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| Volume 26 Number 3 March 2024 |
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| Volume 26 Number 3 March 2024 |
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Louis Rushmore
Many things pop up in families (e.g., between parents and children or between spouses) that don’t really matter at all. Often, other issues underly the petty stuff said to be the explanation for disagreements. Family members do well to reserve their dissent and enter into serious discussions about genuine concerns. Some things, however, do matter, and no compromise can be justified (e.g., modesty, morality). The Bible – God’s operator’s manual for humanity – must be the final and indisputable Word regarding especially biblical (i.e., doctrinal) topics. Some things do matter, and some things matter to God!
Christians ought to consider whether their thoughts, words and actions matter to God. We can discern whether each of these matter to God by consulting (i.e., studying) His holy and inspired Scriptures. God made man after His own image, and one of the traits we share with God is the ability to communicate (e.g., with other humans, as well as between God and us). He communicates with us through the Bible, and we communicate with Him through prayer. The Bible is God’s instrument of communication between Himself and humankind, and He intends for us to understand it. Though a few passages may present us some difficulty, the Bible is not a collection of cryptic messages, codes and mysteries strung together for God’s amusement and our confusion. We can know what matters to God, and what matters to God is immutable or unalterable, absolute, permanent and final. Remember, no one can win an argument with God – and so, don’t try! Bible history provides numerous examples of failed arguments with God.
Did It Matter to God in the Garden of Eden?
Living in the Garden of Eden and having title to the entire planet, too, Adam and Eve truly lived in a terrestrial paradise (Genesis 2:8). “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Genesis 1:27-28 NKJV).
God gave essentially two commands – one positive and one negative – to Adam and Eve. #1 “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). #2 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Genesis 2:16-17). How hard could it have been to keep just two commands, contrasted with the hundreds of commands under Judaism (i.e., 613 according to the Torah) or the constraints of Christianity? Nevertheless, I sympathize with Adam and Eve because I am also (i.e., along with every matured soul) a sinner (Romans 3:10, 23).
Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit (i.e., whatever it was) and sinned thereby (Genesis 2:6-24). Consequently, God modified the Earth He had made, put burdens upon Adam and Eve – that still afflict humans to this day – and drove them from the Garden of Eden. Yes, it mattered to God, and Adam and Eve – with the rest of humanity – experience daily the physical consequences of their sin (e.g., death, etc.) but not the guilt of Adam and Eve’s sin (Ezekiel 18:20). It mattered to God!
Did Something Matter More to God than It Did to Nadab and Abihu?
Leviticus 10 opens with a startling and sobering account of God’s instant retribution toward the two oldest sons of Aaron. “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. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:1-2). The priesthood had just been established, “and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar…” (Leviticus 9:24), just prior to the actions of Aaron’s sons.
They offered “strange” (KJV, YLT, NASB, Douay-Rheims, Darby), “profane” (NKJV, ASV), “unauthorized” (ESV, NIV, Apologetics Study Bible, CJB, HCSB) or “illegitimate” (Lexham) fire in a worshipful or sacred activity under biblical Judaism. The UBS Old Testament Handbook Series calls it an “unholy fire,” and Willmington’s Bible Handbook refers to it as “apostate fire.” Adam Clarke described a “common fire.” God made a distinction between fires, and it mattered to God!
The fire was “strange” because it was not authorized, and it was “profane” since the source of the fire was not consecrated or holy. The timing of their offering may have been part of the problem, particularly if it wasn’t requested – again, not authorized by God. Yet one more consideration may have led the whole scene to develop as it did; they may have been inebriated (Leviticus 10:9-10). Consequently, Nadab and Abihu approached a holy and sacred function with undue familiarity and irreverently. It mattered to God!
Everything that these two men did was wrong. To begin with, they were the wrong people to be handling the incense and presenting it to the Lord. This was the task of their father, the high priest (Ex 30:7-10). They also used the wrong instruments, their own censers instead of the censer of the high priest, sanctified by the special anointing oil (40:9). They acted at the wrong time, for it was only on the annual Day of Atonement that the high priest was permitted to take incense into the holy of holies, and even then he had to submit to a special ritual (Lev 16:1 ff).
They acted under the wrong authority. They didn’t consult with Moses or their father, nor did they seek to follow the Word of God, which Moses had received. In burning the incense, they used the wrong fire, what Scripture calls “strange fire” (10:1; NIV says “unauthorized fire”). The high priest was commanded to burn the incense on coals taken from the brazen altar (16:12), but Nadab and Abihu supplied their own fire, and God rejected it. They acted from the wrong motive and didn’t seek to glorify God alone (10:3). We don’t know the secrets of their hearts, but you get the impression that what they did was a willful act of pride. Their desire wasn’t to sanctify and glorify the Lord but to promote themselves and be important.
Finally, they depended on the wrong energy; for verses 9-10 imply that they were under the influence of alcohol. (Wiersbe emphasis added)
Commentators repeatedly refer to an “unauthorized fire.” Presumption on the part of Nadab and Abihu to both offer incense, to interject themselves in the place of their father Aaron – the high priest – and possibly also doing so at the wrong time of the day led to the unfortunate outcome. Exodus 30:9 similarly prohibited strange incense. “…They were guilty of a presumptuous and unwarranted intrusion into a sacred office which did not belong to them” (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary).
Here we find Aaron’s sons neglecting the divine ordinance, and offering incense with strange, that is, common fire, fire not of a celestial origin; and therefore the fire of God consumed them. So that very fire which, if properly applied, would have sanctified and consumed their gift, become [sic] now the very instrument of their destruction! How true is the saying, “The Lord is a consuming fire!” He will either hallow or destroy us. He will purify our souls by the influence of His Spirit, or consume them with the breath of His mouth! The tree which is properly planted in a good soil is nourished by the genial influences of the sun: pluck it up from its roots, and the sun which was the cause of its vegetative life and perfection now dries up its juices, decomposes its parts, and causes it to moulder into dust. Thus, must it be done to those who grieve and do despite to the Spirit of God. (Adam Clarke’s Commentary emphasis added).
“A day which should have ended with the glorious worship of Jehovah God was instead climaxed with the funeral of two of Aaron’s sons” (Wiersbe). “…So they were a privileged pair. They had heard the words of the Law and knew what God required of His priests, so theirs was not a sin of ignorance” (Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament).
“…In the destruction of these two young priests, by the infliction of an awful judgment, the wisdom of God observed the same course, in repressing the first instance of contempt for sacred things, as He did at the commencement of the Christian dispensation (Acts 5:1-11)” (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary).
This looks like a terrible punishment for a slight offence. But the offence was not slight. It was a flagrant disobedience of a plain command, several commands, in short. Not only did they disobey in the matter of the fire (16:12), but also in performing an office which belonged only to the high priest, for, as some think, they went into the holy of holies. And two went in where only one was permitted. Furthermore, the offence was committed at a critical moment in the history of the people, at the beginning of their covenant relationship with God. It suggests a somewhat similar occurrence in the opening era of the Church, Acts 5:1, 3. In both cases a signal manifestation of the divine displeasure was necessary for the sake of impressing the lesson upon the whole nation in the one case and the whole Church in the other. (Christian Workers’ Commentary on the Old and New Testaments emphasis added)
From the Garden of Eden forward, mankind has been authorized only to believe, declare or practice what God has specified for God-given religion and for the home. Another way of saying the same thing is that we humans have always been prohibited from unauthorized additions or subtractions from the revealed Word of God. Take Galatians 1:6-9, for instance. Note the oft used passages cited at the conclusion of the following quotation. Anyone who…
…omitted or added anything, assumed a prerogative which belonged to God alone, and was certainly guilty of a very high offence against the wisdom, justice, and righteousness of his Maker. This appears to have been the sin of Nadab and Abihu, and this at once shows the reason why they were so severely punished. The most awful judgments are threatened against those who either add to, or take away from, the declarations of God. See Deut 4:2; Prov 30:6; and Rev 22:18-19. (Adam Clarke’s Commentary)
What Can We Learn from Leviticus 10:1-3?
Thus, man spoils everything. Place him in a position of highest dignity, and he will degrade himself. Endow him with the most ample privileges, and he will abuse them. Scatter blessings around him, in richest profusion, and he will prove ungrateful. Place him in the midst of the most impressive institutions, and he will corrupt them. Such is man! Such is nature, in its fairest forms, and under the most favourable circumstances! (Mackintosh)
Mankind tends to do wrong (often sinful) things and to do right things in the wrong ways (often sinful). The Leviticus 10 tragedy illustrates that observation well. “This incident should warn modern readers against worshipping God in ways that we prefer because they make us feel ‘good.’ We must be careful about worship that is designed to produce effects in the worshipers rather than honoring God. Some forms of contemporary and traditional worship may reflect the selfish spirits of Nadab and Abihu. Such ‘self-made worship’ often has ‘the appearance of wisdom’ (Col 2:23)” (Constable emphasis added). “The sin of Nadab and Abihu was in acting in the things of God without seeking the mind of God. It was will worship Col 2:23 which often has a show of wisdom and humility. It typifies any use of carnal means to kindle the fire of devotion and praise” (Scofield Bible Notes emphasis added).
The summary of God’s charges against Nadab and Abihu appears in Leviticus 10:3, which reads, “Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace” (KJV emphasis added). Doing what they did, when they did it and the way they did it neither sanctified nor glorified Almighty God. Yes, it mattered to God!
Those professing Christianity ought always to properly revere the Word of God. They (we) must act our Christianity – especially our worship – in humble compliance with what was written and preserved for us by the Holy Spirit of God. Beyond that, obviously the child of God’s daily Christian living and Christian service must equally rely upon the Word of God for it to be pleasing to God. It matters to God, and if not now in this life, it will matter to us as well, standing before the Judgment Seat at the last day.
Works Cited
Constable, Thomas L. “Leviticus 10:1-7.” Thomas Constable’s Notes on the Bible. Electronic Database. Thomas L. Constable, 2014.
“Leviticus 10:1.” Adam Clarke’s Commentary. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2006.
“Leviticus 10:1.” Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary. Electronic Database. Grand Rapids: Biblesoft, 2014.
“Leviticus 10:1.” Scofield Bible Notes. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2012.
“Leviticus 10:1.” UBS New Testament Handbook Series. Electronic Database. Miami: United Bible Societies, 2004.
“Leviticus 10:1-7.” Christian Workers’ Commentary on the Old and New Testaments. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2014.
Mackintosh, C.H. “Leviticus 10:1-20.” Notes on the Pentateuch. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2014.
Wiersbe, Warren W. “Leviticus 10:1-2.” The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament. Electronic Database. Colorado Springs: Warren W. Wiersbe, 2004.
“Leviticus 10:1-5.” Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament. Electronic Database. Colorado Springs: Victor Books, 1993.
Willmington, Harold L. “Leviticus 10:1-7.” Willmington’s Bible Handbook. Electronic Database. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House P., 1997.
