SWORD of the SPIRIT                                                                                                    1024

“Unauthorized Fire”

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. (Leviticus 10:1-2)

I am reminded by this Scripture of the one time in my life that I spoke the Lord’s Name in vain. I was ten or eleven years old, it was a Summertime Saturday and I was playing baseball. I tried to steal home base and was picked off when I attempted to return to third. I swore. I was immediately convicted of my sin. I feared that lightning would come out of heaven and turn me into bacon on the baseline. I left the game and ran to the Catholic Church to go to confession and receive absolution for my sin.

Nadab and Abihu were not ordinary men. They were priests of God. They are named among Moses, Aaron, and the seventy elders as those who could come closer to the presence of God than the masses of people. Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come near to the Lord… (Exodus 24:1-2) So what did these prominent men do that was so grievous a sin as to justify being immediately consumed by fire from the Lord?

The only fire acceptable to God was the fire He initially created. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering… (Leviticus 9:24) The Lord commanded that this sanctified fire never be allowed to go out and that its coals were to be used in worship.

Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out;  And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, … and he shall bring it inside the veil and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, … so that he does not die. (Leviticus 6:13; 16:12-13)

Referencing the fire offered by Nadab and Abihu, the root word translated as unauthorized carries the meaning of strange, foreign, and profane. For whatever reason that they did it, whether drunk or careless, Nadab and Abihu showed utter disregard for the holiness of God and His commands by offering in the sight of the people fire of their own making. Moses explained this to Aaron following the death of his sons.  Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace. (Leviticus 10:3)

What lesson can we learn from Nadab and Abihu? God is holy and the only sacrifice acceptable to Him is the holy and perfect sacrifice He initiated, that of His Son, Jesus. We cannot approach a holy God without Jesus. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

We cannot let the fire of the presence of the Lord in our hearts go out and ritualistically approach a holy God on Easter and Christmas and expect that our worship will be acceptable to Him. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; (Matthew 15:8)

May you receive the free gift of salvation through faith in Jesus. May the Holy Spirit kindle and continuously fan into flame a heart of reverential awe and love for the one, true, holy God. May you worship Him in Spirit and Truth by your lifestyle – in all that you say and do.