Scripture Daily

Context No. 1584 of 4322 · Numbers

Context · Reflection

Numbers 16:36-40: in context

36The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 37“Speak to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter the fire away from the camp; for they are holy, 38even the censers of those who sinned against their own lives. Let them be beaten into plates for a covering of the altar, for they offered them before the LORD. Therefore they are holy. They shall be a sign to the children of Israel.” 39Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers which those who were burned had offered; and they beat them out for a covering of the altar, 40to be a memorial to the children of Israel, to the end that no stranger who isn’t of the offspring of Aaron, would come near to burn incense before the LORD, that he not be as Korah and as his company; as the LORD spoke to him by Moses.

After Korah and his followers were destroyed for presuming to offer incense before the LORD, a task reserved for the appointed priests, God gives a command about their censers. The bronze censers, though used in rebellion, had been offered before the LORD and so were holy; they were to be hammered into plates and used as a covering for the altar. This was to be a memorial to Israel, a permanent reminder that no unauthorized person should presume to come near and burn incense before the LORD, lest they suffer the fate of Korah.

The memorial made from the rebels' censers was meant to keep alive a lesson about approaching God: that he is not to be approached however we please, presumptuously, on our own terms. Korah and his company had presumed to take up a holy service that was not theirs to take, to come near to God in a way he had not appointed, and it had cost them their lives. The censers hammered into the altar covering stood as a lasting warning against that presumption, a reminder that the holy God is to be approached with reverence and on his terms, not casually seized upon by anyone who fancies it. There is a truth here that a casual age easily loses. We are prone to approach God, if we think of him at all, casually, presumptuously, on our own terms, assuming access is ours to take however we like. The memorial censers are a reminder that God is holy, that coming near to him is a serious thing, and that reverence, not presumption, is the fitting posture. This is not to say God is unapproachable; the whole of scripture invites us to draw near. But it is to say that we draw near on his terms, with reverence, through the way he has appointed, and not by casual presumption. Under the old covenant that way was the appointed priesthood; for us it is Christ, through whom we may come near with confidence, but still with reverence, not presumption. The censers on the altar warned Israel, and warn us, that the holy God is approached with awe, not carelessly seized upon as if access were ours by right.

Do I approach God with the reverence his holiness deserves, coming near on his terms and through the way he has appointed, or with a casual presumption that assumes access is mine to take however I please, forgetting the seriousness of drawing near to the holy God?

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