If you have a Bible I invite you to turn with me to Leviticus 10, which contains what I suspect is the most famous story from the book of Leviticus: the sin and punishment of Aaron’s oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu. It tells us something about the nature of God and our responsibility toward Him. But I believe this passage has been commonly misinterpreted and misapplied in ways that misrepresent God. I hope to show the truth about what this tells us about God and what it is not telling us about Him.
Another reason I want to talk about this story is that the Lord Jesus longs for the unity of all who believe in Him. He is the same yesterday, today and forever, Scripture tells us, and the night before He went to the cross He was praying, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” He longs for His people to be in agreement with Him and one another and to work together with Him as one. And yet what I believe is a misinterpretation of this passage in Leviticus 10 has fostered feuding and division in churches all over the world. So if it’s a misuse of this passage that is causing the division, then it needs to be corrected so we’re not dividing against the will of Jesus.
One more reason to look at this is that Jesus came to set the captives free. And one of the forms of bondage that He attacked a lot in His earthly ministry was the religious traditions and interpretations of man, that kept people from deeper fellowship and enjoyment with God, as well as effective ministry to others. Much of His teaching and actions were exposing the errors of Pharisaic Judaism, so that people would not be ensnared by it. He is the same Lord today. He does not want His people bound, restricted, limited, hindered by religious traditions and wrong interpretations of God’s word. And what I believe is a misinterpretation of this passage in Leviticus has put some tight chains on many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and I believe Jesus wants to loose those chains.
Leviticus 10:1-3 says, “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. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 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.”
As a young Christian I heard this story frequently and I frequently heard it used to condemn many things other churches do that our church did not. The argument seemed logical so I too began to use the passage that way. I was led to believe that this story reveals a certain principle for determining what’s acceptable to God in our worship and service to Him. The principle is often called…
“The law of silence”
That is, when Scripture is silent about an activity for worship or service, then that prohibits us from doing it. Nadab and Abihu presented a seemingly harmless offering unto the Lord which He had not commanded them and God zapped them. “So there you have it,” it’s argued. “To do anything for God that He has not spiritually commanded you to do or given His approval of is sinful and will risk your salvation. And since our law today is the law of Christ and found in the NT we can only do for God those things we find commanded in the NT or approved of in an example in the NT. And if you cannot find it in the NT, it is equivalent to the unauthorized fire that Nadab and Abihu offered”… so the reasoning goes.
With this line of reasoning all sorts of seemingly harmless, even seemingly beneficial, things that churches do are condemned. For instance, several years ago Ally and I were visiting some of her family in Missouri and we visited a Church of Christ on Sunday and after services Ally was chatting with the preacher’s wife and telling her about our church in Montana, and Ally mentioned that we had just started a children’s church at our congregation, where we had it set up that during the sermon time the little kids could go down stairs and have a puppet show and songs and teaching suited for them, while parents could listen to a lesson without distraction. All of the sudden the lady got real serious and said, “Where’s your authority to do that? Where do you find children’s church in the NT? That’s an unlawful innovation of man and you need to repent of that.” She strongly believed this law of silence principle, that if it’s not found in Scripture it’s unlawful, that it’s like what Nadab and Abihu did that got them killed.
On the same basis, things like hand clapping in worship, praise teams (multiple song leaders), choirs, solos and musical instruments accompanying the singing are condemned. All such things are condemned because there’s no command or approved example of such in the NT.
There are churches who see the use of multiple communion cups when we take the Lord’s Supper as being just as sinful, because the Scripture says Jesus took a cup, singular, and when He had given thanks He gave it, singular, to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you.’ So they reason that multiple cups is like the unauthorized fire that Nadab and Abihu offered which the Lord had not commanded them.
On the same basis some condemn a church giving money to orphanages or homeless shelters or Christian colleges or any ministry organization of any sort, because there’s no approved example of such in the NT. In the NT we only see churches supporting missionaries and fellow believers who were in need.
In the little town of Durango, CO, where Ally and I lived 15 years ago before we moved up here, there were three small Churches of Christ, that were divided from one another over applications of this “law of silence” principle. One did not believe like our church that it was authorized that we have Bible classes. They said that having Bible classes for different age groups is a divided assembly and there’s no authorization for that in the NT, and they couldn’t fellowship with us if we continued to sin in that way by having Bible classes. Another group couldn’t fellowship with us because we supported a local preacher out of the church treasury. They didn’t see any authorization for it in the NT. They saw supporting traveling missionaries as okay because you see that in the NT, but not a localized preacher. And there were a few other little issues that had the 3 groups divided.
Is this law of silence principle really what Leviticus 10 is teaching? Is it telling us that we’re sinning if we do anything in our worship and ministry efforts that we cannot find in the NT?
Well, I want to first say that if that’s the case, we’re all in trouble, I’m pretty sure, even the most restrictive churches. Because I do not read anywhere in the NT about church buildings. I read they met in homes and by a river and in the temple complex, but you don’t see churches buying buildings for meeting places. And I don’t read anything in the NT about preachers using PowerPoint as a visual aid to their lesson. I mean, if it’s sinful to accompany our singing with something, why is it not sinful to accompany our preaching with PowerPoint? I don’t read anything about song books or pitch pipes or even song leaders. I don’t find anything about greeting one another with hugs. I find “greet one another with a holy kiss” in Romans 16:16. Where’s our authorization to bring hugs into our assembly? So it seems to me either we’re all in trouble because we don’t consistently apply this law of silence, or Leviticus 10 isn’t really teaching the law of silence like many think it does.
I know there’s some other proof texts for this idea. The most common I’ve heard is when God told Noah to build the ark out of gopher wood. God did not have to tell Noah, don’t use oak or pine or maple or cedar or mahogany or any other kind of wood. God just said gopher wood and so for Noah to use any other kind of wood that God didn’t mention would be wrong. Well, that’s true, because God specified the type of wood Noah was to use, it would have been wrong for Him to use a different kind. But that does not teach this law of silence, as some people claim it does, because God was not silent about the kind of wood Noah was to use. God spoke very clearly about the kind of wood he was to use. The principle there is that when God tells you specifically what He wants, it is wrong for you to replace what God said with what you want. Specificity prohibits, not silence. If God had been silent about what kind of wood Noah was to use, if God had just told him to build the ark out of wood, then Noah would have been free to use oak or mahogany or whatever. Silence doesn’t prohibit. Specificity prohibits us from doing something else instead.
If I’m outside a grocery store and give my kid some money and say “go buy a gallon of milk,” if he comes back with orange juice, he’s going to be in trouble. That’s disobedience. Me specifying “spend this money on milk,” prohibited spending it on other things instead. But say he goes into the store and finds they have a special going on, that if you buy a gallon of milk you get a free box of cookies, so he comes back with a gallon of milk and a free box of cookies, I wouldn’t be upset with him for that, because he did what I told him. Just because I didn’t say anything about free cookies didn’t make it wrong for him to get those too. So in the way we communicate specificity prohibits one from doing something else instead of what was specified. But it is not silence that prohibits.
The sin of Nadab and Abihu was not a violation of silence. It was a violation of specificity.
If you’ve been keeping up with the Bible reading you know that before this incident God had been explaining in great detail to Moses and through Moses to the people what He wanted with His tabernacle and priests and all the activities that were to go on there. That’s why it’s tough to read the later part of Exodus and into Leviticus because it’s full of these very detailed instructions; how the tabernacle and all its furniture must be made and arranged, and how the priests were to be dressed and what the priests were to do at what times and in what way, descriptions of the various offerings that were to be offered on the altar in the courtyard and exactly how they were to be offered, etc. So God was spelling out in great detail how everything was to go at His sanctuary. And He wasn’t done giving instructions at this point in Leviticus 10. In regard to the incense offering, God still had yet to explain how the fire for the incense must come from the coals on the altar in the courtyard (Leviticus 16:12; Numbers 16:46). Something else He already specified is in Exodus 30:9, “You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it.” There was a very specific mixture of ingredients that was to be used in the incense, and God told them they weren’t supposed to offer anything else. And God had warned the priests, the spiritual leaders of the people, and all who would come near to him at the tabernacle, that they must treat him as holy, treat Him with great respect which involves listening carefully to Him and doing things His way.
So what happens here in Leviticus 10? Well, t
his is the first day on the job for Aaron and his sons as priests. They’ve just been through a seven-day ordination ceremony and now the nation of Israel is gathered before the court of the tabernacle. So far God has told Aaron and his sons what particular offerings they were to offer and exactly how to do it. And they did. Then Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle and came out to pronounce a blessing on the people and the glory of the Lord appeared in some form and fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the animal pieces that were on the altar and all the people saw it and shouted and fell on their faces. Then all of the sudden Nadab and Abihu do not wait to hear what God wants to happen next, nor do they wait for God to explain exactly how He wants the offering of incense to go, like He’d been explaining all the other offerings. They just interject themselves into the proceedings and begin an offering of incense the way they saw fit. And it says they offer unauthorized or strange fire before the Lord. There’s some debate about exactly what was wrong with the way they did it. Did they use a different mixture of incense than the one God specified? Maybe. But I would think then it would say they offered “unauthorized incense,” but it says “unauthorized fire.” So I’m thinking they probably got the fire from the wrong source. God would specify it needs to come from the coals of the altar in the courtyard. But they weren’t waiting to hear God’s instructions.
Say you go to Q-doba for lunch. If you don’t know, at Q-doba there’s a counter full of all the fixings for burritos and tacos and nachos and such, and you tell the employee at the counter what you want, and exactly how you want it made. Suppose you say, “I’d like a burrito on a wheat tortilla. I’d like a big scoop of brown rice, half a scoop of pinto beans, a scoop of chicken. A little queso… That’s enough, perfect. I’d like some cilantro, a little more, that’s good. Thank you.” And suppose as you are giving all these detailed instructions, the employee decides to suddenly intervene and say, “You know what you need on this? Guacamole!” He smears a bunch on your burrito without waiting to hear if you even want guacamole or how much. What would you think about that? You’d be annoyed, wouldn’t you? Because you are explaining in detail how you want it made. And he’s acting like he knows better than you what you should have in your burrito. That’s Nadab and Abihu toward God. As Moses pointed out they did not treat God as holy. They did not honor God. They did not treat Him with respect.
And what prompted them to do this?
Were they just trying to do something nice for God? I don’t think so. The whole nation was watching. And so far in the ceremonies Moses and Aaron have been in the spotlight. Moses and Aaron have been getting the attention. Nadab and Abihu don’t wait to hear what God wants to happen next because they’re not too concerned with what God wants. They’re concerned with their own status and popularity. They want the spotlight. There’s a very similar story to this one in the NT, in the early days of the church, Acts 5. Remember a Christian couple brought in a bunch of money they’d made from the sale of a piece of property and laid it at the apostles’ feet to be distributed to the poor and God struck them dead. They were lying to everybody about how much they received for the property they sold. They kept some of the money for themselves, but were giving the impression they were giving it all. Why? Because they wanted the attention and recognition that Barnabas and other Christians were getting who had sold tracts of land and gave all the money away. Nadab and Abihu, I think, had the same problem with selfish ambition. On the surface it may have looked like they were just trying to honor God, but really they were far more concerned about getting honor for themselves.
So the Nadab and Abihu issue was not a violation of silence. It was a violation of specificity. God was speaking in great detail about what He wanted, but they chose to interject what they wanted instead. And most likely it was to exalt themselves not honor God.
And that is not the same as many of the activities churches do that you don’t find in the NT.
… like having children’s church, Bible class, supporting orphan homes, hand clapping in worship and so forth. They are not equivalent to what Nadab and Abihu did.
When it comes to our assemblies and our work as a church the Lord has not given us the sort of detailed instructions about what all we’re to do and not do, like He did with the tabernacle and what took place there. We do not have the specificity for our service to God that they had for what went on at the tabernacle. Rather what the Lord has given us are some general commands and the freedom to figure out how best to carry out those commands in our situation.
What has He told us about our assemblies? Well, He’s given us a bunch of “one another’s.” Love one another, encourage one another, stir one another up to love and good deeds, build one another up, confess our sins to one another, pray for one another, teach and admonish one another, sing to one another, greet one another, share the Lord’s supper together, bear one another’s burdens, use your gifts to serve one another. And we’re told in I Corinthians 14, when you assemble let everything be done for edification, that is make sure everything you do contributes to building one another up spiritually, and do things in an orderly manner so it’s not chaotic and confusing. That’s basically what He says in the NT about our assemblies.
So His instructions are not like how you order a burrito at Qdoba where you tell them exactly how to make it. It’s more like a husband saying to his wife, “Hey honey, the whole family is going to be together at home tonight, let’s have a good homecooked nutritious dinner. Have a veggie in there and maybe another side or two…” So she’s got a general objective and some guidelines: homecooked, nutritious, have some vegetables. But a lot of things are left unsaid and left up to her. She gets to decide if they’re going to have enchiladas or pot roast or chicken pot pie with side salad or green beans or asparagus or whatever. That’s more like our instructions. Let’s have an orderly, edifying assembly, put some praying for each other in there and singing and loving on each other and teaching and make room for whatever gifts people have to use them. And that leaves us with a lot of freedom to use the intelligence and help of God’s Spirit to decide on how exactly we’re going to do that. And in the NT you have examples of various things the early church did, which are very helpful, but nowhere does the Bible say you must only do what you see the early church doing in the few examples given in the NT.
And you know the NT actually gives us some instructions for matters of silence. Romans 14, for instance addresses some disagreements they had in the church at Rome over matters that the Lord had been silent on. Some believed they should not be eating the meat offered in Rome for certain reasons. Others had no problem with that. Some believed they should observe one day over others. Like setting aside Saturday or Sunday as a day of just rest and seeking the Lord. And others observed every day alike. And Paul said, Romans 14:6, “The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.” So here they are doing what they do because they think it is pleasing to the Lord, but it’s a matter that the Lord hasn’t spoken on. The Lord hasn’t said observe a particular day. But they’re doing that in honor of the Lord. And others don’t think we need to do that. So what does Paul tell them? He tells them to each do what their conscience tells them is right. Don’t violate your conscience. And he tells them do not judge your brother if he chooses to do differently in these matters of silence. Do not call something sin if you don’t have a word from God that calls it sin.
That was a practice of the Pharisees that Jesus opposed. They accused Him of sin for eating with tax collectors and sinners and healing on the Sabbath and not washing his hands in a certain way before he ate. Jesus told them you teach as doctrines the commandments of men. You’re putting yourselves in the place of God by making rules and laws.
Biblical silence is not prohibitive. Specificity is prohibitive. If God had said money in a church treasury is only to go to missionaries and baptized believers who are in need, then that would prohibit us from using our money in any other way. But God hasn’t said that. If God had said music in your assemblies must be accapella without handclapping, foot stomping or any other noises, and must be led by only one Christian male song leader, then that would prohibit us from doing it any other way. But God never said that.
Specificity prohibits, not silence. In matters of silence we are to go with what is loving, what is upbuilding to others, what is good with our conscience and we are not to judge those who choose to do differently. So all of that is dealing with the misapplication of the Nadab and Abihu story. Now I’m ready to begin my sermon on what we actually learn from that occasion… Just kidding, I’m wrapping it up.
The story teaches us that we must treat God as holy, we must treat Him with great respect and honor, especially those who are going to be leaders of His people. And that means when He has something to say on a matter, when He specifies what He wants in an area, we listen carefully to make sure we do what He commands. God has things to say about a lot of matters like marriage and our business practices and what to do about those who wrong us and drinking and lust and anger and judging other people and a whole host of things. We must hear Him and obey Him. He is not a permissive grandfather who winks at sin, who tolerates rebellion. Jesus said those who hear the word of God and do it, they are His family .
Just for balance, so we don’t get the wrong impression about God, I want to encourage you to later read the lesser known little story at the end Leviticus 10, where Aaron and his two younger sons Eleazar and Ithamar actually disobey a command of God about eating a certain offering because they felt that in the unique circumstance of what just happened it would be inappropriate. So they technically disobey a command of God and yet God doesn’t react negatively toward them for it. God seems to permit it. God is reasonable and understanding with them because they’re honestly trying to do what is right. God gives them a break. He allows an exception because of the exceptional circumstances of the moment. It’s a story that balances the Nadab and Abihu story so we don’t swing too far in our view of God’s severity and strictness. Yes, He will be respected. He requires that we listen and obey Him. However, He’s not like a prosecuting attorney looking for some technical legal violation to use to condemn us. He is reasonable and understanding. He is a good wise loving Father.
-James Williams