Leviticus 9-10 - Fire From Heaven and Fire From Man

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Welcome to Tabernacle Talk, a Bible Study Podcast hosted by Bryon Self, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church. We hope this time in God's Word will be an encouragement to you. Let's dive right in.

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today, we are in Leviticus 9 and 10. And yesterday, we saw the beginning of the ordination of Aaron and his sons.

And we saw how God had set aside these people for himself, that they would kind of receive a special blessing, unlike anything that any of the other tribes of Israel would experience.

That every, like their job, their livelihood, would involve being in the presence of God himself.

That their work, their food, their worship, were all intertwined in a way that, for many other people, they would go and they would make their crops, and they would build their houses, and they would raise their families, and then three times a year,

sometimes maybe for other instances, like bringing sacrifices or bringing things of first fruits, they would come to the tabernacle, and they would interact with God in that way, and it would be kind of a specially unique thing for them to be there

at that time. But the priests were different. It was every day you get to be in the place where God has made himself known to Israel most closely. And it was an incredible privilege.

And we can see here, there were seven days in which this ordination was taking place, seven days of offerings, seven days of presentations and food things happening.

You can look at even Moses' comments at the end of Leviticus 8 and verse 31, and I'm going to kind of bring this into where we're at now in chapter 9.

Moses said to Aaron and his sons, Boil the meat at the entrance to the tent of meeting, and eat it there with the bread that is in the basket for the ordination offering as I commanded, that here what is given to God provides for them.

What an incredible thought. That's a huge responsibility, that it's not their greatness, it's not their works that is helping them eat.

So for many other people, you sow, you weed, you till, you water, you protect from animals, and that's how you get your food. Here, what people freely gave to God benefited these priests.

So he's saying, eat these things, and then he says, burn up what remains of the meat and bread. That what was set aside to God was not supposed to be spoiled. If you will, it wasn't supposed to die in a way.

That it wasn't supposed to be consumed by rot or insects or animals or anything like that. Whatever they didn't eat was supposed to be burned up, dedicated to God.

He says, do not go outside the entrance to the tent of meeting for seven days until the time your days of ordination are completed, because it will take seven days to ordain you.

You can think God creating the world in six days, and on the seventh day, like he rested from his labor, he said it's good, it's done. Here God is making something new, only instead of making the world, he is making these priests.

And he views that as, you know, there are these seven days of ordination. It's almost that he takes more time on people than he took on the world. How do you interact with, how do you think about the time that you spend with people?

Do you view time with people as a waste or as a hindrance to you actually getting what is really important done? I challenge you with that. God values people and here he spends seven days making these priests ordained.

He says, Yahweh commanded what has been done today in order to make atonement for you, to make a covering for your sin.

You must remain at the entrance to the tent of meeting day and night for seven days and keep Yahweh's charge so that you will not die. For this is what I was commanded. So Aaron and his sons did everything Yahweh had commanded through Moses.

On the eighth day, so now they're ordained, they're set aside, all the offerings, all the sacrifices, all the food, everything has been set. Moses summoned Aaron, his sons and the elders of Israel.

He said to Aaron, take a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and present them before Yahweh. Sin offering, covers for sin, and the priests eat a portion of it.

Burnt offering, it's all given to God, nothing's eaten.

He says, until the Israelites take a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb, male yearlings without blemish for a burnt offering, an ox and a ram for a fellowship offering, which the priests would also eat of, to sacrifice before Yahweh, and

a grain offering mixed with oil, something that the priests would also eat. So basically, there's a huge feast here, we're dedicating to God, we're honoring him, we're sacrificing to him, he's getting burnt offerings, he's getting all of these

things, but it's also like a wonderful time of honor and feeding for the priests. He says, for today, Yahweh is going to appear to you.

So he says, we're doing all this, basically we're setting out a feast and God is going to come and be a part of what's happening in this feast. That's incredible, like God's going to be here, we're going to see his glory.

Verse 5, They brought what Moses had commanded to the front of the tent of meeting, and the whole community came forward and stood before Yahweh. Moses said, This is what Yahweh commanded you to do, that the glory of Yahweh may appear to you.

Then Moses said to Aaron, Approach the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering. Make atonement for yourself and the people. Sacrifice the people's offering and make atonement for them as Yahweh commanded.

So Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself. So he first has to make sure that he's right with God before he deals with anyone else.

The writer of Hebrews mentions this fact as Jesus, when he died, he didn't have to die once for his own sins and then die another time for our sins because he was perfect, because he had no sin. He just died for our sins. He had no sin of his own.

He says Aaron's sons brought the blood to him and he dipped his finger in the blood and applied it to the horns of the altar. He poured out the blood at the base of the altar.

He burned the fat, the kidneys, the fatty lobe of the liver from the sin offering on the altar as Yahweh had commanded Moses. He burned the flesh and the hide outside the camp.

So here, everything that we've discussed before, God's life is now in this place, that there is symbolism of that, that is taking place.

Everything has been dedicated to God, and any things that are dead, deteriorating, all of that's been removed from where God's presence is most notably at this time. Verse 12, Then he slaughtered the burnt offering.

Aaron's sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it on all sides of the altar. They brought him the burnt offering piece by piece, along with the head, and he burned them on the altar.

He washed the entrails and the legs, and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar. So far, everything, right according to plan, everything exactly how God said. 15, Aaron presented the people's offering.

He took the male goat for the people's sin offering, slaughtered it, and made a sin offering with it as he did before. He presented the burnt offering, and sacrificed it according to the regulation.

Next, he presented the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning burnt offering. Everything's going perfect. Finally, he slaughtered the ox and the ram as the people's fellowship sacrifice.

Aaron's sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it on all sides of the altar.

They also brought the fat portions from the ox and the ram, the fat tail, the fat surrounding the entrails, the kidneys, and the fatty lobe of the liver, and placed these on the breasts.

Aaron burned the fat portions on the altar, but he presented the breasts and the right thigh as a presentation offering before Yahweh, as Moses had commanded. Everything, right in line, exactly obedience to God.

Verse 22, Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them. He came down after sacrificing the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the fellowship offering. Moses and Aaron then entered the tent of meeting.

That's big. Prior to this time, you can read that very end portion in the book of Exodus that I'm turning over to. Moses was unable to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud rested on it, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle.

And then Leviticus 1.1. Then Yahweh summoned Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. So all of these things, Moses can't go in.

He wants to go in. God has to speak to him from inside of the tabernacle. Speaking to Moses outside.

But now they can go in. That these sacrifices have made it so that despite the sin of the people of Israel, God's made it so that they can be in His presence. So that they can be in this tent of meeting, even though God's presence is there.

It says, when they came out, they blessed the people. And the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people. So now it's not just that God's glory is in the tent of meeting, the tabernacle.

And so Moses can't go in because of God's glory. Now God's glory is showing to all the people because the sacrifices have been made. Again, picturing what Jesus would do that.

Now all of us can have God's presence because of what Jesus has done. So the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people, verse 24, fire came from Yahweh and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar.

And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell face down. So here, God's presence is clear. Like fire came down from heaven and accepted the offering that they had presented.

What a wonderful thing. God's glory is here. People are not dying or being consumed.

That sin has been covered. That atonement has been made. These priests have been consecrated and everything's going wonderful.

Chapter 10 and verse 1. Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his own fire pan, put fire in it, which we would know from Exodus 32 or 34. This was a big no.

God specifically said, do not put like your own unauthorized fire. There's a big difference in the fire that comes from God and the fire that is just man ignited.

And he says the fire that's supposed to be on the altar comes from God and then is maintained by the priest. You don't start your own fire and then bring it to the altar.

And here it says they put fire in their own fire pans, placed incense on it, and presented unauthorized fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them to do.

And even a little bit stronger than that from Exodus, that he had specifically instructed them not to do. Verse 2, then fire came from Yahweh and consumed them, and they died before Yahweh. Moses said to Aaron, this is what Yahweh has spoken.

I will demonstrate my holiness to those who are near me, and I will reveal my glory before all the people. I want to take note of a couple of things here. Number one, when God says something, we have to obey it.

We don't get a choice in, I think I can disobey God with impunity, and everything will be fine. There are no consequences for my actions.

Yeah, God might be holy and God might be just, but He's not going to have any consequences for me for the actions that I take. That's absolutely foolhardy to believe that.

Secondly, these two ordained priests that had obeyed God in everything that He had said to do for the past seven days and apportioned it into the eight days, these were not just random people, random kids that didn't know any better.

These were specifically ordained priests. Nadab and Abihu, I'm quoting here from David Guzik, excellent Bible commentator. He says, Nadab and Abihu had a legacy of great spiritual experiences.

As firsthand witnesses, they saw all the miracles that God did in bringing the nation out of Egypt. So they had seen God's punishment and God's blessing. They'd seen all of that take place.

They knew who he was. They heard the voice of God and saw the fire, lightning, smoke and felt the thunder and the earthquake with the rest of the nation at Mount Sinai. They knew what it was for God's presence to show up.

They went up with Moses, Aaron and the 70 elders for a special meeting with God on Mount Sinai, as we can read about in Exodus 24, where they saw the God of Israel.

So they saw God and they ate and drank, that they had actually experienced the presence of God before. And yet they disobeyed him. They ignored his words that he had said to them.

And as a result, they died. I've heard it before expressed in this way. Why would God accept the offering, the fire comes down for that of atonement has been made, and now here fire comes down and it kills the men, as we would read about later.

They still have their bodies, they still have their clothing, their tunics, as we'll read about in a second. But it did slay them, much like, you know, lightning can strike a person and their clothes can still be intact.

They still have their body, but they've passed. That the same sun that hardens the clay melts the ice. That God's holiness, God's fire, can at the same time be a sign of wonder and worship for God's people that love him and follow him.

And that exact same presence can kill those that are in rebellion against God.

So Moses, these priests' uncle, and Aaron, these priests' father, they've just experienced the loss of these two family members, Nadab and Abihu, and they're kind of shell shocked.

Moses tells Aaron what God said about his holiness and his revelation and his glory before all of the people. And it says in the end of verse number three, and Aaron remains silent, Moses summoned Michelle and Elzefen, sons of Aaron's uncle, Uziel.

So he has these people that are not in Aaron's descendants line because all of those would have been priests ordained who could not touch a dead body.

Death was one of the big things that the priests could not interact with other than in the sacrifice to the Lord.

And so here he has these people that are not ordained priests, but are still family members, would still have a care for native, and by who he tells them, come here and carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to a place outside the

camp. So they came forward and carried them in their tunics outside the camp, as Moses had said.

Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eliezer and Ithamar, do not let your hair hang loose and do not tear your clothes or else you will die and Yahweh will become angry with the whole community.

So here the basic instruction that's given is anything that has to do with death, the regular kind of extravagant mourning processes of tearing your clothes in grief and just making yourself disheveled like, oh man, something's obviously wrong, has

gone wrong in this person's life, that their clothes look this way, that their appearance looks this way. God says, don't do that. You guys are the ordained priests. You guys have a responsibility to show the people how God views this situation.

And it was righteous judgment, that they knew what was right to do. They refused to do it. And in fact, not only did they refuse to do what was right, they intentionally did what they knew was wrong.

And it's not like they weren't aware of God's commands. They had been following them to the letter for the past week in all of these things. So it wasn't an accident.

It wasn't just, oops, I guess God is really mad if you make a small mistake. No, no, this was intentional sin against a holy God who was showing his presence to all of Israel in this moment. And in the light of God's presence, sin is deadly.

So then verse number, last half of verse number six. However, your brothers, the whole house of Israel, may weep over the conflagration Yahweh ignited.

You must not go outside the entrance to the tent of meeting or you will die, for Yahweh's anointing oil is on you. So they did as Moses asked. So here to the priest that remained, he says, all of Israel can mourn this.

This is a terrible thing. But it's not your place to mourn in that way at this time. And you have to stay in the tabernacle for this moment because of your consecration to God via the anointing oil that they had at that moment.

And they obeyed. They did what God said. Verse number eight, Yahweh spoke to Aaron.

This is, as I was reading through, this is one of the only times in Leviticus that God speaks directly to Aaron. And he says this, You and your sons are not to drink wine or beer when you enter the tent of meeting, or else you will die.

This is a permanent statute throughout your generations. I think what's interesting here, several commentators have mentioned the fact that it seems like these are intentionally tied together.

That Nadab and Abihu had been drinking, impaired their judgment, something that they were not supposed to do. And then it led to them intentionally violating God's commands.

Verse number 10, God continues, You must distinguish between the holy and the common, and the clean and the unclean, and teach the Israelites all the statutes that Yahweh has given to them through Moses.

The job of a priest is to see this is what belongs to God, uniquely to God, and this is what is normal, common, every day. This is what is clean. This is what is right in God's sight.

This is what is unclean. This is defiling. And he brings all of these in, because this was the mistake of Nahadab and Abihu.

They said, okay, my fire that I can light is just as good as God's fire. There wasn't a difference between holy fire and common fire. They said, it's fine if maybe I can do some drinking, and just kind of be happy.

You know, it's a big ordination day, congrats to me. And they didn't put a difference between clean and unclean, that drunkenness, impairedness does not glorify God.

You can think even of Ephesians 5.18 that says, do not be drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

Drunkenness is something that is soundly condemned in Scripture, and it's why for both pastors and for deacons, there is a command that they cannot be ones that are given to wine, given to drink much wine, addicted to wine, drunkards.

None of that is supposed to exemplify the people of God, and especially those in leadership.

And there are some pastors that, given some of the other passages in Scripture in regards to alcoholic beverages, would say, Okay, there is great liberty in Christ to do whatever I want.

But they sometimes take that very much out of context into a, I can do whatever I want with alcoholic beverages, and it's okay, because I have liberty in Christ.

And stories of even a megachurch pastor in New York that would do shots with celebrities in a bar who ended up in his life cheating on his wife, losing his entire ministry, because he didn't put a difference in between what's holy, what belongs to

God, which from the New Testament is us. We are God's temple. That we have a duty to worship God, not just in attending worship, but in being holy. As 1 Peter 1 would say, be ye holy for I am holy.

The Lord is speaking obviously some words there from the book of Leviticus that Peter is quoting from. So he says, discern, distinguish between the holy, the common, the clean and the unclean.

Teach the Israelites everything that God has commanded Moses. Moses spoke to Aaron and his remaining sons, Eliezer and Ithamar.

Take the grain offering that is left over from the fire offerings to Yahweh and eat it prepared without yeast beside the altar because it is especially holy. So all of the offerings have been given. God's fire came down, accepted the offerings.

Wonderful. He says, OK, we got to get back to doing exactly what God told us to do. The grain offerings are there that the priests are supposed to eat.

He says, eat the grain offerings. He says, you must eat it in a holy place because it is your portion and your son's from the fire offerings. Oh, and it is your son's portions from the fire offerings to Yahweh, for this is what I was commanded.

But you and your sons and your daughters may eat the breast of the presentation offering and the thigh of the contribution in any ceremonially clean place, because these portions have been assigned to you and your children from the Israelites

fellowship sacrifices. So eat the grain offering, eat the fellowship sacrifice. He says, it will belong permanently to you and your children as Yahweh commanded.

Verse 16, then Moses inquired carefully about the male goat of the sin offering, which the priests were supposed to eat, says, but it had already been burned up.

He was angry with Eliezer and Ithamar, Aaron's surviving sons, and asked, why didn't you eat this sin offering in the sanctuary area? This is what God like specifically said. This is for you.

This is my care for you. This is what I'm giving you. He says, for it is especially holy and he has assigned it to you to take away the guilt of the community and make atonement for them before Yahweh.

So the implication here is you have the blood that's shed on behalf of people, that covering, that atonement, and then the eating of it, the eating of the meat afterwards is almost the sign that says, God is now at peace with you.

Like he's eating a meal with you. He's sharing in this food that you are now back with him. If you will, kind of Garden of Eden imagery, that you are now eating fruit together in the Garden of Eden.

I said the word Eden wrong, and it sounded like the Garden of Eden, which is kind of similar. So he says, why didn't you do this? Like this is what God outlined for you.

Why didn't you do it? And then verse 19, but Aaron replied to Moses. So one commentator I read said this would show that they were following their dad's example in the same reasoning that he was doing it.

So Aaron replied to Moses, See, today they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before Yahweh. Since these things have happened to me, if I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been acceptable in Yahweh's sight?

He says, given everything that's gone on, like, you know, we're not doing extravagant signs of mourning or anything, but like fasting from this thing, like realizing, you know, seeing God kill my sons or them seeing God kill their older brothers.

Like, you can kind of understand if we're worried about eating this fellowship meal with God in regards to the sin offering. Verse 20, when Moses heard this, it was acceptable to him.

So the same phrase, end of verse 19, would it have been acceptable in Yahweh's sight? And then verse 20, when Moses heard this, it was acceptable to him.

That there you have God's realization that human grief and mourning and fear is something that he does not punish, like he realizes where you're at. Jesus was the one that sweat great drops of blood.

There was so much tension and anticipation of what was to come that it literally oozed out of him. You know, you can look at David's words in Psalms where he says, what time I am afraid, I will trust in you.

You can look at what he says in Philippians 4 where when we have anxieties, when we have care, he says, don't be anxious about anything, but instead pray about everything with your prayers and your supplications and your thanksgivings.

Let your requests be made known unto God and his peace will come. That God realizes when you are fearful, when you are scared, and he cares.

Today, as we see the wonder of obeying God and the blessing that it brings and how he wants to have fellowship, he wants you to know that he has forgiven you.

And he wants you to enjoy the fellowship and the joy and the blessing that is there as a result of Christ's sacrifice on your behalf. He doesn't want you to feel like you are not in relationship with him.

But we can also see the deadly consequences of sin. That frankly, for the most part, none of us have been given the specific revelation and closeness in proximity to God's presence that Nadeb Anabaihu did.

And so there's an element in which you don't necessarily need to fear that you will be killed in a moment if you offer strange fire, unauthorized fire before the Lord.

But I think even in the Book of Acts, where you have Ananias and Sapphira, that as God has initiated this new priesthood of the believers and you have men like Barnabas that are, that is selling his land and bringing the proceeds to God, he's giving

an offering. And then you have Ananias and Sapphira and they lie about their offering. They're pretending to give it all to God and to his people. And really they're doing it for selfish reasons.

They're doing it to try and get acclaim from others. And God does to those two exactly what he did to Nadab and Abihu, these two in the Old Testament, that God views what we give to him as important and serious. So don't offer it insincerely.

Don't offer it in a way that God has not asked or required of you. Instead, follow and obey what God has said. Many other lessons that we could learn from this story, but I want to encourage you today, follow God.

When you follow God, there is blessing, there is his presence, there is his glory that is known, there is restoration and unity and joy and happiness. And when we allow sin to ruin our lives, it ruins our relationships.

It ruins how we interact with God because we are wrecked with guilt, with shame, with a feeling that we can't be open and honest with people. So don't pursue sin. Pursue God.

Follow his way. And there is wonderful blessing as a result. Thanks for tuning in today.

I know this is a weighty one. I feel just kind of the burden of that. I'm thankful for Jesus' sacrifice, that it has covered all of our sin, that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Very thankful for those truths. And as we look into now this next section of Scripture, we're going to see some more ways in which God's holiness, his plans, his perfection is made known.

And we've got now this priesthood that is ordained, that they know how holy God is. They know what his presence does. And they want to follow him now as a result.