So, with all that being
said, we can now move on to Leviticus 10. It is from this chapter that we get a
phrase that is used quite commonly. That phrase is “strange fire.” This is, of
course, the story of Nadab and Abihu. And this is yet one more tale of someone
knowing what God expects out of them and saying “Well, yeah, I know God said
that. But did He really mean it? Besides, I think I can do
this a whole lot better than God.” And keep in mind, the same God that acts
in this chapter is the same God who is acting today. He has not changed. He
jealously guards His holiness, and He will not have any foolish humans telling
Him how He ought to do things, or telling Him that they can do things better
than He can. Leviticus 10:1—Then Nadab and
Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense
on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded
them. Who were Nadab and Abihu? They were sons of Aaron. Did they know
what kind of incense God had specifically told them they were to use? Did He
not spell out for them, quite plainly? Now, when and where this happened has
been debated by scholars over these many years. I would agree with the conclusions
of Keil and Delitzsch—
“By the fire which they offered before Jehovah, we are no
doubt to understand the firing of the incense-offering. This might be called
“strange fire” if it was not offered in the manner prescribed in the law, just
as in Exodus 30:9 incense not prepared according to the direction of God
is called “strange incense.” The supposition that they presented an
incense-offering that was not commanded in the law, and apart from the time of
the morning and evening sacrifice, and that this constituted their sin, is
supported by the time at which their illegal act took place. It is perfectly
obvious from Leviticus 10:12 and Leviticus 10:16 ff. that it
occurred in the interval between the sacrificial transaction in chapter 9 and
the sacrificial meal which followed it, and therefore upon the day of their
inauguration. For in Leviticus 10:12 Moses commands Aaron and his
remaining sons Eleazar and Ithamar to eat the meat-offering that was left from
the firings of Jehovah, and inquires in Leviticus 10:16 for the goat of
the sin-offering, which the priests were to have eaten in a holy place.
Knobel's opinion is not an improbable one, therefore, that Nadab and Abihu
intended to accompany the shouts of the people with an incense-offering to the
praise and glory of God, and presented an incense-offering not only at an
improper time, but not prepared from the altar-fire, and committed such a sin
by this will-worship, that they were smitten by the fire which came forth from
Jehovah, even before their entrance into the holy place, and so died ‘before
Jehovah.’”
And since Leviticus
10:4 tells us that Moses commanded they be removed “from
before the sanctuary,” this more than likely happened outside the tent,
in the courtyard, and not inside the tabernacle. So they probably didn’t offer
this mixture on the Altar of Incense. But whenever and wherever this happened,
one thing is clear: they were to use only a certain mixture for the incense
they were to burn, and that mixture was to be burned only on the Altar of Incense.
Exodus 30:7-9, 34-35—“7 Aaron shall burn on
it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense
on it…9 You shall not offer strange incense on it,”…34 And the LORD said
to Moses: “Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure
frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each. 35
You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the
perfumer, salted, pure, and holy.” What’s that last word? “Holy.” This
was what God commanded. This was not a suggestion; this was not God
recommending that they make something like this, while telling them “But ya
know, if you want to mix it up a little, be My guest.” God said this
mixture was “holy.” And it was this mixture and ONLY this mixture that was to
be burned on the Altar of Incense—Period, paragraph. This was not a case of “God
said it; I believe it; that settles it.” This was (as it always is) “God
said it—THAT SETTLES IT.” Whether or not we believe it—really doesn't
matter.
When we studied the
Trespass Offerings we talked about how there are so many churches today that
are bringing the filthy elements of the world into their “church” service. They
seem to have this notion that “Well, I know God may not think this is right.
But, we know how to draw a crowd better than God does, so we’re gonna do it
like this. God will understand.” And what is always their excuse? “We
must have done something right because look at all the people that came!”
Oh, and let’s not forget the tired old, “We had 20,000 young people meet
Jesus tonight!” Well, there may be some who actually came to know
Christ—but I dare say it was in spite of their worldly methods, rather than it
being a fruit of them. And I'm sure once they realize they’ve been eating
rotten fruit, they will seek a place where a pastor actually feeds them solid
food, rather than the sugar-coated skubolon they've been choking on.
Bishop Joseph Hall, writing in the late 1500’s and early 1600’s, writes, "It
is a dangerous thing, in the service of God, to decline from his institutions;
we have to do with a God, who is wise to prescribe his own worship - just to
require what he has prescribed - and powerful to avenge what he has not
prescribed."
Leviticus 10:2-3—2 So
fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. 3
And Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke, saying: 'By those
who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must
be glorified.'" So Aaron held his peace. The same fire that had just displayed God’s acceptance
of their initial offerings was now displaying His indignation at being
scoffed at and mocked by these two disobedient transgressors. No second
chances, no opportunity to apologize, no appeal. God killed them. Period,
paragraph, end of story. They became their own Sin Offering. And God was quite
justified in killing them right then and there, because it was His holiness
that he was defending. But how many times do we see it? The defenders of those
who offer strange fire to God will rally to their defense, rather than
defending God’s right to be worshipped as He sees fit. But God is not man. If
your pastor says that something should be done a certain way, and others decide
it should be done another way, that is only natural. Man is a fallen creature,
and does not possess the ability to demand others to march in lock-step with
his decisions. But when God demands something be done a certain way, or not
done a certain way, He is the ultimate Authority, the one who gave His life for
the church, the One who is Sovereign over every square inch of creation. And if
He says to do something or to not do something, He is to be obeyed—regardless
of what your pastor or my pastor says.
If we get to the book of
Numbers, we find the people time and time again bucking against God’s
authority, and grumbling and complaining about the decisions God makes and the
authority figures that God places over
them. And time and time again, God sends His wrath and fury upon them, burning
the outskirts of the camp (Numbers 11:1); sending quail just to spite
the people and then killing them as they chewed it (Numbers 11:33);
bringing leprosy upon Miriam (Numbers 12:10); allowing them to be routed
in battle against the Canaanites and the Amalekites (Numbers 14:39-45);
swallowing up hundreds of Korah’s family (Numbers 16:31-33); sending
fiery serpents to bite and kill people (Numbers 21:4-9); destroying
24,000 people in one day for idolatry (Numbers 25:9). And on and on and
on. The same God that brought all these plagues and death on the people for
complaining against Him and for rebelling against Him and for treating the
holiness of God as some flippant thing—this is the same God that rules over all
creation to this day. But we don’t get it. We don’t want to think like that. We
want to believe in a fuzzy-wuzzy God that just winks and nods at our sins, and
that lets us join all kinds of abominable filth to the worship of Almighty
YHVH. We want to say, “Oh, that Old Testament God was such an ogre. He
wasn’t very nice at all. Now this Jesus, he’s so much more loving and tolerant,
and He lets me get away with all kinds of things. I like Him better!” As if
Jesus is some laid-back, hippy-type slacker dude that lets us carry on any way
we want with no repercussions.
Anyone know what Christ
is going to do when He returns? How does John describe Him in Revelation? He
ain't no milquetoast! Revelation 19:11-18—11
Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His
eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name
written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped
in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now
out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations.
And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His
robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. 17 Then
I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to
all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, "Come and gather together
for the supper of the great God, 18 that you may eat the flesh of kings, the
flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those
who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and
great." Does that sound like some lovey-dovey, “Let’s all just
get together for milk and cookies and get past our differences” type of
king? This is a king who judges and makes war! A King who is clothed in a robe
dipped in blood. Who, with a word from His mouth destroys His enemies, and who
leaves their rotting corpses in the field for the vultures to pick at! Not just
the kings and generals of the earth—but even the poorest, most destitute soul
who follows those kings will be slaughtered by this King on His white horse.
And He will not feel one ounce of remorse about it because this is His
creation, and He will rule it the way He
sees fit, and if any dare to try and stand in His way he
will hack them in pieces the way Samuel hacked up Agag. And He will look around
and ask, “Who’s next?” But there won’t be a “Next” because He will have
vanquished all His enemies. This is the God that Nadab and Abihu said, “Oh,
that’s OK, He’ll understand!” That’s the same God that “pastors” like Perry
Noble and Steven Furtick think will sit sweetly and idly by while he feeds load
after load of watered-down manure and satanic music to those who sit under their
teaching. He will sit by for now. But one day they will give account. I pray I
never lose the sense of awe of God like these seem to have.
Leviticus 10:4-7—4 Then
Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and
said to them, "Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary
out of the camp." 5 So they went near and carried them by their tunics out
of the camp, as Moses had said. 6 And Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and
Ithamar, his sons, "Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, lest
you die, and wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren, the whole
house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD has kindled. 7 You shall not
go out from the door of the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die, for the
anointing oil of the LORD is upon you." And they did according to the word
of Moses. They would not even touch the actual bodies of these two—they carried them by their tunics. They knew that a
very unhappy God had just killed their cousins for adding to or taking away
from what God had said to do. And they carried them out
of the camp. Probably out to where the Sin Offerings were burned,
although we can't say for sure. But wherever they took the bodies, one thing is
clear: they were not to remain in the camp, therefore defiling and polluting
the camp. Now, notice something else too—something that had not dawned on me
until I read what Keil and Delitzsch said on this matter. The fire of God had
burned up these two men. Yet they were carried out by their tunics. So this
obviously means that their tunics were not burned. Their bodies had been
burned—but not their clothing. This is a very Sovereign God! One who can burn a
body without singing clothes! This same Sovereign God who made a bush that
burned but was not consumed, and who allowed three men (well, actually, four)
to stand in a furnace and not be burned at all, and to make it so that their
clothing did not even smell like smoke. This is a powerful God. And yet some
exist who will say “We’re gonna do things our own way, and God will have to
bless it, and that’s that!” Yeah, good luck with that.
And notice what Moses
commands of them. "Do not uncover your heads
nor tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the people." They
could not mourn over these two men. Why? Why couldn’t they mourn? After all,
these were their cousins! That sounds like a very mean, nasty God! Well, yea—to
human minds. But God would not let these men mourn for their cousins for one
very important reason: God’s holiness is to be treasured and jealously guarded
against all those who would stand against it. I dare say that when we are in
Heaven, and if we could see into Hell, and see people there that we knew and
loved in this life, we would not shed a tear. Because God’s justice will have
been satisfied, and we will know that in their suffering in hell, God will be
glorified. And think about this as well: In order to carry them out of
the camp, they had to carry them through the camp. All of
Israel was a spectator to the aftermath of what they only saw glimpses of: They
had no doubt seen the fire come down, and now they were seeing these charred
bodies—still wrapped in the clothing they wore—being hauled through their
midst, the men carrying the bodies neither weeping nor mourning. Matthew Henry—“Nadab
and Abihu (who had been in the mount with God, Exodus 24:1) were
looked upon as the great favourites of heaven, and the hopes of their people;
and now on a sudden, when the tidings of the event had scarcely reached their
ears, to see them both carried out dead, with the visible marks of divine
vengeance upon them, as sacrifices to the justice of God, they could not choose
but cry out, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?” And
yet, time after time, these same people who saw the charred bodies of these two
rebellious creatures would rebel themselves against this mighty and sovereign
God.
Leviticus 10:8-11—8 Then
the LORD spoke to Aaron, saying: "9 Do not drink wine or intoxicating
drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting,
lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, 10
that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and
clean, 11 and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which
the LORD has spoken to them by the hand of Moses." Let’s talk about
one thing real quick. If you have a MacArthur Study Bible, you will see that
Dr. MacArthur postulates that the reason for this prohibition against wine and
intoxicating drink is this: “Taken in its context, this prohibition suggests
that intoxication led Nadab and Abihu to perform their blasphemous act.”
Now, he is certainly not the only commentator to suggest such a connection. Nearly
every commentary I have read theorizes such. And while it’s certainly entirely
possible, we don’t necessarily have the connection in the words. If we had a
connecting word like “therefore” at the beginning of verse 8, and it read “Therefore,
the LORD said to Aaron…”—then it would be obvious. But no matter whether one
holds to such an opinion or not, it is certainly not a hill worth dying on. Here’s
why: does man need to be intoxicated to rebel against God? Was Adam drunk when
he ate of the tree? Was David inebriated when he took Bathsheba? Was either
Herod, or Annas or Caiaphas under the influence of strong drink when they led
the Lord of Glory to His death? No. Man can buck against the commands of God
quite easily without the aid of alcohol.
That said, let’s talk
about the reason for this injunction. “That you may
distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, and that
you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken
to them by the hand of Moses.” This seems to indicate that God has set
up some kind of dividing line between what is good and evil, does it not? Yes
it does. And why does it? Because there are things which God considers clean,
and there are things which God considers unclean. There are things that God
considers to be good, and there are things which God considers to be sinful. Amos
7:7-8—7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord
stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. 8 And
the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb
line." Then the Lord said: “Behold, I am setting a plumb line In the midst
of My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore.” When we talk
about the church being the “House of God”, what description to we give of
Christ? Acts 4:11—“This is the ‘stone which
was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’”
God does not deal in loopholes. He does not have “grey areas” when He speaks.
He does not approve of something one day and disapprove of that same thing the
next day. The LORD our God is not the schizophrenic “God” of Mormonism, who
changes His mind every time the wind blows (or they elect a new “prophet”). He
deals in black and white. He does not say to a people, “Well, if you guys
think homosexuality is OK in your culture and in your context—well, I won’t
consider it to be a sin for you people. But I will for others.” This idea
of God adapting His commandments to fit in with what a certain culture believes
is nonsense.
And if you want to build
a (literal) house that will stand, you have to deal in absolutes. You have to
be able to say, “This wall is not straight” and “These pipes are the
wrong size.” You have to measure angles very precisely or your house will
not stand. You don’t just eyeball these things. And when God sets out to build
a (spiritual) house, you can be sure that He has very exacting standards. A
cornerstone and a plumb line—these are the things God uses to determine whether
the angles are correct or not. Every part of His house is measured against his
plumb line, and against the cornerstone.
And right now, His creation is not plumb. It is not level with the
Cornerstone. And even the creation knows it—even if the crown of His creation,
Man, does not. Isaiah 1:3—“The ox knows its
owner and the donkey its master's crib; but Israel does not know, My people do
not consider.” Romans 8:20-22—20 For
the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who
subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of
God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs
together until now.
Man does not need
intoxicating drink to rebel against the Cornerstone, or to become out of line
with what God considers to be plumb. It’s how we are born. But when we use such
liquors, and we cloud our judgment even further, we move ourselves even further
away from that plumb line. There are some who do not want to divorce themselves
from these drinks, and they will find all kinds of excuses to rationalize their
behavior. “Oh, I'm just an alcoholic. I can't help myself!” You're
right—you can't help yourself. That’s why you need to submit yourself to the yoke
of Christ and learn from Him and seek Him. Is it easy? No. No burdensome sin
that we carry around is easy to get rid of. But if you keep giving in to it,
you only have yourself to blame. Proverbs 20:1—Wine
is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not
wise. If you want a nearly perfect description of one who is in bondage
to alcohol, read Proverbs 23:29-35—29 Who
has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has
wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 30 Those who linger long at the
wine, those who go in search of mixed wine. 31 Do not look on the wine when it
is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; 32 at the
last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see
strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things. 34 Yes, you will be
like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies at the top
of the mast, saying: "35 They have struck me, but I was not hurt; they have
beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another
drink?" This admonition carries over into the New Testament when
Paul writes, Ephesians 5:18—Do not be drunk
on wine, but be filled with the Spirit. Why? Why does God warn us not to
become intoxicated? So that we may discern between what is clean and what is
unclean, between what is holy and what is profane. We can find sinful things
all on our own—we don’t need the help of strong drink to get us there more
quickly. In fact, it is not for no reason that liquor stores often describe
themselves as selling wine and…what? “Spirits.” There’s a reason liquor is
called “Spirits.”
