Leviticus 10

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:31:57utc

The Daring Negligence of the Priests 10:1-20

We are not told specifically when the incident described in these verses took place, but we get the impression that it happened during the consecration and entrance into the service of priesthood of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu who brought "unauthorized fire" before the Lord. This, probably, meant that, instead of using the fire that was on the altar which had been kindled by the Lord Himself, they made their own fire. According to ch. 6:12,13, that fire was never allowed to go out; it had to be kept burning.

The incident is not described in detail. We read in vs. 8 and 9 a prohibition against the use of alcohol by priests. "Then the LORD said to Aaron, 'You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.'" We deduct from this that the two priests had probably drunk too much. Vs. 6 mentions that the Lord destroyed them with fire which must have broken out and killed them. It could be that they could have saved their lives if they had not been too drunk to realize what was happening.

What, actually, was their sin? It was not only the fire; the cause was something much deeper. Nadab and Abihu ignored had God's revelation of Himself, and believed that the fire they made was just as good as the fire that had come from the Lord. They did not distinguish between what was the Lord's and what was man's effort. They did not distinguish between what was holy and what was not.

In ch. 16:1,2 we read: "The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the LORD. The LORD said to Moses: 'Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement.'" We may conclude from this warning that, not only had the two men used unauthorized fire, but that they had also entered the Holy of Holies on their own initiative. At this point there had not been any regulation regarding the Day of Atonement, but the fact that God had not commanded this, according to vs. 1, should have been indication enough for them.

So, their sin consisted of three fatal offences: they had used alcohol, they had made their own fire, and they had entered the Most Holy Place. Each of these actions alone could have cost them their lives. We can understand the gravity of their sin when we read in Revelation: "Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand."[ 1 ] The bringing of incense before the Lord was a representation of the heavenly reality of intercession. The brothers could, of course, not have understood in detail the meaning of their ministry, but they experienced the presence of the Lord in a way their senses could understand. They could have known with Whom they were dealing. Their actions prove that they had no notion who God was. Their use of wine surely gave evidence of this lack of understanding.

The incident should teach us, in the first place, how great and wonderful true adoration and worship is. Just as a miscarriage accentuates the miracle of the birth of a healthy baby, so does this tragedy emphasize the glory of genuine fellowship with God. Revelations gives us a description of the heavenly reality, of which the bringing of the incense offering by the priests was a representation. Aaron's sons had not entered the Most Holy Place on the basis of the blood of the sacrificial animal that had been shed. Their standing before the altar had not been preceded by a recognition of sin and confession. They had bypassed the necessity of atonement. In their act they demonstrated trust in their own righteousness and that they despised the blood of atonement

Unless we stand before God in the power of the Spirit, we are under the influence of evil spirits. No one stands alone before God. If we are not part of God's reconciliation that encompasses the whole world, we are part of the universal rebellion. The entering into the Most Holy Place by Nabad and Abihu was like a revolt in the palace of a king. They were like the man in Jesus' parable who had infiltrated the wedding feast without wearing wedding clothes.[ 2 ]

The incident gives us also an example of human grief and shame. "Aaron remained silent" (vs. 3) is just as heart rending as "Jesus wept"[ 3 ] in John's Gospel. In a sense, Aaron was responsible for the death of his sons; their failure was his failure. The testimony he had given regarding the "fear of the Lord" and an intimate walk with God had not been clear enough to make a lasting impression upon his sons. It was the Word of God that made Aaron remain silent at his recognition of the high and privileged position in which he and his sons were placed. God had said: "Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored." God made clear to those who thought that the punishment of Aaron's sons was too severe that the closer we come to God the finer the lines are drawn between good and bad. God cannot let sin slip by. "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."[ 4 ] The KJV translates vs. 3 with "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified." The word "glorified" seems out of place here. How can capital punishment be an expression of glory? Yet, it is true that Nadab and Abihu were killed by the glory of the Lord. Their sin had taken away their protection against this glory, but that was not God's fault. "For the LORD God is a sun and shield."[ 5 ] We cannot throw away the shield without being burned. Aaron's silence was, no doubt, a sign of deep grief, but also of surrender. He did not object. He who keeps his peace agrees. Approaching God or coming nigh to God, as the KJV says, is an act of intimacy. Our walk with God should involve two things which are, in our thinking, irreconcilable: fear and love; deep respect and deep intimacy.

Aaron and his sons were not allowed to take part in the burial ceremony. The cousins of the deceased carried the bodies out of the sanctuary. We do not read about any problem of their entering the Holy Place. The dead priests are carried out in their underwear. Evidently, the uniforms which were part of their glory were removed from their bodies.

Three reasons are given as to why Aaron and his sons were not allowed to attend the funeral: First of all, they were not allowed to leave the sanctuary. Secondly, a priest was not allowed to mourn, and, finally, the touching of a dead body would have made them ritually impure. These stipulations are recorded in ch. 21. Death is an insult to God. A priest was not allowed to have a part in it. Of course, the position of a priest who stands before the Lord and his relationship with death should not be seen as a denial of the reality of death. It is not a question of, "if you do not look at it, it will go away." It should rather be seen as a reaching forward to the resurrection from the dead of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is an expression of the fact that God is the God of the living and not of the dead,[ 6 ] as Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew.

As far as we know ,the concept of resurrection was a rather vague idea in the mind of the Old Testament Jew. The revelation of an eternal life after death and a resurrection of the body from the dead was a progressive one that became clearer as the history of salvation came into focus. The death of Aaron's sons must have been seen by their contemporaries as the end of their existence. Seen in that light, it is the more striking that Aaron and his sons were not allowed to mourn nor to leave the entrance of the tent. Their consolation was to be found in an uninterrupted fellowship with God. At that time God did not show then the "why" of it all. It was only made clear to them that they were not allowed to give in to the humiliation and shame that death is to man, because they had been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit. They had to remain close to God, Whose glory was physically present. So they learned the truth that is expressed in the psalm that says: "Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death."[ 7 ]

Yet, it is no sin to mourn and weep. Aaron's silence and later the erroneous burning up of the sin offering for the people of Israel testify to the fact that the events did not leave the priests untouched. They only expressed outwardly that they were not mourning, not that they inwardly conquered death.

As we said above, the prohibition against the drinking of wine or intoxicating beverages suggests a connection with the preceding verses. We get the impression that Nadab and Abihu were under the influence of alcohol when they entered the sanctuary and lost their lives. There was no general prohibition for Israel. But for a priest, a man who stands between God and his fellowmen, all forms of intoxication were forbidden. I take this to be a good reason for a Christian to be a teetotaler. God expects us to be filled with the Spirit instead of being drunk with wine.[ 8 ] The joy and exuberance which are the result of drinking too much alcohol present only a vague image of the real joy and relaxation that come from the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We are part of the real vine, not of the image of a vine.

There are two reasons given for this prohibition to the priests: [They] "must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, and [they] must teach the Israelites all the decrees the LORD has given them through Moses" (vs. 10,11). Spiritual discernment and the giving of instruction are essential parts of the priesthood, and they are elementary gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Ch. 10:12-14 tell us: "Moses said to Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, 'Take the grain offering left over from the offerings made to the LORD by fire and eat it prepared without yeast beside the altar, for it is most holy. Eat it in a holy place, because it is your share and your sons' share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire; for so I have been commanded. But you and your sons and your daughters may eat the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. Eat them in a ceremonially clean place; they have been given to you and your children as your share of the Israelites' fellowship offerings.'"

After the incident, life had to go on normally. Aaron and Eleazar received the command to eat the grain offering and also "the beast that was waved and the thigh that was presented." This was part of the fellowship offering described in 7:30 - 34. It was the sacrifice of which the whole family was allowed to partake. Of the sin offering brought by a leader of the nation or a common citizen, only the priest who had brought the sacrifice was allowed to eat. That was the sacrifice Moses was looking for. But in the excitement of the moment when the incident took place, it had been burned, probably outside the camp. Some sacrifices were burned up and some were not. This depended on whether the blood had been taken into the sanctuary or not. Although, with the particular sacrifice the blood had not been taken into the sanctuary, the carcass had been dealt with as if it this had been done. So Moses became angry with Eleazar and Ithamar because of the mistake they had made. Obviously, this was not an intentional sin, such as the act of Nadab and Abihu; it had simply been a mistake. The excuse Aaron presented did not really sound logical. We read in vs. 19, "Aaron replied to Moses, 'Today they sacrificed their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD, but such things as this have happened to me. Would the LORD have been pleased if I had eaten the sin offering today?'" The "they" designated, of course, Aaron's sons who died. We do not read, however, that they brought these sacrifices: a sin offering and a burnt offering. The information given is rather sketchy. Aaron presented the death of his sons as his personal experience. He says: "such things as this have happened to me." The incident is indeed worse for those who remain behind than for the victims themselves. Aaron was not allowed to mourn openly, but he could not bring himself to carry on as if nothing at all had happened. In cases of death we have to stand on the victory over death by Jesus. But this does not mean that death does not affect us. Jesus wept at Lazarus' grave, although He knew that Lazarus would rise. Victory over death and grief are not incongruent.

This brings us to the end of the first part of this book: "Access to God," in which the problem of sin is considered from God's viewpoint. A sacrifice and a mediator are needed.

[ 1 ] Rev. 8:3,4

[ 2 ] See Matt. 22:11,12

[ 3 ] John 11:35

[ 4 ] Heb 9:22

[ 5 ] Ps. 84:11

[ 6 ] Matt. 22:32

[ 7 ] Ps. 68:20

[ 8 ] Eph. 5:18