Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 10-12.

The timing here of when two of Aaron’s sons died for using unconsecrated fire in their censers is unclear.  However, as I read this, it happened on the first day after the ordination of Aaron and all of his sons was complete.  Moses commanded Aaron and his remaining sons not to openly mourn for the two who had died.  However, Moses encouraged all of the rest of the Israelites to mourn for the loss of two of Aaron’s sons.   We do not know why the two men did what they did, but the passage tells us that they used “unauthorized fire” to burn the incense resulting in fire coming out from the presence of the Lord and killing them.  So, if nothing else, their failure was an unwillingness to wait for instructions from the Lord.  I would add that it seems to me that perhaps their failure was an attempt to conduct worship according to their own ideas of what it should be rather than follow God’s instructions.  God had not yet given instructions on how to use the incense in His worship.  There is one more point to be made.  Moses was mad at Aaron’s two remaining sons because they burned up the priestly portion of the sin offering rather than eating it.  However, he was mollified when Aaron pointed out that he and his sons were in mourning for the death of his other two sons that very day.  So, while the priests were not allowed to visibly mourn while carrying out their duties, they were allowed to mourn the loss of family.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 10-12.

Aaron’s sons had just seen the glory of the Lord appear in the Temple and fire come out from it to consume the burnt offering and other offering pieces on the altar.  Yet, two of them used fire from other sources to burn incense in their censers, contrary to what God’s command for the incense to be burned in the censer using coals taken from the altar.  Now, what makes this interesting to me is that God’s command regarding the fire for incense burning was not recorded in any of the passages we have read so far this year.  One explanation for the death of Aaron’s two sons here is that they should not have burned incense in the censers until they had proper instructions from God.  The second is that the command had been previously given by God (perhaps along with the instructions for the incense altar), but not placed in the account being given by those composing this for one reason or another.  Either of these explanations have useful lessons we can learn from them.  The first one teaches us not to get out ahead of God’s instructions in our desire to worship and serve Him.  The second one teaches us that we should take God’s commands seriously, that the consequences for failing to do so can be deadly.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 10-12.

To my knowledge I have never come across anyone referencing the fact that Nadab and Abihu were among those who went up Mt Sinai with Moses, Aaron, and the 70 elders.  So, they had seen God, yet here they are using fire in their censers other than that which God commanded.  I believe that the honor they had received at Mt Sinai played a role in their deaths here.  Jesus said. “To whom much is given, much is required.”  These two men (I was going to write “young men”, but realized that was unlikely to be true, considering that Moses was in his 80s by this point and Aaron was Moses’ older brother) had been given a lot, both in honor and in knowledge.  They took a “short cut” when they knew the correct way, and they did this on their very first time as priests.  In the same way, those of us who have been given much knowledge about how God wants us to live (in my case, by the example of my parents’ faith and that of the many other great men and women God has put in my life over the years, and by my regular reading of the Bible) will be held to a higher standard of behavior than those who have rarely, or never, been exposed to God’s Word.  I probably deserve to suffer the same fate as these two of Aaron’s sons.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 10-12.

After the death of two of Aaron’s sons, Moses was angry with Aaron’s two remaining sons for not following eating the goat of the sin offering as the rules for the sin offering instructed them to do (Aaron was also guilty of this, but Moses appears to have confronted his sons, not Aaron).  Aaron responded that the loss of two of his sons justified he and his remaining sons not celebrating the sin offering by eating the portions intended for them.  Moses found this answer satisfactory.  This shows us that we need to make allowances for special circumstances.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 10-12.

Yesterday I wrote that a process of dedication like the ordination which Aaron and his sons went through can make people more determined to do things the right way.  Today’s passage starts off by demonstrating that it does not always do so.  Despite going through the somber, serious process of ordination decided that they could take a shortcut to the proper procedures.  So, a dedication/ordination service does not in and of itself prepare us to do the Lord’s work.  We still need to put in effort to get things right.

The passage goes on to describe what animals the Israelites were allowed to eat.  While Christians do not follow these dietary laws, we have recently been reminded why it is a bad idea to eat anything you can lay your hands upon by the outbreak of the coranavirus from Wuhan, China.  While there are other theories about the origins of this infectious agent, currently the most likely theory is that it jumped from one of the animal species sold for food in the markets of Wuhan, markets which are known for selling as food animals no one outside of Asia, and few outside of China, would consider eating.  A similar thing happened in 2002 from a different part of China.  The rules laid out in this passage provide an easy to remember set of rules which limit your diet to things which have little to no risk of making you sick.