
Please turn to Matthew 9:17
Wineskins are sewn animal skins that hold wine as the name suggests. The two go together and one needs to understand something about the one in order to understand the other. Jesus spoke of wineskins.
Matthew 9:17 (NASB)
Nor do men put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.
Jesus spoke these words and therefore we know that they make a lot of sense. It is only that feeble minded man has a hard time to understand what He meant because He didn’t explain the meaning directly.
Wine must be contained in order to be consumed. Even the shed blood of Christ is symbolically consumed from wine glasses at the Passover every year. In Biblical times it was common for people to use wineskins to carry wine.
We know that wineskins were containers made of goat skin and were used to carry wine. New wine would continue to ferment, stretching the wineskin. Wineskins in time would dry up. New wine would have to be put in new flexible wineskins to prevent bursting. Only old wine that was fully fermented could be put in old wineskins safely.
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The old wineskins represent the Old Covenant with its commandments, ordinances and statutes. The old wine represents the shed animal blood, the temporary forgiveness of sin and the subsequent old promises of the old Testament. The promises being material blessings like a long life.
The new wineskins represent the New Covenant and the new wine represents the shed blood of Jesus for forgiveness of sin and the subsequent new promises of the New Testament. The new promise being eternal life.
The old promises were of material wealth, land, flocks, harvests, children, descendants, etc. The old wine is symbolic of the shed blood of animals for the forgiveness of sins, each new sin required a new sacrifice.
The new promises are of eternal life in the kingdom of God. The new wine is symbolic of the shed blood of Christ that is for the forgiveness of sins once and for all.
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Another analogy of the old wineskins is the language of the Old Testament. The O.T. was written in what is known as a concrete language. Ancient Hebrew was made up of symbols of real tangible objects that you could touch, smell, see, hear and taste. This was what is called a concrete language with concrete concepts.
The people of the Old Testament were very much like the language, they thought in concrete terms, material things, the visible creation.
The New Testament Bible was written in Greek. By contrast, Greek is very much an abstract language. The language of the N.T. has many abstract concepts that are spoken of to a great extent. They include things like love, joy, peace, faith, hope, eternal life and the kingdom of God. None of these can be sensed by our senses. They are what are called abstract concepts. The promise of eternal life as spirit beings is also an abstract concept.
The Greek letters are just letters that represent a sound, not definitive objects, very different from the symbols of objects of the Ancient Hebrew aleph-bet. Much of the English language came from abstract Greek, not from concrete Hebrew. The English culture is also based on Greek culture for example government, law and philosophy.
These N.T. concepts and language were difficult for the Hebrews to grasp. This is made plain by the fact that we have many examples of the apostles strating that they did not understand Jesus. They were a people who understood the world they lived in and grew up in in concrete terms and concepts.
When we read the Bible in English today we lose sight of the fact that the Hebrews were a concrete thinking nation. English and Greek are both largely abstract based languages and cultures. They are cultures based on ideals, theories, hypotheses, thoughts and dreams and not on bread and fish. And so the concept of new wineskins is brought out even more through a new language, the wineskin, to hold a new message, the wine.
Lets look at Luke chapter 5 verses 37 to 39.
This verse is the same as the one we previously read but Luke adds something very significant at the end. He adds,
Luke 5:39. (NASB)
“And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.
Those who live by the O.T. alone are of this opinion, the old is good enough. There are many who live by the O.T. and expect the coming of the Messiah. They are the ones who will bring back the animal sacrifices. It appears that the old wineskins and the old wine will not be done away with.
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Another thought crossed my mind that stuck. Wine needs a container, the wineskin. When you consume wine you become the wineskin. Therefore, the Old wineskins were the people of the old testament. The New wineskins are the people of the New Testament. The Word of God is the wine. You will note that there is no harm done to new wineskins by old wine but new wine cannot be contained by old wineskins.
The wine that is poured into these wineskins could be the knowledge and grace that God gives us through His Holy Spirit. The Old Wineskins contained concrete ideas and the New Wineskins contain abstract ideas.
Please turn to 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 for my final scripture.
1 Corinthians 3:16 - 17 (NKJV)
16Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
The temple here is very much comparable to the wineskin that Jesus spoke of and that we read earlier. We are vessels of God’s word and spirit.
We should worship God and give our Creator the glory and the praise for supplying the wineskins and the wine.
So fill your wineskin with God’s truth, with God’s spirit and with God’s Word rather than with fermented grapes which is the way of the world. And we should respect others who do the same.
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