(Leviticus 10:1-20) Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the Lord spoke, saying,
‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy,
And before all the people I will be honored.’”
And before all the people I will be honored.’”
So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.
4 Moses called also to Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp.” 5 So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had said. 6 Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the Lord has brought about. 7 You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for the Lord’s anointing oil is upon you.” So they did according to the word of Moses.
8 The Lord then spoke to Aaron, saying, 9 “Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die—it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations— 10 and so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean, 11 and so as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.”
12 Then Moses spoke to Aaron, and to his surviving sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering that is left over from the Lord’s offerings by fire and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy. 13 You shall eat it, moreover, in a holy place, because it is your due and your sons’ due out of the Lord’s offerings by fire; for thus I have been commanded. 14 The breast of the wave offering, however, and the thigh of the offering you may eat in a clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you; for they have been given as your due and your sons’ due out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the sons of Israel. 15 The thigh offered by lifting up and the breast offered by waving they shall bring along with the offerings by fire of the portions of fat, to present as a wave offering before the Lord; so it shall be a thing perpetually due you and your sons with you, just as the Lord has commanded.”
16 But Moses searched carefully for the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it had been burned up! So he was angry with Aaron’s surviving sons Eleazar and Ithamar, saying, 17 “Why did you not eat the sin offering at the holy place? For it is most holy, and He gave it to you to bear away the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord. 18 Behold, since its blood had not been brought inside, into the sanctuary, you should certainly have eaten it in the sanctuary, just as I commanded.” 19 But Aaron spoke to Moses, “Behold, this very day they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord. When things like these happened to me, if I had eaten a sin offering today, would it have been good in the sight of the Lord?” 20 When Moses heard that, it seemed good in his sight.
TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:
Aaron's two sons sinned - because whatever they did while serving, it did not follow God's commands - and they died. I don't like making assumptions, but there are three assumptions that I think I can safely make, based on other scripture:
1. From verse 8's instructions for the priests not to drink "on the job"... we can assume that Aaron's two sons were PROBABLY intoxicated.
THIS IS WHAT WE KNOW: God allows us to drink, but not to the point of where it controls and derails us (ie. Ephesians 5:17-19). Bad decisions are easier to make while intoxicated.
2. At the end of verse 3, it says that Aaron kept silent... so PERHAPS before that point, he was angry and questioning God about taking his son's lives, because the entire verse explains WHY his son's deserved death. Priests were not to mourn while "on the job" in order to keep people focused on God; and in this case, their mourning could have appeared to the people as showing partiality to the sins of Nadab and Abihu.
THIS IS WHAT WE KNOW: God is all-knowing and just, so we really do not have any right to question what He does or doesn't do (ie. Romans 9:20).
3. In verse 18, Moses became angry and judged Aaron and his two other sons for not eating the goat from the sin offering... but was this MAYBE an added expectation of Moses, demanding a higher standard than God? Notice that at the end of verses 13 and 18, Moses said, "just as I commanded." God did command the priests to eat this offering in a specific way, but also gave them an allowance and a command to burn the leftovers. Aaron explained and perhaps confessed to Moses that they didn't eat because they felt unworthy, so then Moses saw their reasoning and perhaps forgave them.
THIS IS WHAT WE KNOW: God never makes exceptions for any of His commandments! And there is never any room for "situational ethics" in God's eyes. But He has only given us ten commandments which can be summed up in two! Love God and love people!
God is so very patient and gracious with His children! These are things we need to put into practice with ourselves and each other. It's funny how we get so upset about having rules and regulations when we think they will "cramp our style". But then when we vie for control over situations, we love to ADD rules and regulations in order to do things our own way.
This is why we need to be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus. At the point of our salvation, God extends to us His forgiveness, mercy and grace, which we so desperately need because we will still continue to make mistakes until we reach heaven. We will never lose our salvation, but we will experience consequences as God allows, because as our loving heavenly Father, He will discipline us as needed. And then there's His amazing grace, which allows us to continue on in His peace, strength, wisdom!
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