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Chapter 31
The Sin of Nadab and Abihu
[This chapter is based on Leviticus 10:1-11.]
AFTER the dedication of the tabernacle, the priests were consecrated to
their sacred office. These services occupied seven days, each marked by
special ceremonies. On the eight day they entered upon their
ministration. Assisted by his sons, Aaron offered the sacrifices that
God required, and he lifted up his hands and blessed the people. All had
been done as God commanded, and He accepted the sacrifice, and revealed
His glory in a remarkable manner; fire came from the Lord and consumed
the offering upon the altar. The people looked upon this wonderful
manifestation of divine power with awe and intense interest. They saw in
it a token of God's glory and favor, and they raised a universal shout
of praise and adoration and fell on their faces as if in the immediate
presence of Jehovah.
But soon afterward a sudden and terrible calamity fell upon the family
of the high priest. At the hour of worship, as the prayers and praise of
the people were ascending to God, two of the sons of Aaron took each his
censer and burned fragrant incense thereon, to rise as a sweet odor
before the Lord. But they transgressed His command by the use of
"strange fire." For burning the incense they took common instead of the
sacred fire which God Himself had kindled, and which He had commanded to
be used for this purpose. For this sin a fire went out from the Lord and
devoured them in the sight of the people.
Next to Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu had stood highest in Israel.
They had been especially honored by the Lord, having been permitted with
the seventy elders to behold His glory in the mount. But their
transgression was not therefore to be excused or lightly regarded. All
this rendered their sin more grievous. Because men have received great
light, because they have, like the princes of Israel, ascended to the
mount, and been privileged to have communion with God, and to dwell in
the light of His glory, let them not flatter themselves that they can
afterward sin with impunity, that because they have been thus honored,
God will not be strict to punish their iniquity. This is a fatal
deception. The great light and privileges bestowed require returns of
virtue and holiness corresponding to the light given. Anything short of
this, God cannot accept. Great blessings or privileges should never lull
to security or carelessness. They should never give license to sin or
cause the recipients to feel that God will not be exact with them. All
the advantages which God has given are His means to throw ardor into the
spirit, zeal into effort, and vigor into the carrying out of His holy
will.
Nadab and Abihu had not in their youth been trained to habits of
self-control. The father's yielding disposition, his lack of firmness
for right, had led him to neglect the discipline of his children. His
sons had been permitted to follow inclination. Habits of
self-indulgence, long cherished, obtained a hold upon them which even
the responsibility of the most sacred office had not power to break.
They had not been taught to respect the authority of their father, and
they did not realize the necessity of exact obedience to the
requirements of God. Aaron's mistaken indulgence of his sons prepared
them to become the subjects of the divine judgments.
God designed to teach the people that they must approach Him with
reverence and awe, and in His own appointed manner. He cannot accept
partial obedience. It was not enough that in this solemn season of
worship nearly everything was done as He had directed. God has
pronounced a curse upon those who depart from His commandments, and put
no difference between common and holy things. He declares by the
prophet: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put
darkness for light, and light for darkness! . . . Woe unto them that are
wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! . . . which
justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the
righteous from him! . . . They have cast away the law of the Lord of
hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel." Isaiah 5:20-24.
Let no one deceive himself with the belief that a part of God's
commandments are nonessential, or that He will accept a substitute for
that which He has required. Said the prophet Jeremiah, "Who is he that
saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?"
Lamentations 3:37. God has placed in His word no command which men may
obey or disobey at will and not suffer the consequences. If men choose
any other path than that of strict obedience, they will find that "the
end thereof are the ways of death." Proverbs 14:12.
"Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons,
Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, . . .
for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you." The great leader
reminded his brother of the words of God, "I will be sanctified in them
that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified." Aaron
was silent. The death of his sons, cut down without warning, in so
terrible a sin--a sin which he now saw to be the result of his own
neglect of duty--wrung the father's heart with anguish, but he gave his
feelings no expression. By no manifestation of grief must he seem to
sympathize with sin. The congregation must not be led to murmur against
God.
The Lord would teach His people to acknowledge the justice of His
corrections, that others may fear. There were those in Israel whom the
warning of this terrible judgment might save from presuming upon God's
forbearance until they, too, should seal their own destiny. The divine
rebuke is upon that false sympathy for the sinner which endeavors to
excuse his sin. It is the effect of sin to deaden the moral perceptions,
so that the wrongdoer does not realize the enormity of transgression,
and without the convicting power of the Holy Spirit he remains in
partial blindness to his sin. It is the duty of Christ's servants to
show these erring ones their peril. Those who destroy the effect of the
warning by blinding the eyes of sinners to the real character and
results of sin often flatter themselves that they thus give evidence of
their charity; but they are working directly to oppose and hinder the
work of God's Holy Spirit; they are lulling the sinner to rest on the
brink of destruction; they are making themselves partakers in his guilt
and incurring a fearful responsibility for his impenitence. Many, many,
have gone down to ruin as the result of this false and deceptive
sympathy.
Nadab and Abihu would never have committed that fatal sin had they not
first become partially intoxicated by the free use of wine. They
understood that the most careful and solemn preparation was necessary
before presenting themselves in the sanctuary, where the divine Presence
was manifested; but by intemperance they were disqualified for their
holy office. Their minds became confused and their moral perceptions
dulled so that they could not discern the difference between the sacred
and the common. To Aaron and his surviving sons was given the warning:
"Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when
ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be
a statute forever throughout your generations: and that ye may put
difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; and
that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord
hath spoken." The use of spirituous liquors has the effect to weaken the
body, confuse the mind, and debase the morals. It prevents men from
realizing the sacredness of holy things or the binding force of God's
requirements. All who occupied positions of sacred responsibility were
to be men of strict temperance, that their minds might be clear to
discriminate between right and wrong, that they might possess firmness
of principle, and wisdom to administer justice and to show mercy.
The same obligation rests upon every follower of Christ. The apostle
Peter declares, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people. 1 Peter 2:9. We are required by God to
preserve every power in the best possible condition, that we may render
acceptable service to our Creator. When intoxicants are used, the same
effects will follow as in the case of those priests of Israel. The
conscience will lose its sensibility to sin, and a process of hardening
to iniquity will most certainly take place, till the common and the
sacred will lose all difference of significance. How can we then meet
the standard of the divine requirements?" "Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and
ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify
God in your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods." 1 Corinthians
6:19, 20. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do
all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31. To the church of Christ
in all ages is addressed the solemn and fearful warning, "If any man
defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God
is holy, which temple ye are." 1 Corinthians 3:17.
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