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“‘From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.'” (Luke 12:48 NASB)
The closer we are to God, the closer God looks at us. We may come to God as we are, but we shouldn’t stay as we were. A key lesson of the Torah reading שמיני Shemini (“eighth”; Leviticus 9–11) is the more understanding God gives us, the more God expects of us. This is also why the sacrifice of Yeshua (Jesus) was the only sacrifice that could take away our sins, transgressions and iniquities (Lev. 16:15, 18, 27; Heb. 9:13; 10:4).
It was the eighth day — not the Eighth Day festival aka Shemeni Atzeret — but the eighth day of the priestly ministry of Aaron and his four sons as priests to HaShem. That day ended on a very sour note.
Aaron’s oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu decided to bring fire pans with incense, inspired by the fire that came down from the Divine. This incense is symbolic of one’s prayers before God. What is so strange to us is that these two young men, after all, if you saw a divine miracle, wouldn’t you be inspired to pray to God? Of course. Yet God strikes these two men dead? What are we missing here?
We are told they brought “strange fire,” literally, “alien fire.” That phrase comes up in a few other places in Scripture. It could also be translated “offensive fire.”
When Moses comes to Aaron to explain what God did and why, he said:
“Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘It is what the LORD spoke, saying, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.‘” So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.” (Leviticus 10:3 NASB)
Prayers in and of themselves aren’t disrespectful to bring to HaShem. Burning incense in and of itself is not a sign of disrespect to Him. It can be disrespectful if it is not done correctly.
Heart of the matter
There’s another example of Levites approaching God with burning incense that God treated as offensive, we read about it in Numbers 16, in the story of Korach (Korah).
We know this story and what happens when Korach and his followers bring their incense pans and fire.
“Moses said to Korah, “You and all your company be present before the LORD tomorrow, both you and they along with Aaron. “Each of you take his firepan and put incense on it, and each of you bring his censer before the LORD, two hundred and fifty firepans; also you and Aaron shall each bring his firepan.” So they each took his own censer and put fire on it, and laid incense on it; and they stood at the doorway of the tent of meeting, with Moses and Aaron. Thus Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the doorway of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the LORD appeared to all the congregation.” (Numbers 16:16–19 NASB)
Is the act of bring a firepan with incense in and of itself offensive? No, after all, Aaron, in this story, brings a firepan, too. The difference is that Korach’s act was inspired by insubordination and rebellion. HaShem killed Korach and his followers the same way He had struck down Nadab and Abihu. They were honoring HaShem but they were not respecting Him.
The closer you want to be to HaShem, the more honor and respect you must show Him. The longer you walk with God, the closer you get, the more HaShem expects of you.
The priests who knew too much
Now let’s look a descendant of Aaron, Eli, who was also high priest and had two errant sons.
“Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know the LORD…. Thus the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD, for the men despised the offering of the LORD.” (1Samuel 2:12,17 NASB)
Notice how much more patient God was with Eli and his sons than with Aaron and his sons. God tolerated Eli’s son’s horrible behavior for many years. Why?
Deadly consequences of not reading the Manual
Let’s look at one more example of how God dealt with the holiness of His Tabernacle. We can look at the story of Uzzah in 2Samuel 6.
“But when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen nearly upset it. And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God. David became angry because of the LORD’S outburst against Uzzah, and that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. So David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?” And David was unwilling to move the ark of the LORD into the city of David with him; but David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. Thus the ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household.” (2Samuel 6:6–11 NASB)
David was the one who instructed Uzzah and those with them to bring the Ark with the cart. Uzzah was simply following the king’s instruction.
Uzzah did what any of us would have done, reach out to prevent the Ark, which was a wooden box plated in gold and would probably been damaged by the fall. Uzzah acted on instinct, he did not have any forethought of disrespect yet God struck him dead instantly.
HaShem struck down Uzzah down immediately.
Don’t take the LORD’s mercy for granted
In 1Kings 19, God shows even more patience with the Northern tribes of Israel than with Aaron’s sons, Eli’s sons or Uzzah. He was patient with the Northern tribes for many generations.
It seems that the further you are from God, the more lenient God is. Is that strange? No. The more you are given, the more is expected.
There are three categories of people in Scripture: the righteous, the unrighteous and those in between.
What is the advantage of getting closer to God if He is more strict with you? The advantage is all the blessings that come with getting closer to Him. Like a fire, getting close brings warmth but getting too close brings severe injury and even death.
Joy comes in the mourning?
In Leviticus 10:16–20, Moses was clearly concerned about Aaron’s transgression with the offering, but God was not. Why wasn’t it as important to God that Aaron and his surviving sons did not eat the portion of the sin offering for the people the priests were required to eat? Aaron is an example of our high priest, Yeshua.
Aaron had already brought his own sin offering, and it was perfect. Yeshua paralleled that pattern The sin offering of the people was not perfect by comparison to that of Yeshua, the true and eternal high priest.
Why would HaShem punish the congregation if Aaron and his sons publicly mourn the deaths of Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:6)?
God didn’t do this in the case of Korach. God did not punish the entire congregation for Korach’s sin. Why? Because Aaron was the high priest. Although Korach coveted the office of high priest, he was not the high priest.
The high priest doesn’t have the luxury of making public mistakes. He is to be the perfect example for the community to emulate. When he stumbles, the community stumbles and suffers.
The good, the bad and the priestly
Later in Israel’s history, we have more examples of both good and bad priests (Ezekiel 36:16-32). God was slow in enacting the ultimate punishment on Israel by sending them into exile and He has been slow in returning them to His holy land.
It’s important for us to see how horrible we have been and how far from God we are. This humility will then bring us closer to God.
‘One man die for the people’
Let’s look at John 11:47–52 and the prophecy through another wicked high priest, Caiaphas, who brought glory to God’s Mashiakh (Christ) even as he was trying to wipe out the competition.
“Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, ‘What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.’ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.’” (John 11:47–50 NASB)
Should one person bring death on the entire community, or should one man die for the community?
“Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” (John 11:51–52 NASB)
Nadab, Abihu and Uzzah were given no waring because they were so close to God’s holiness. While Eli’s sons, Korach, and the northern tribes were given more warning of their dangerous insolence and a lot of leeway before God’s punishment fell on them.
The role of high priest was so important that one could never make a mistake, otherwise the people’s sins would not be dealt with properly.
Summary: Tammy