Fire of God

In my normal course of reading, I was in Leviticus the other day.  Our brains normally take a break at the chapters, but while reading the end of chapter 9, I felt strongly to just go on to 10, and read it all as one story.

Our brains, especially if you have been raised in church, are somewhat programmed to put a hard stop at the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next, like it is a separate statement, time, or incident.  However, that is not how the bible was written. 

The original books were written with no breaks.  The breaks were added much later.  Chapters were added in the 1200’s and verse numbers in the 1440’s for the Hebrew Torah, and 1500’s for the entire bible, including the New Testament.  These were done to make studying and reciting the passages easier to locate.
Because of that, we break it up, often ignoring how the event took place.  In this instance, it was all at one time.

To give this story context, Aaron and his sons, the priests, had been anointed, the tabernacle was built with all of the furnishings and vessels ready for use.  It was time to sacrifice the very first offering.  Then we see at the end of Chapter 9, Aaron blesses the people and presents the offering. 
Below is Leviticus 9:22-10:7 and I’m removing the chapters and verse numbers, to aid you in reading it the way it was originally intended.

After that, Aaron raised his hands toward the people and blessed them. Then, after presenting the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, he stepped down from the altar.  Then Moses and Aaron went into the Tabernacle, and when they came back out, they blessed the people again, and the glory of the LORD appeared to the whole community.  Fire blazed forth from the LORD’s presence and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When the people saw this, they shouted with joy and fell face down on the ground.

Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the LORD by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded.  So fire blazed forth from the LORD’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the LORD.

Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD meant when he said,
‘I will display my holiness
through those who come near me.
I will display my glory
before all the people.’”
And Aaron was silent.

Then Moses called for Mishael and Elzaphan, Aaron’s cousins, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel. He said to them, “Come forward and carry away the bodies of your relatives from in front of the sanctuary to a place outside the camp.”   So they came forward and picked them up by their garments and carried them out of the camp, just as Moses had commanded.

​Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not show grief by leaving your hair uncombed or by tearing your clothes. If you do, you will die, and the LORD’s anger will strike the whole community of Israel. However, the rest of the Israelites, your relatives, may mourn because of the LORD’s fiery destruction of Nadab and Abihu.   But you must not leave the entrance of the Tabernacle or you will die, for you have been anointed with the LORD’s anointing oil.” So they did as Moses commanded.
 
It's a little breathtaking isn’t it.  On the heals of what was a glorious thing, something horrible happens.  Holy fire consumed the sacrifice, and the same holy fire killed Aaron’s sons. 
There is so much here to unpack.

This was all brand new and the first time they had offered a sacrifice after the dedication of the tabernacle and ordination of the priests!If you go back and read the prior chapters, you will see that Moses had gotten the instructions from the Lord and passed them on to Aaron.  He and his sons, all of them, had just been anointed/ordained.  They had just completed the tabernacle.  This was the very first time they were going to do this thing God had commanded.

• What a glorious moment

9:22 After that, Aaron raised his hands toward the people and blessed them. Then, after presenting the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, he stepped down from the altar. 23 Then Moses and Aaron went into the Tabernacle, and when they came back out, they blessed the people again, and the glory of the LORD appeared to the whole community.

They blessed the people and the GLORY of the LORD appeared to everyone there.  I can’t even fathom what that must have been like.  I’ve been in some amazing worship services.  Those must pale in comparison to what happened here.

• Holy Fire

24 Fire blazed forth from the LORD’s presence and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When the people saw this, they shouted with joy and fell face down on the ground.

This is the first time holy fire had appeared in this manner.  They had seen the fire by night that guided them, but nothing like fire coming and consuming the offering. 

Sometimes the weighty presence of God is to much to stand, literally.  Just as in the garden with Jesus when the soldiers fell back, the people had to fall down because of the power of His presence.

• Zealous or Jealous

10:1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the LORD by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded.   2 So fire blazed forth from the LORD’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the LORD.

This act really hit me.  Every time I have heard this passage taught or preached, it was presented as arrogant sons overstepping.  But for the first time, I realized, they may just have been excited.  I’ve been there.  During an amazing moment of worship or during a service, where I felt I had to just DO SOMETHING.  I’m sure I have mis-stepped at some point and I’m so grateful that we don’t have to worry about that fire, and least not in my experience.  But we are moving into a time where God is reinstituting His Holiness in the earth, so who knows what we will see.

We don’t know the motivation for their actions.  Pride, ambition, jealousy, or just impatience, but whatever it was, it wasn’t God’s prescribed way. 

We forget that since they were the sons of Aaron, they were of the first prescribed priestly order.  They had seen all of the miracles of the plagues coming out of Egypt, witnessed the majesty of God’s acts on Mount Sinai, and even had the glorious dinner with God and the other elders in Exodus 24. 

When they grabbed the censors and put their fire in them, Gods fire consumed them immediately.  I’m sure that in that moment, they may have had the realization of their sin, but it was such a quick action, you know everyone was in shock.

The same fire that displayed God’s glory, no showed His judgment of these presumptuous priests.   This was the first instance we see of both God’s Holy fire and His fire of judgement. 
​
God’s fire occurs 12 times in scripture.  Six in a beneficial way, and 6 in judgement. 

God sent the first fire in that said, “I accept your sacrifice and approve of this priestly system.” This same fire then came from the LORD and devoured them, saying “I will not accept your man-based, fleshly attempt to imitate My fire; I will bring judgment.”

• Wise words for understanding

3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD meant when he said,
‘I will display my holiness
through those who come near me.
I will display my glory
before all the people.’”
And Aaron was silent.
 
While there may not be one specific verse that these words point back to, it was throughout much of what God had already instructed.  But we do see a very clear comment.

Exodus 19:22
Even the priests who regularly come near to the LORD must purify themselves so that the LORD does not break out and destroy them.”

Keep in mind, Moses and Aaron were brothers.  This had to hit Moses very hard and he knew exactly why God struck down his nephews.

Some versions state at the end of verse 3 ‘And Aaron held his peace.’ 

This is unimaginable.  He had no time to stop them, he had no time to speak, he had no time to do anything, but watch his sons, watch his legacy, succumb to the judgement of God.  The only thing to do was to submit to the holiness of God, amid his immense grieving.
 

• Time to Clean up

4 Then Moses called for Mishael and Elzaphan, Aaron’s cousins, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel. He said to them, “Come forward and carry away the bodies of your relatives from in front of the sanctuary to a place outside the camp.” 5 So they came forward and picked them up by their garments and carried them out of the camp, just as Moses had commanded.

Moses asked those who were not of the priestly line to carry them outside of the camp.  Aaron had other sons there, Eleazar and Ithamar.  We see later, where they are put into service.  So they were not able to help take their brothers away because it would make them unclean.  All they could do was stand and watch. 

• Do not grieve

6 Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not show grief by leaving your hair uncombed or by tearing your clothes. If you do, you will die, and the LORD’s anger will strike the whole community of Israel. However, the rest of the Israelites, your relatives, may mourn because of the LORD’s fiery destruction of Nadab and Abihu. 7 But you must not leave the entrance of the Tabernacle or you will die, for you have been anointed with the LORD’s anointing oil.” So they did as Moses commanded.

David Guzik’s commentary tells us “This perhaps was the hardest day of Aaron’s life. Two of his sons were suddenly killed under the judgment of God, and he could not mourn them. To mourn might have implied — even in the slightest way — that God was wrong in bringing this judgment upon Nadab and Abihu. Aaron or Moses could not communicate this; it would dishonor God.”

Remember that Aaron had done something much more grievous by building the golden calf in the wilderness, however, that was before he was anointed as priest.  Now the responsibility is much greater. 
My heart was broken reading this passage in this way.  I no longer saw Nadab and Abihu as awful priests like the sons of Eli (1 Samuel 2:12-4:11).  Now I realized that they had been waiting on this day for so long, where they would be anointed to serve as priests of the Lord. 

Remember that Moses had received very specific instructions from the Lord and passed them on to Aaron and his sons.  He may not have specifically mentioned not grabbing some coals from the other fire, but God was very specific that his rules were to be kept, which meant, no variance.  They should have known.
Unfortunately, we are seeing so much strange fire offered now, sometimes we wish we would see just a little fire of God.  So why don’t we?

After reading this, I was reminded of my blog from last week, Mercy and Truth.  We have the heralds before the throne to cry out to save us from the fire of judgement.  But weren’t they there when this happened?  I believe they were, but Nadab and Abihu ignored God’s prescribed manner and suffered the consequences.
Today though, we CAN approach the throne, knowing that if we mess up, Mercy and Truth will step in and take the fire for us.  Then gentle mercy of Holy Spirit conviction is there to protect and keep us from being burned up. 

While we should be eternally grateful for their protection, we must begin to get serious about our responsibilities before the Lord.  We are in a season where we are seeing fire, it just doesn’t look like what we expect.