Never defy His holiness . . .

 

 

READ Leviticus 9-12

Jesus told His disciples to pray realizing God is our Father in heaven, and His Name is to be hallowed, that is, holy, consecrated, held sacred and honored. He is a God of great love, but He is also holy and to be held in reverential awe.

Lest anyone forgets this, the third book in the OT records God calling priests to serve Him and the people. It gives various laws that reflect His holy will, and tells this story:

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace. (Leviticus 10:1–3)

A careful reading shows how deeply offensive this action was. Not only did these two sons venture unauthorized to perform the incense service (the highest and most solemn of priestly duties) and not only did they do this together which was the duty of only one priest, but they intruded into the holy of holies, to which access was denied to all but the high priest. When “they offered strange fire before the Lord” they were guilty of a presumptuous and unwarranted intrusion into a sacred duty which did not belong to them. But even more, instead of taking the fire which was put into their censers from the brazen altar, they seem to have taken ordinary fire. This happened just after a descent of holy, miraculous fire from God that was laid in the temple for use in service. Thus they showed a careless irreverence, a lack of faith. God would not allow this to set a precedence. He expressed His divine displeasure because they had done something which “God commanded them not.” (*Some of these thoughts are from a commentary by Jamieson, Robert, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown.)

Note also that Aaron held his peace. I cannot imagine the pain of losing two sons in such a sudden and awful manner. He must have been horrified, yet this pious priest was silent. Many would have cried out in such a situation, but he did not complain or say a word, instead submitted to what he saw. Already he understood a principle that many of God’s people do not think about:

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:1–5)

It is easy to pass judgment on those who commit sins that we would never commit. Yet the Word of God says we must not do that. For one thing, sin is sin. In the NT, lists of sin point to such things as lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, but also include quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. God does not grade sin on a scale. Sin separates sinners from Him, whether it is murder, stealing, gossip or conceit.

Not only that, only God has the authority and ability to rightly judge sin. Aaron understood that and when his boys were struck down, this dad refused to show the same disrespect for Almighty God as did his sons.

For many years, my husband and I have prayed with another couple for our adult children. Some of them claim to know Jesus yet we are not certain if that is true. Even though we have not seen great changes in their lives, our prayers have changed us and that is a good thing. However, could I be like Aaron if God saw in any of them a great hardness of heart and disrespect for His holiness and His call to their hearts? Could I hold my peace and not cry out in be upset with God if He struck them down? 

For this, I cling to His promises and keep on praying and doing whatever I can to represent His ways and His will, realizing that God is God and has every right to choose wrath for sin or grace — based on the willing sacrifice of His Son. If it were not for grace, none of us could take another breath; we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.