Read today’s verse as a story …
Leviticus 10:8 And the Lord spoke to Aaron: … 10 You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean; 11 and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them through Moses. [Nevertheless] 1 Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his censer, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered unholy fire before the Lord, such as he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord meant when he said, ‘Through those who are near me I will show myself holy …”
God is holy.
And we regularly forget how big and awesome HOLY really is.
To try and describe this, Hebrews 12:29 says, “indeed our God is a consuming fire.” My sins on the other hand are like flammable imperfections woven into my very being. If I approach God on my own, I would instantaneously demonstrate what spontaneous combustion looks like.
Nevertheless, this same book of Hebrews urges us to “approach God’s throne of grace with boldness” (4:16) And the question is: How can we “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (4:16) when our daily and compounding unholiness is so obviously offensive to an awesomely holy and consuming Lord?
How? Through Jesus Christ! Ephesians 5:25-27 calls the church Christ’s beautiful bride and describes the Lord’s loving, saving action toward us like this: Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle … that she may be holy and without blemish.”
That’s the only way we can approach God. We can’t do it on our own merits. Our only hope is through the One who “gave himself up for [us], in order to make [us] holy”! (That’s why faith – not works – is so essential in this saving process. Faith is what links us to our Living Savior.)
So here’s today’s strange story of Nadab and Abihu. They weren’t even approaching God on their merits. They were approaching him carelessly. Rebelliously. They were trying to offer “strange” (some translations) and “unholy fire.” And it literally was spontaneous combustion.
If this story sounds strange or offensive to you, then I’d suggest that your view of holiness isn’t big enough … and your view of sin is too light. Sin is so offensive that it cost the Son of God his very life. And yet we keep winking at sin. We laugh at it. We excuse it. We do things our way. We follow culture rather than the Word. Please, please understand: Our Lord is not angry or vengeful, but holiness and sinfulness simply cannot exist in such close proximity. That is why Hebrews 12 – just before calling God “a consuming fire” – urges us to “offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe.”
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who wants to
be called “Mr. Asbestos” –
my faith and Christ’s sacrifice
make me fire retardant
(Yet I’m still imperfect enough
that I occasionally cause cancer)
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