A Priestly Failure

Studies in Leviticus
Nadab and Abihu – Priestly Failure
Lev. 10

This morning we are going to be in Leviticus chapter 10 where we see an example of priestly failure. Last week we were in chapters 8 and 9 where we saw God institute the priesthood. Once the sacrificial system was in place and the people could draw near to God, it was then necessary to establish a communication link – which is what the priesthood accomplished. The High Priest served as God‟s mouthpiece, he conveyed the will of God to the people of God, but almost immediately there was this tragic failure and Aaron‟s two oldest sons lost their lives because of it. This was a huge blow, not only to Aaron personally but also to the entire nation of Israel, and there are many lessons we can learn from this sad story.

Before we get into the passage though, let‟s review our memory passage.
“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, „Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, „I am the LORD your God. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD.‟”

In the passage Bill read this morning from the book of Hebrews, we saw a principle that doesn‟t get a whole lot of exposure in Christendom today, and that is the truth that our God is a holy God who deals strongly with willful sin. It really is true that “it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” I don‟t think Bill read verses 26 and 27 of the chapter, but those verses say, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.”

When is the last time you heard a sermon from this verse? Well, this principle literally came true in Leviticus 10, and what I want to share with you this morning is the danger of diminishing a holy God. Why is that a dangerous thing to do? Because of the personal consequences, the familial consequences, and the community consequences. What we are going to see in this chapter is that when we fail to honor the holiness of God, a series of concentric circles emanate from us that affect those we love most. Let‟s start reading in verse one.

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.

The burning of incense was one of the more mundane jobs of the priesthood. It involved taking your firepan, going to the altar where the offerings were burned, taking some tongs and picking out some coals, and then sprinkling incense on them which would smolder and create the smoke and pleasant smell that is associated with incense.

This is what Nadab and Abihu did, but God called it “strange fire.” What is this “strange fire” that they offered? Some translations render this word “unauthorized fire.” Whatever it was, it was not done according to the directions God had laid out for the priests, as seen in the last phrase, “which He had not commanded.” God‟s word doesn‟t tell us the specifics of the disobedience. Was it offered at the wrong time? Did they take the coals from the wrong altar? Did they use incense other than the specific kind God had mandated? We don‟t know. All we know is that it was contrary to God‟s directions and therefore not recognized by God as being legitimate. It was “strange fire.”

In verse two we see the personal consequences of their actions.

2 And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

One of the truths I have come to be aware of is that in the church, imbalance is a greater threat to us than unorthodoxy. In other words, Satan causes more damage in our ranks through imbalance than through bad doctrine. Nobody here this morning is probably ever going to struggle with whether or not Jesus is the virgin born Son of God. But we will struggle with how much of our lives do we give to pursuing the Kingdom of God and how much of our lives do we give to pursuing our own agendas.

This phenomenon of dangerous imbalance is really seen in this matter of how we perceive God, because we know on the one hand that God is a loving, heavenly father. He is amazingly patient, and He has our best interest at heart, and longs for us as seen in the story of the prodigal son. But that is only half the story. God is also a holy and just God who has a hatred of sin that is beyond our understanding. I think we can legitimately say that our God is both a loving and a dangerous God!
And when we fail to keep both of these truths in balance, we get into trouble very quickly. That is the lesson that Nadab and Abihu learned. This is also the lesson that Ananias and Sapphira learned when they lied to the Holy Spirit about the price of a piece of land they sold, in Acts 5. This is also the lesson King Herod learned in Acts 12 when he accepted for himself the glory that was due to God. Yes, God is a patient and loving God, but that is only half the equation – he is also a God who will not tolerate willful defiance.

So here is where we see the personal consequences of diminishing the holiness of God. Nadab and Abihu thought they could serve as priests in the way they thought best. They found out differently.

3 Then Moses said to Aaron [understand that this is a man who has just seen two of his sons killed!], "It is what the LORD spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me [the priesthood] I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored.'" So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

This verse shows us the crux of the issue. What was it that Nadab and Abihu did that was so offensive to God? Think about it. They were serving God. They were wearing their priestly robes. They were performing a priestly duty. They were in God‟s tabernacle. What else could God want? Thanks for asking, because God wants two things. Number 1), God does not want to be treated as common, and number 2) God does not want to be taken lightly. Let me repeat that. Number 1), God does not want to be treated as common, and number 2) God does not want to be taken lightly. We see these two truths in the two words “holy” and “honored.” God‟s expectations are, “I will be treated as holy,” and “I will be honored.”

The word “holy” carries the idea of being separated from the common, and the word “honored” carries the idea of being weighty. The God of the universe is not to be treated as familiar, nor are His instructions to be understood as suggestions. To do so takes God from His throne and place Him down on the pavement where we are, and Nadab and Abihu‟s failure lay in their diminishing of God.

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.

Here we see the waves of consequence starting to spread from the offenders to their family. Remember why it is dangerous to diminish the holiness of God: because of the personal consequences, the familial consequences, and the community consequences. And so here we have two of Nadab and Abihu‟s cousins carrying their dead cousins away from the tabernacle, through the encampment, and to a place outside the camp. They carried them by grasping their garments so they wouldn‟t be defiled by a dead body, and I would imagine that this scene was seared into the memory of the entire priesthood. It was a vivid object lesson concerning the holiness of God.

Something interesting we see here is the divine nature of the discipline. In verse two we see that “fire” came out from the presence of God and killed them, but interestingly enough, the fire did not consume their garments. Nobody looking on could say that this was a tragic accident and that the fire in the firepans got out of control and killed them. Had that been the case, their clothing would have been burnt – but it wasn‟t. This was a case of divine judgment for diminishing a holy God.

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 may not die, and that He may 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, lest you die; for the LORD's anointing oil is upon you." So they did according to the word of Moses.

This verse shows us more of the familial consequences of Nadab and Abihu‟s sin – Aaron and his two remaining sons were forbidden from showing the traditional signs of grief. They weren‟t even allowed to accompany the bodies to the burial. And right off the bat, Aaron and his sons have to demonstrate whether or not they are going to treat God as common and light, or holy and honored. When God says, “Don‟t uncover your head or tear your clothes or leave the tabernacle,” He means precisely that. No exceptions. No extenuating circumstances. No going with the “spirit of the law.” No “But God, these are my sons!” The High Priest and his two sons had to show that they understood God‟s unequivocal right to dictate even how they expressed their personal grief.

Now when we get to verse 8 we see something interesting. Out of the entire passage it gives us some clue as to what was going on in Nadab and Abihu‟s mind when they offered strange fire. We know what they did, but a deeper question is why? What was going through their minds when they offered the strange fire?

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 may 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."

To be perfectly blunt, Nadab and Abihu were probably drunk when they did this. Why else would God interject this prohibition, and give it the status of a perpetual statute, at this time? We see further proof for this idea in verse 10 where God says that the rationale for not drinking strong drink when you come into the tent of meeting was so you could make distinctions between the holy and profane, between the clean and the unclean. When you are inebriated, what is one of the things you lose? Your ability to make distinctions between wise and foolish actions.

I heard about a drunk cowboy who went out into the street, stripped naked, ran to the edge of town and jumped in a bed of cacti. He sobered up real quickly. And when the doctor asked him why he did it, he said, “Well, at the time it seemed like a good idea.” That is what drunkenness does to you – it hurts your ability to make distinctions between good and bad ideas. And if there is anything a priest needs, it is that ability! Verse 11 is a sober reminder of the critical role the priesthood held in the nation of Israel – they taught the sons of Israel all the statutes which the Lord had spoken through Moses.

Now from verse 12 through verse 20, we have an account of the sacrificial meal that Aaron and his sons and family were supposed to eat. Understand that this probably happened on the day of the tragedy.

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 And when Moses heard that, it seemed good in his sight.

In a nutshell, Aaron and his family were in too much grief to eat this sacrificial meal that was the privilege of the priesthood. Instead, they burned the entire animal and didn‟t keep back any of it for themselves, which was probably not a wise idea since it was contrary to God‟s expectations! This is why v. 16 tells us that Moses was so angry – he had just seen two of his relatives lose their lives for disobedience, and now Aaron and his family were running the same risk. But Aaron‟s explanation in verse 19 was that there was no way their family could have enjoyed a feast on the day of the tragedy, so in verse 20 Moses accepts his explanation.

What does all this mean for you and me today? First of all, it means that God means what He says and says what He means. And when we minimize or marginalize Him, we do so at great personal risk. Secondly, it means that our God is not the caricature we see Him so often portrayed as in our culture. He is not “the big man upstairs.” He is not a doting, forgetful grandfather. He is not your best buddy. He is a holy God and when we diminish Him in any way, the consequences are very severe.