Strange Fire

Author: Joseph

Date: August 26, 2018

Aaron and his sons were consecrated as priests before the people of Israel and before God. Aaron was then instructed by God to give offerings. He gave a sin offering, burnt offering, and peace offering, just as God instructed him to do, and the glory of God appeared before the people of Israel when Aaron blessed the people. Aaron and his sons were now established as priests and God had clearly chosen them for His work among the people of Israel.

"God could not let them profane His name..."

Nadab and Abihu, two of Aaron’s sons, misunderstood what it meant to be chosen as God’s priests. They took the firepans that were made for offering incense and put strange incense in them – they used a mixture that God had not commanded. God had also not commanded them to offer incense in the way that they were choosing to do. There was no previous instruction to offer incense after Aaron offered his sacrifices, nor were they instructed after the sacrifices to do so. Nadab and Abihu had chosen to offer incense from their own will.

Aaron’s sons treated God as common, not being careful to do only what He says, and they had also chosen to be careless by offering strange incense, instead of the incense that God had instructed them to use. Before the people of Israel, Aaron’s sons performed this unrighteous ritual. God could not let them profane His name and dishonor Him. As soon as the incense was lit upon the firepans they were holding, fire came out from the presence of God and killed them. Nadab and Abihu fell dead in the tabernacle for their sin against God.

When God instructs us in how to do something, He means for us to do it exactly the way He instructs without adding to it or taking away from it. Aaron’s sons made a strong assumption on their part: that because they were now priests, any offering they gave would be accepted by God. They wrongly believed that they set the standard for what God would accept and what He would not.

Do not think that because you believe in God, Who is merciful and compassionate, that you may do whatever you please. God has a standard for how we are to live our lives and serve Him. We cannot make up our own standard and expect to live for Him in a way that brings Him honor and shows that He is holy to the rest of the world.

Are you committing unrighteous deeds and mistakenly calling them an offering to the Lord? Are you willfully disobeying God by doing something other than what He commanded and thereby profaning His name, treating Him as unholy? Aaron’s sons were priests in the tabernacle of God, but they were not allowed to change or alter God’s instruction. Do not think highly of yourself and fall into the sin of presumption as Nadab and Abihu did.

Bible Passage: Leviticus 9:1 – 10:5.