Scripture Daily

Context No. 1859 of 4322 · Numbers

Context · Reflection

Numbers 3:1-10: in context

1Now this is the history of the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that the LORD spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai. 2These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 3These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests who were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the priest’s office. 4Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD when they offered strange fire before the LORD in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children. Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest’s office in the presence of Aaron their father. 5The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 6“Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him. 7They shall keep his requirements, and the requirements of the whole congregation before the Tent of Meeting, to do the service of the tabernacle. 8They shall keep all the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting, and the obligations of the children of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle. 9You shall give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons. They are wholly given to him on the behalf of the children of Israel. 10You shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall keep their priesthood, but the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.”

The account of Aaron's sons carries a sober memory: Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD when they offered strange fire, fire he had not commanded, in the wilderness of Sinai. Their brothers Eleazar and Ithamar went on to serve as priests. And God appoints the tribe of Levi to assist the priests, to guard the sanctuary and do the service of the tabernacle, wholly given to God's service, while warning that the unauthorized who come near will die. The holiness of God's presence is not to be approached carelessly.

The death of Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire is a hard and sobering thing, and it makes a serious point about how we approach God. Their sin was to offer God worship he had not commanded, fire of their own choosing rather than his appointing, approaching the holy presence on their own terms rather than his. And the severity of what followed underscores that God is not to be approached carelessly, casually, or on terms of our own invention; his holiness calls for reverence and for worship on his terms, not ours. This runs against a tendency we know well. We are inclined to approach God casually, to worship him in whatever way suits us, to assume that our own preferences and inventions in how we come to him are as good as what he has asked, to treat the holy as common. Nadab and Abihu's strange fire is a warning against this: that God cares how we come to him, that worship is to be offered on his terms and with reverence, not devised according to our own taste and offered carelessly. I will be sanctified, God said after their death, in those who come near me. This is not to make us afraid to approach God; through Christ we are invited to come near with confidence. But it is to remind us that the God we approach is holy, and that reverence, not casualness, is the fitting posture, that we come to him on his terms, in the way he has appointed, not offering him the strange fire of our own devising. There is a reverence owed to the holiness of God that our casual age easily forgets. The invitation to draw near is real; but the One we draw near to is holy, and to approach him carelessly, on our own terms rather than his, forgets what Nadab and Abihu's strange fire was meant to teach. Let us offer God acceptable worship, Scripture says, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Do I approach God casually, worshiping him on my own terms and according to my own preferences, treating the holy as common, or can I remember what Nadab and Abihu's strange fire teaches, that God is holy and cares how we come to him, so that I draw near with reverence and on his terms, not with a careless casualness of my own devising?

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