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 crime and punishment of Aaron’s oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu. But there’s also another lesser known little story at the end of the same chapter involving Aaron and his younger sons, Eleazar and Ithamar. I think we do ourselves a disservice if we study either story just by itself without the light of the other, because each story by itself can easily leave a wrong impression about the God we serve. But together these two stories balance and clarify what the other tells us about His nature.

Before we read the stories, let me set the scene for you: The tabernacle/sanctuary God had the ancient Israelites build in the wilderness is now complete with all its furnishings. Moses’ brother Aaron has been chosen by God to serve as the high priest there and his sons as the priests under him. Aaron had four sons at the time: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

Leviticus chapters 9-10 describe their first day on the job as priests. They had all just gone through a 7 day consecration ceremony to be ordained as priests. Now it’s their first day as priests. It starts off as probably the best day of Aaron and his sons’ lives. The people of Israel have been gathered near the tabernacle. Aaron and his sons offer their first sacrifices on the bronze altar in the courtyard. They do everything exactly according to the instructions the Lord had given them through Moses. Then in an awesome way God shows His approval of them as priests and the ministry they’ve begun to do. Let me read it to you at the end of chapter 9. Leviticus 9:22, “Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them [He said to them maybe something like the blessing of Numbers 6, “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you” (cf. Numbers 6:24-25).], and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. 23 And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting [meaning they went into the tabernacle. It was to perhaps demonstrate that Aaron was now welcome by God in the tabernacle.], and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. [Ever since the tabernacle was set up there had been a cloud manifesting God’s presence above the tabernacle. But all of the sudden when Moses and Aaron blessed the people the second time something more glorious appeared, maybe a bright light shone out of the cloud.] 24 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar [So the animal parts that were smoldering on the altar are just instantly incinerated. Can you imagine standing there seeing these displays of the Almighty Holy creator’s presence and power?], and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.” What an honor for Aaron and his sons, for this great God to show his acceptance and approval of them to the whole nation!

But very quickly the best day of their lives also became the worst day of their lives. Let’s continue reading in chapter 10. “1 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.” [Wow! As fire had just come out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the sacrifices to show His approval of what had been done, now fire comes out and consumes these two priests to show His disapproval of what they were doing.] 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said, ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified [or “I will be treated as holy”], and before all the people I will be glorified [or “I will be honored”].'” And Aaron held his peace.”

What words come to mind when you read that story? Maybe terms like severe, strict, harsh, terrifying…

Now, let’s look at the other story at the end of chapter. We can pick it up at verse 16, “Now Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it was burned up! [Now, if you read God’s instructions in chapter 6 about what the priests were to do with the goat of the sin offering, then when you read here that Aaron and his two youngest sons burned it up, you think “Uh oh!” God was very clear that only certain portions of the goat were to be burned on the altar, the rest of it was to be used for a meal eaten by the priests. The meal was part of the ritual that would make atonement for the sinner.] And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the surviving sons of Aaron, saying, 17  “Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary, since it is a thing most holy and has been given to you that you may bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord? 18 Behold, its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary. [What he means is with these particular sacrifices where you don’t bring any blood into the sanctuary, you’re supposed to have a meal with the meat. That’s what God said.] You certainly ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded.” 19 And Aaron said to Moses, “Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and yet such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the Lord have approved?” 20 And when Moses heard that, he approved.”

So Aaron and his other two sons deliberately do not do something God commanded to be done. Aaron felt it would be inappropriate and displeasing to God to eat of the sin offering at the time because of what just happened to his oldest sons. Perhaps Aaron’s reasoning was that it’s not right, to feast right after your boys have been killed. It’s a time to mourn and fast. Or his reasoning may have had to do with the ancient Jewish understanding of corporate responsibility. When a family member or a member of the community had been sinful, the whole family or community was believed to share some of the blame. Perhaps Aaron felt somewhat responsible for the sin of his older sons and therefore felt unclean before God, and they were not to eat of the sacred offerings if they were unclean. Whatever his reasoning, Aaron feels that it would be inappropriate to follow the letter of the law in his unique circumstance. Moses can see his point. Moses changes his tone and agrees that Aaron is probably right in this circumstance. And you notice that God does not react in any negative way toward them though they technically disobeyed His law. God seems to be okay with it because He just changes the subject in 11:1 and begins to talk to Moses about how to identify clean and unclean animals.

Now, what words come to mind after you read that story? Gentle, kind, understanding, merciful…

If one just reads the first story by itself they might get the impression that God is a holy terror lying in wait for us to do something wrong, or that He’s like a prosecuting attorney looking for some technical legal violation to use to condemn us. On the other hand, if one just reads the second story by itself they might get the impression that God is okay with disobedience to His commands whenever we think we have a better idea. When we read the stories together it’s clear that neither of those impressions are right. We need both stories so we don’t swing too far on the strict severe side, nor too far on the permissive gentle side.

Why are Nadab and Abihu killed for doing something not commanded of them, while their father and brothers technically disobey a command of God and get off scot-free?

Why are the actions of the first so offensive to God and the actions of the latter permissible?

Let’s first remember what Moses said about the actions of Nadab and Abihu in verse 3. They did not treat God as holy, and they were not honoring God before the people.

That God is holy means He is set apart, distinct, incomparable in every category. He is not just a supersized version of you and me. We sing of His holiness, “You are beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words, too wonderful for comprehension like nothing ever seen or heard, who can grasp Your infinite wisdom, who can fathom the depths of Your love.” That he is so great and good and mighty beyond our comprehension is His holiness. Nadab and Abihu were not treating Him as such. They were treating God as if He were on our level, just one of us. We’ll talk about how in just a sec. But Aaron and his younger sons were not failing to treat God as holy. You notice in verse 19, the reason Aaron did not follow the letter of the law by eating of the sin offering: he felt in this particular circumstance it would be displeasing and unacceptable to God. Aaron’s heart was set on pleasing God. He was doing what he thought God would want him to do in the situation.

Does God look at our hearts? Yes He does, absolutely! “For the Lord sees not as man sees,” said the prophet Samuel. “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (I Samuel 16:7).

Let’s take a closer look.

The offense of Nadab and Abihu

If you’ve been keeping up with the Bible reading you know that before this episode God had been explaining in great detail what He wanted with His tabernacle and all the worship activities that are to go on there. God has been spelling out how every kind of offering is to be offered and how every activity is to be done and at what times they are to be done. And He’s not done giving instructions at this point in Leviticus. There are still many matters in which God has yet to explain what He wants. But 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. They just interject themselves into the proceedings and do what they want. They offer strange fire before the Lord. Something about what they do is not how God wanted incense to be offered. There are many theories about what was wrong with their offering. I think they probably got coals to burn the incense from a source other than the altar of burnt offering, which God would later specify as where the fire for the incense was to come from (Leviticus 16:12; Numbers 16:46). But Nadab and Abihu weren’t waiting to hear God’s instructions on the matter.

On a mundane level, what they did here would be about like this: 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!” And without waiting to hear from you he just slops a bunch of guacamole on it. What would you think about that? You’d be annoyed, wouldn’t you? That’d be very disrespectful. Because it’s not his burrito. And he’s acting like he knows better than you what you like on your burrito. That’s Nadab and Abihu, toward the Holy God of heaven and earth.

And what prompted them to do this? Were they just trying to worship and honor God? I highly doubt it. 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 that 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…

What do we learn and how do we apply the Nadab and Abihu story?

Let me first mention what I think is a common misapplication, which I also used to make before I studied these stories more carefully. Many deduct from this story a principle they call “the law of silence.” They believe when we are gathered as a church to do anything that the NT is silent on is the equivalent of offering strange fire like Nadab and Abihu. They believe we’re just as guilty if we cannot find a specific command from God or an example in the NT of the early church doing what we are doing. And so with that line of reasoning some condemn hand clapping in the assembly, because there’s no clapping in the NT. Some condemn the use of multiple communion cups when we take the Lord’s Supper, because there’s no mention of multiple cups in the NT. It says Jesus took the cup and gave thanks and said to His disciples ‘Drink from it.’ Several other activities are condemned on the same basis; eating a meal in the church building, having a praise team, or piano, or supporting an orphan out of the church treasury or having Bible classes in addition to our worship assembly or having a Saturday evening assembly or many other things. Not because the NT says any of these things are wrong, but just because the NT is silent about them, and they don’t want to do like Nadab and Abihu and offer unauthorized fire. Of course it’s a very hard principle to consistently apply, because I also don’t read anything in the NT about a song leader or songs books or pitch pipes. I don’t read anything about PowerPoint or even having a church building, or greeting each other with hugs (I just read “Greet each other with a holy kiss.” So I guess we better pucker up, because that’s the only greeting we find in the NT). Here’s the glaring difference to me between these church issues and the Nadab and Abihu issue. The Nadab and Abihu issue was NOT a matter of silence. God was in the process of explaining in great detail exactly what He wanted done at the tabernacle, when He wanted it done and in what manner, like how you tell the guy at Q-doba how you want your burrito. So it wasn’t a matter of silence. Nadab and Abihu decided they would not wait to hear what God wanted next or how He wanted incense offered. They wanted to be in the spotlight and were presumptuous and threw guacamole on God’s entrée. But these church issues ARE matters of silence. God has not explained, apart from some general principles, how He wants us to conduct our assemblies and church business. We are told to come together, share the Lord’s supper, and we’re told to do a whole host of “one another” things like sing to one another, pray for one another, greet one another, confess your sins to one another, encourage one another, etc. And we’re told when we assemble to do things in an orderly manner and in love and for the edification and up-building of everybody (I Corinthians 13-14). And we’re given some examples of some of the things the early church did. But we are not given detailed instructions about how to work and worship together like the instructions God gave for what was to go on at the tabernacle. These are not parallel situations. I won’t get into those issues right now, but I just don’t think Nadab and Abihu is the parallel to those.

The situation for us as NT Christians, I think, is more like a wife whose husband says, “Hey let’s have a good nutritious dinner tonight.” And she’s got some guidelines like: we should probably have some vegetables in the dinner, and no nuts because Johnny’s allergic, etc. So she’s got some guidelines, but a lot of things are left unsaid and left up to her. And that’s more our situation today.

Here’s what I think is a better principle to take from the Nadab and Abihu story: Treating God as holy means when God has something to say about a matter, you listen carefully to what He has to say on it before you act. God has things to say about a lot of matters like marriage, how spouses are to treat each other, and raising kids, and business practices and managing our finances and drinking and lust and anger and forgiveness and a whole host of things. Treating God as holy means you don’t just do your own thing in any of those matters. You listen carefully to what God has to say and do things God’s way. That’s treating Him as the Holy One who knows best and is perfect in all His ways and worthy of all we can give.

Another principle from Nadab and Abihu is the greater your privilege the great your responsibility. Nadab and Abihu were very privileged to be priests of God, to be welcome close to His presence, to minister in sacred things and to be spiritual leaders of the people. They were going to be examples for the nation. People were going to look to them to see how to relate with God. That’s why I think God was so strict with them. The NT teaches that same principle. James 3:1, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” Luke 12:48, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”

Now, real briefly let’s consider the second story. Aaron and his younger sons technically disobey an instruction of God; Aaron thinks in this unique circumstance where his oldest sons have just been slain by God it would be inappropriate to carry out that instruction. And God seems okay with that.

You’ll find as you read through the Bible that there are a number of stories where God seems okay with a technical violation of His commands. Exodus 1:15, “Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. 18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” [Now that was a lie, wasn’t it? It was not that the Hebrew women were popping out babies so fast the midwives couldn’t get there in time to kill them. The truth was the midwives refused to kill the babies. So these midwives technically lie. But look at the next verses.] 20  So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.” God rewarded the midwives!

Or there’s the story of Rahab in Joshua 2, who hide the Israelite spies, then helped them escape, and lied to their pursuers about which way they went. And God rewarded her.

Jesus mentioned a couple other OT examples in Matthew 12. He said this to some Pharisees because they were condemning Jesus’ disciples for something they did on the Sabbath that only in their interpretation was wrong. It was typical of them. They were quick to condemn people if they saw any violation of the letter of the Law in their mind. So Jesus gave them a couple OT examples to show God is not a legalist like them, God judges people by their hearts, not so much by whether their actions technically match the letter of the law. “3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him:  4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?  5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?” The law said don’t work on the Sabbath. But the priests would work on the Sabbath. They had sacrifices to offer, showbread to change out, incense to burn and lamps to trim. And yet they were innocent when they did so. So apparently God does not judge us legalistically according to the letter of the law, rather he will judge us according to the spirit of the law. God’s commands explain what it is to love God and love your neighbor in most situations. But there can be special circumstances where love will actually involve something different than adhering to the letter of the law.

Imagine for instance if you were out in the woods and your child was severely injured and was bleeding profusely and you couldn’t get the bleeding to stop and you were concerned about him bleeding to death, so you got him in the car to drive to the emergency room; would you drive the speed limit? Aren’t you supposed to obey the laws of the land? Isn’t that the letter of the law? Would you be sinning if you sped? I don’t know of a person who would judge you for speeding. And I don’t think God would either. God is not a prosecuting attorney looking for technical violations of the law. He’s a good understanding father. Now, He will not permit us being rebellious or insubordinate or exalting our will over His like Nadab and Abihu. But I think He is patient and gentle with us in circumstances where it’s difficult to know what’s right and we’re trying and doing what we think He wants us to do.

Jesus wanted the Pharisees to know that, so they wouldn’t be so judgmental of other people. We need to know it too.

Something else he said to them on that occasion was, “7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.” What God is really after is not people keeping rules and doing worshipful activities in a certain way. What God really wants, the main thing to Him, is the transformation of people’s character into the image of His Son, to be full of love for God and love and mercy for other people. And I think when we realize that, we start to appraise people more on the basis of the love and mercy they exhibit, rather than how closely they adhere to what we perceive as the rules for worship activities.

There’s a statement from Paul in Romans 11 that I think is a good summary of Leviticus 10, he says, “Behold, the kindness and severity of God.” God will be treated as holy and as one who knows better than us, whose will is to come before ours; He’s not going to tolerate insubordination or rebellion or doing things our own way in rejection of Him. But He’s also kind and He’s a good understanding Father, who’s patient, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and faithfulness.

-James Williams