By Staff
In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, chapter 10, we witness what might be described as harsh judgment by God.
Nadab and Abihu were sons of Aaron, the high priest of Israel. These sons had just been consecrated as priests and were beginning their ministry.
One day Nadab and Abihu went before the Lord to burn incense as prescribed. For some reason, they added something to the incense beyond what God had commanded. As they came with their censors afire to worship, fire came out from God and consumed them. There they lay dead before the altar of God (Leviticus 10:2).
Moses told Aaron to stay where he was; he was not to leave his station before the Lord. The cousins of Nadab and Abihu came and carried them out of the camp.
Moses then instructed Aaron and his two remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, in the conduct of priests (Leviticus 10:6-15). The timing of what Moses did appears questionable. Aaron's sons had made a mistake and died for it. Maybe there should have been a little timeout for Aaron and his family to grieve and deal with the circumstances.
The issue was the holiness of God. Moses reminded Aaron of what the Lord had said in Leviticus, chapter 10, verse 3: "By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified." Nadab and Abihu died because they did not take seriously the holiness of God.
Later that day, Moses asked about another duty of the priesthood that had obviously been neglected. The goat of the sin offering was to be killed, the blood brought inside the holy place, and the meat put on the altar and then eaten by Aaron and his sons. The goat was left on the altar too long and was burned up (Leviticus 10:16).
This was another serious altercation by the priests in carrying out their ministry. When Aaron was confronted by Moses in verse 19, he said, "Look, this day they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD, and such things have befallen me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been accepted in the sight of the LORD?" Moses went no further with the matter (Leviticus 10:20).
Two things among many others are worthy of note. First, Aaron knew his heart. Rather than continue in sham and pretense, he threw himself on the mercy of God, stating that he did not have the capacity to carry out the letter of the law on that day.
Moses is a picture of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, and we must believe that he interceded for Aaron and his two remaining sons with God in much the same way as he did in Exodus, chapter 32, verses 8-14. In that case, God relented from His intent to destroy Israel.
The second thing is that God is holy and He never compromises His holiness; nor should we. Jesus Christ is God's provision for us. Jesus Christ by His death on the cross has covered all our sin and shortcomings. We must fully avail ourselves of all that Jesus Christ is. We do that by humbling ourselves and recognizing our great need.
We must come before God. We must approach His holiness. But, we must be sure that we are covered by the blood of Christ. To assume that we have anything in and of ourselves to offer God, or to believe that there is anything about us other than our relationship with Jesus Christ to recommend us to God is doing exactly what Nadab and Abihu did.
Aaron did the right thing. His sons blew it. Then, he blew it. He threw himself on the mercy of God and was spared.
We must never diminish how awesome and holy God is. We must never play games. As carefully as the Old Testament priests cleansed themselves and clothed themselves to go before God (Leviticus 8), so we must deliberately and humbly put on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We know that God fully accepts Jesus Christ and us in Him.