Leviticus 10:12, commentary and pictures

Moses commanded Aaron and his two surviving sons to eat the leftover grain portion unleavened beside the altar because it was most holy. The command came within the consecration of the priesthood and immediately after Nadab and Abihu were slain for offering fire God had not commanded. God prescribes how He is to be worshiped, and no customary or convenient substitute is accepted when He has specified His service. Even consecrated priests must distinguish between holy and common, remaining clear-headed and temperate rather than making holy things common through careless irreverence. Every detail of these offerings pointed forward to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, in whose priestly ministry sin was borne and transferred until its final removal.

Context and Instruction

Leviticus 10:12 belongs to the laws governing sacrifices and offerings and to the consecration and duties of the priests. It comes after the consecration of Aaron and his sons in chapters 8 and 9, as part of the regulation of the priesthood and its offerings. It stands within the account of that consecration and the death of Nadab and Abihu, among the laws of sanctuary offerings and worship. It is included among the passages describing the yearly round of service in the typical sanctuary.

The verse directs Aaron and his surviving sons Eleazar and Ithamar to take the grain or meat offering that remained of the offerings made by fire. They were to eat it without leaven beside the altar, because it is most holy. In this it gives specific priestly duties and ceremonial rules for handling and eating the remainder.

The priests' permission to eat from the offerings was very limited, covering only a few wave offerings, peace offerings, and oblations. Those oblations were not always flesh but sometimes corn, wine, wheat and the like. Even the flesh allowed was only a lean portion, with all the fat burned to the Lord and the people positively forbidden to eat fat. It was taken only from young healthy creatures without blemish, with no part of the real burnt offerings and no meat of any beast whose blood was carried into the sanctuary. This limited, lean, clean provision confirms health reform and gives no license for swine's flesh swimming in grease or for diseased, fat, unwholesome meat unfit for feeble men and women of this age.

The remaining offering is called most holy, using a superlative term also used for other offerings. The Sabbath by contrast is called holy without that superlative wording. That difference in wording does not prove the offerings holier than the Sabbath, because the two are not being compared.

Holiness and Obedience

Leviticus 10 shows that God himself prescribes how he is to be worshiped and does not accept worship offered in a way he has not commanded. When he has specified how he is to be served, a substitute is not acceptable merely because it is effective for its purpose or because it is customary. No one can disregard what God has plainly said and in its stead do what he has not commanded and still hope to be accepted in his sight, and no one can follow such an example and hope to live.

Nadab and Abihu offered strange or common fire before the Lord contrary to his clear instructions for the sanctuary, in disregard of his word concerning sacred service. By transgressing his word they identified themselves with sin, and fire from God devoured them and they died before him. Their death stands opposite to the dedication of the sanctuary, distinguishing the forgiveness represented by the prescribed sacrifices from the judgment that falls on deliberate disobedience.

Even priests set apart to officiate in sacred things were not permitted to make common what God had made holy. Holy offerings and holy fire must be distinguished from common fire and common use, for they offered incense with strange fire instead of holy fire. Careless irreverence brings judgment, for those who put no difference between what God has sanctified and what he has not make disobedience a light thing. The chapter is a striking object-lesson on the difference between the holy and the common.

It also teaches the necessity of temperance, for Aaron's sons broke God's express commandments with minds confused by the wine they drank. God's servants must therefore be clear-headed, temperate men. God is as particular and jealous of his word now as then.

The record of ancient Israel from Egypt onward, with all the light of subsequent Jewish history down to the rejection of the Messiah and of fulfilled ancient prophecies and apostolic predictions of the usurpation that thinks to change God's times and laws, is given for instruction and admonition to those upon whom the ends of the world are come. It is given that they may learn its lesson, take heed lest they fall, and so escape imminent danger. Their death warns against judging or altering God's institutions and precepts. It makes a difference what day is offered to the Lord, because God has for wise reason sanctified and claimed the seventh day, while those who hide their eyes from his Sabbaths put no difference between holy and profane and those who make a difference obey God and hallow his Sabbaths.

Christ in the Offerings

Leviticus 10:12 belongs to the laws relating to sacrifices and offerings and to the consecration and duties of the priests. It comes after the consecration of Aaron and his sons in chapters 8 and 9, and its meat offering is one of the various offerings described in chapters 1 to 7. Each detail of these sacrifices had its meaning, and their fuller meaning is found in the sacrifice, life, and work of Jesus Christ. Like all these offerings and types, they are a shadow of the great substance which is in Jesus Christ.

The various offerings show God's hatred of sin and how sin demanded its penalty. They are mighty object-lessons emphasizing the exceeding sinfulness of sin. The offering dealt with here is a type of Jesus Christ, with all the sacrifices pointing forward to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

In some offerings the priests ate the sacrificial flesh in the holy place rather than carrying the blood into the sanctuary. By eating it, the priest bore the transgressor's iniquity. This service still transferred sin into the sanctuary, where it remained until the great day of atonement and its final symbolic removal. The yearly round of service in the typical sanctuary, of which this direction is a part, typified Christ's priestly ministry, which was offered once for all.