Scripture Daily

Context No. 3847 of 4322 · Leviticus

Context · Reflection

Leviticus 10:1-5: in context

1Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. 2Fire came out from before the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. 3Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke of, saying, ‘I will show myself holy to those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” Aaron held his peace. 4Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Draw near, carry your brothers from before the sanctuary out of the camp.” 5So they came near, and carried them in their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said.

At the height of Israel's joy over the newly consecrated tabernacle, tragedy strikes. Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron and priests, offer strange fire before the LORD, something he had not commanded, and fire from the LORD consumes them. It is a stark and sobering event.

And Moses interprets it with a solemn word from God: among those who are near me I will be shown holy, and before all the people I will be glorified. Aaron, the grieving father, held his peace. This passage confronts us with the holiness of God, which we are tempted to take lightly. The priests presumed to approach God in a way he had not authorized, on their own terms rather than his, and in the setting of a holy God's near presence, that presumption was deadly serious. There is a needed reverence here. God is not to be approached casually or on our own invented terms; he is holy, and drawing near to him is a weighty thing. While we now come freely through Christ, we come to the same holy God, and reverence, not casual presumption, befits those who draw near.

Do I approach God with the reverence due to his holiness, coming to him on his terms rather than my own invented ones, never treating nearness to a holy God as a casual thing?

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