Offerings, Priest Ordination and the Death of Nadab and Abihuby KalebRosendahl
10:2Leviticus 10:2
And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
Nadab and Abihu, priests and sons of Aaron, offered incense with common unauthorized fire instead of the sacred fire God himself had kindled and commanded to be kept burning, and fire went out from the Lord and devoured them so that they died before him in public worship just after he had shown acceptance of the commanded sacrifices. They were highly favored men who knew the holy character of the service, but partial intoxication from wine benumbed their brains and dulled moral perception until they could not distinguish holy from common, joined to long-practiced self-indulgence and disregard for authority that even Aaron's indulgent training had fostered, and their impaired judgment did not excuse them because they became responsible when they chose to drink before duty. The commanded sacred fire represents God himself and communication with humanity opened through Jesus Christ alone whose mediation the incense kindled by holy fire emblems, and is his holy principles, love, character and the Holy Spirit to be used in all service, while strange fire is any service, method or principle of human kindling without heaven's signet. God must be sanctified in those who come near him and glorified before all the people, so any deviation from explicit directions in holy service brings sure judgment with no plea of meaning no harm, and greater light brings severer reckoning. Putting the common in place of the sacred repeats the same contempt, whether in exalting Sunday a common working day in place of the seventh day God sanctified, or in substituting human methods, unsanctified speech, selfish gain and worldly standards for Spirit-guided work in ministry, teaching, councils and worship.
The Act and Setting
Nadab and Abihu were Aaron's sons and priests who offered incense with unauthorized common fire instead of the sacred fire God himself had kindled. That sacred fire was commanded for all sanctuary service, was to be used in every act of service, represented God, and was required to be kept burning day and night and never to go out. Their use of strange fire He had not commanded was direct transgression and dishonoring of their sacred office, and the lesson is that unrighteousness by those responsible for God's service greatly dishonors Him and He will not tolerate it. Strict obedience to every word from His mouth is demanded of all who engage in His service, and the sacredness of His work is to be preserved as fully now as in ancient Israel.
Fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. This happened in public worship in the sight of the people, as a terrible manifestation of divine judgment for disregarding His express command. It came just after God had shown acceptance of the commanded sacrifices by letting His own fire fall from heaven, which the priests were then commanded to use for incense and keep burning continually on the altar. Aaron did not rebel or murmur when his two sons were thus killed. Treating precious truths and warnings as no more valuable than common fire repeats the same contempt of treating sacred things as common that brought that judgment.
They acted as highly favored men who had gone up with Moses, Aaron and the seventy elders and seen the God of Israel. They knew the holy character and solemn responsibility of the service and the holiness required of those who come near Him where His presence is manifested. They knew that careful self-examination and sanctification were required before entering the sanctuary. With full and clear use of reason they would have recoiled with horror from the presumptuous transgression, and those who have to do with sacred things must do nothing that mars the perfection of their work, remembering that a heavenly Watcher constantly beholds their work and the spirit brought into it.
Causes Behind the Sin
Nadab and Abihu had freely used wine until partial intoxication benumbed their brains, beclouded the intellect, debased the faculties, weakened nerve power and discernment, and dulled the senses and moral perception. In that state they could no longer distinguish between the holy and the common, the clean and the unclean, and right and wrong, and appetite led them to downfall and to strange acts. The same corrupting and unfitting power belongs to beer, tea, coffee, and other intoxicants and stimulants, which corrupt the blood, blunt moral perception, inflame animal passion over the intellectual and spiritual nature, harden the conscience, and leave men unable to offer a living sacrifice holy and acceptable. Worship defiled by such indulgence of appetite and passion treats sacred things as common and is not acceptable.
Their fatal mistake grew out of long-practiced self-indulgence, unbroken sinful custom, lack of self-control, and failure to learn respect for authority and exact obedience. Disrespect shown to their father became disregard for God's positive requirements, and habit chained them so that even elevation to sacred office could not break the sinful custom. Appetite had dulled spiritual perception and reasoning until holy things lost their sacredness and disobedience appeared pleasing, leaving them unprepared for sacred office and weak where they should have been strong. God was testing character to call out the highest powers of the mind and to teach firm principle, strictly temperate habits, and a continual sense of the sacredness of the work.
Aaron had contributed to that unfitness by indulgent, misplaced tenderness, gentle remonstrance, and neglect to command respect and reverence, train to obedience, self-denial and reverence for parental authority, and restrain with firmness. His sons therefore disregarded parental authority and did not realize the necessity of explicitly following God's requirements, offering common fire with incense contrary to express direction and prohibition on pain of death. Their death was God's own work of justice awakened against them where parental authority was neglected. The same misplaced love and indulgence of children in wrong now prepares them for certain displeasure and destroying wrath.
Their reason was clouded while indulging appetite for wine under its exciting stimulus, yet impaired judgment from drink did not excuse them. They became responsible when they put the cup to their lips and chose to drink before duty, and by that choice they were accountable for actions done under alcohol's influence. God does not excuse sin because drink unfitted them for sacred duty, does not sanction wrongdoing in His work, and a good purpose cannot justify acting on wrong principles. Indulging appetite cost them their lives.
The case led directly to the command that those serving before the Lord abstain from wine and strong drink, so judgment would stay clear to distinguish holy from unholy and to teach the statutes. Those engaged in God's work must practice strict temperance, keep appetite and habits strictly controlled, keep the whole being under God's protection, and never tempt the Spirit, mindful that God's eye is upon their work. This warns physicians, ministers, teachers, youth, and all in sacred work, lest sowing to the flesh bring corruption and even the unforgivable sin against the Holy Ghost. Their history taught Daniel and his companions, who knew it from the Pentateuch, to refuse wine at the king's table, to avoid all customs, practices, and indulgences that dishonor God, and to keep the straight path of strict temperance in order to protect physical and mental powers.
Meaning of the Fires
The fire God commanded was of heaven's own kindling, representing God himself, never to go out, and to be used in all His service, while light taken from any other source is false light. The lamp is kept burning and trimmed by the very hand that lit it only as the bearer walks in the footsteps of Jesus, surrenders life to His guidance and service, lives and practices every word proceeding from the mouth of God, and brings truth into practical life, keeping golden oil in vessels with lamps. For such God has made provision for every position in which they are placed, so that those who kindle the taper only from the divine altar hold the lamp firmly by power kept burning day and night. Taking fire from the divine altar means first talking with God to ascertain what spirit one is of, then closely and critically examining every point, every method, every principle in the light reflected from the Sun of Righteousness, holding holy and just principles sacred, keeping unspotted from the world, ever looking to Jesus and marking the spirit in which He worked to follow His example. True disciples so test their own spirit and decisions by God's Word, treat its holy and just principles as sacred, and give to others its pure principles as counsel, guide, and supreme authority by asking what saith the Lord rather than what saith men.
Those who should stand in the clear light and shine as bright lights in a dark place to flash light on the pathway of others and show the way to walk become bodies of darkness when their tapers are kindled from selfishness, untruthfulness, and unfair dealing instead of from God. Those who talk the truth fluently but lack faith that works by love and purifies the soul kindle strange fire continually, grafting professed truth into the natural vine. They reveal the natural temperament, the passions of the unrenewed heart, dethroned reason, coarse unchristian character, self and hereditary tendencies, self-indulgence, deception and falsehood, and are a wild vine bearing fruit unto death, dead while they seem to be alive. They cannot discern their own human sparks from God's sacred fire.
The divine fire represents communication between God and humanity opened through Jesus Christ alone. The incense kindled by holy fire, rising before God mingled with the earnest prayers of the people without, is an emblem of Christ's mediation. The priests' strange fire had no divine Saviour represented in it and was as the offering of Cain.
The sacred fire is God's holy principles, His sacred fire of love that makes people tender, kind, and sympathetic toward those in danger, in contrast to harsh, overbearing treatment that reflects pride. It represents Christ's character and the holy influence of a life that honors the sacredness of the work, while fire not kindled by God is strange fire abhorrent to Him and especially offensive when offered by one with greater responsibility. In worship Christ is the true altar and the Holy Spirit is the true fire to be used with offerings, received into the character as healing words and to be used in all effort. The fire kindled by God is holy and is to consume what is common and selfish in those serving Him, namely commonness, selfishness, intemperance, lust, cheapness, human ideas and self-directed service that replace God's plans. Those who serve must therefore hide self in Him and represent Christ's character rather than try to improve God's work through conceit and grasping, and the sacred must not be mixed with the common.
Strange or common fire is any point, method, principle, or service that does not bear the signet of heaven and must not be accepted. It is human kindling and sparks of man's own making, with self and selfishness enthroned instead of divine wisdom. It symbolizes a counterfeit religious influence in contrast with the divine light being rejected.
Holiness Obedience and Judgment
Leviticus 10:2 shows that Nadab and Abihu died when fire from the Lord consumed them after they offered unauthorized common fire in the sanctuary, and their deaths were judgment for treating holy service as common and disregarding God's directions. The judgment made clear that God must be honored and kept holy by those who approach Him and glorified before all the people, and that sacred work requires obedience to the duties and boundaries He appoints. Sacred things must not be mingled with the common, the sacred must not be brought down to the common level, and no commonness or cheapness is to be brought into sacred work. All who are in God's service and profess to believe the truth must closely examine themselves whether they are in the faith and whether they are offering sacred or common fire, and all who name the name of Christ must depart from iniquity. Those who minister in sacred things must approach God with reverence, humility, cleanliness, practical godliness, and submission to instruction and to the holy standard He requires.
Any deviation from explicit directions in holy service was punishable with death, proving that God exactly marks iniquity and visits sins of thoughtlessness, negligence, forgetfulness, and even ignorance when light has shone. No plea of meaning no harm or thinking to do God service excuses disregard of light, partial obedience is not enough, and it is not enough that nearly everything in worship is done as He commanded. Offering unauthorized worship to God is no small matter, treating strange fire as acceptable and saying it makes no difference is abhorrent to Him, and such worship cannot be dismissed as harmless. Their fate illustrates the danger of taking up sacred duties without divine authorization, and the sin was self-exaltation in mingling common fire with the fire of God's own kindling. Those who have seen the glorious manifestation of God's character have melted and subdued hearts, are lost to self in the consciousness of His wonderful glory and their own utter unworthiness, and will not exalt themselves or offer such presumption, while those who resist correction and persist proudly in their own way are given over to perverted thinking.
Transgression brings sure consequence, for God bears long but the transgressor bears his sin, and disobedience in the use of wine and in worship was met with slaying punishment that holds people accountable. God shows no partiality now as then, holding people accountable in the present as He did then, and He does not excuse wickedness, especially in those entrusted with responsible places. People given greater light, privileges, and responsibility face greater severity when they disregard God's requirements. His directions to Aaron teach that His people should acknowledge the justice of His corrections so that others may fear, for sympathizing with those punished instead of recognizing God's dishonor makes the sympathizers guilty with the transgressor. God opposes injustice and will purify His church of moral defilement, and the same kind of judgment threatens those who claim to serve God while resisting His work, taking authority that is not theirs, and using sacred principles for unrighteous purposes.
Sabbath Parallel to Strange Fire
Leviticus 10:2 shows the sure punishment that falls when the common is put in the place of the sacred. Nadab and Abihu as priests had been commanded to offer always only the fire of God's own kindling, kept burning before God day and night as a law ever to be observed. They had used wine too freely so their minds were not keen but confused and perverted, unable to distinguish between the sacred and the common, and they offered strange fire before the Lord which He commanded them not and dishonored Him. Therefore fire went out from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord, and God rejected their offering. The same sure consequence will fall upon those who exalt Sunday, a spurious sabbath and common working day, in place of the seventh day which the Lord sanctified and blessed, and upon all who strive to make His law a dead letter and set it aside as of no consequence.
Taking a common day upon which God placed no sanctity and clothing it with sacred prerogatives and declaring it holy gives it no sanctity, for it is a strange sabbath He commanded not and a strange fire He will not accept. Presenting to the world as the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week kept as holy instead of God's Sabbath has no Thus saith the Lord for its authority, dishonors God by human institution, and ignores the Sabbath command which He made the sign of obedience. God's statutes are to be reverenced and obeyed, God is supreme authority in all His requirements, and though He bears long with the transgressor he must surely bear the consequence of his own sin. Their immediate death by fire from the Lord for departing from explicit commands in worship warns that violation of His commandments is no light matter and must be followed exactly rather than treated as optional. Known transgression of His commandments becomes habit as conviction of truth wears away, as with professing Christians who promise obedience but do not obey.
Breaking the fourth commandment by trampling the Eden Sabbath and accepting a sabbath God did not institute, replacing the seventh-day Sabbath He specified with a common day, is not now punished at once with temporal death. But persistent transgression and rejection of light end in death, which is the final punishment for those who persist. God means the particular day He sanctified, and people must follow His directions exactly rather than substitute their own choice or what they think will do just as well.
Strange Fire in Present Work
In general, offering common fire is substituting human methods, plans, wisdom, unsanctified opinions and worldly standards for God's appointed way and Spirit-guided work, mingling sacred work carelessly with common ideas born of self, which cheapens truth and turns things upside down. Zeal does not make such service acceptable, and outward performance does not sanctify it, for only what God has appointed may be used in holy offering. Human devices, defects and natural inclinations must not replace work guided by the Spirit of God, and the death of Aaron's sons warns against departing from God's methods. Strained human effort, overwork without prayer, worldly cares crowding out prayer, and service with Christ left out leave workers unable to discern sacred from common. Through careless self-indulgence the senses are beclouded so that men place themselves where they cannot distinguish between the sacred and the common.
Ministers and teachers must not offer strained, poorly prepared service instead of work empowered by the Holy Spirit, for sacred lessons require superior talent and perfect workmanship. They dishonor God when they bring worldly or unverified ideas such as politics into the pulpit instead of faithfully presenting truth received from God. Theatrical preaching and outward display, human inventions, and showy methods carried out without humility and Christlike methods are common fire that does not glorify Him. Storytelling mingled with the Word, cheap illustrations that degrade holy things, overuse of pictures, and filling sacred work with common matter where sacred work belongs likewise put the common where only the sacred belongs. Claiming the Spirit's authority for human changes, including changing another's words while insisting God inspired the changes, is presenting as divine what is of one's own making. The Lord's work must be distinguished from common affairs by giving meat in due season, giving the trumpet a certain sound, with fewer pictures and more real, solid, spiritual food.
Harsh, sharp, critical, severe and condemning words from pen or lips are strange fire that God does not accept, and forbidden words can destroy hope, courage and faith and wound those who belong to Christ. Human passion flashing out from an agitated spirit, human judgment, prejudice, murmuring, jealousy, suspicion and evil speech dishonor God, bruise souls, and poison even truth like a drop of gall. Careless, light, perverse and rash words must be restrained by a purified heart, with the tongue guarded and speech as Christ spoke. Sacred fire is healing words of gentleness, kindness, courtesy and love as holy incense, truth spoken in love by meek agents who preserve Christ's fragrance, with mind filled with pure holy thoughts and well-chosen words especially among unbelievers who measure the worker. Harshness joined with self-importance, self-exaltation, self-righteousness, arbitrary authority, domineering, oppression and restricting God's people by rules He did not establish misrepresents His character.
Selfishness and covetousness mingled with sacred work are strange fire, and the offense is measured by the position of trust occupied because responsibility for influence of mind upon mind is proportionate to trust given. Grasping for higher wages, working only for pay, idleness while God's cause needs help, treating His work as common business, bargaining for gain, fraud, and abandoning justice, equity and righteous principle turn handling of what God made sacred into a common unholy use. Diverting means the Lord moves His people to give for a certain purpose, appropriating money that should flow into His treasury, and appropriating treasury funds partake of worldly policy instead of keeping the sacred trust holy. Commercial work brought into a sacred institution defiles it and joins its workers with the enemy of souls. Those handling sacred things must not defile God's work by mingling common fire in business lines but bring heaven's pure holy principles permanently into work, giving themselves without reserve so influence becomes holy power in family, school and church through practical benevolence, self-denial and self-sacrifice.
Relying on unsanctified men, consulting lawyers in church matters, trusting self instead of God, and acting as men destitute of the Spirit are using common fire, which is human principles without sanction in the Word, self and pride of opinion, Pharisaism separated from the Bible standard, and men taking God's place by assuming authority over fellows without His authority. Devising showy projects, exalting human authority above the divine, human inventions and plans eclipsing sacred things and excluding divine instruction, and presenting human plans as divinely sanctioned while disregarding God's leadings greatly dishonor God and show loss of spiritual discernment. Domineering and oppressing fellow workers, restricting God's people by uncommanded rules, harsh overbearing treatment, pride, loftiness, a spirit desiring to rule, and a controversial combative attitude when preconceived ideas are crossed misrepresent His character. Substituting human plans for God's holy principles even when claimed to advance His cause leads to oppression, injustice, wickedness and harm, brings no true advancement, and God rejects practices that violate truth and righteousness and will not vindicate injustice invoked in His name. Church leaders who rely on their own plans and opinions rather than the Holy Spirit repeat this misuse and become supplanters, so God's institutions must be guarded by discreet, pure-minded, righteous managers in full dependence on God as a distinct holy people separate from the world.
Backslidden, unconverted handling of sacred responsibility mixes the common with the sacred, for without Christ's spiritual life-blood circulating there is no growth until conversion and being born again, so counsels and decisions are worthless and misleading and do harm. Unconverted control in training youth, fitting workers to one man's mind, judgment and experience and giving work his own mold, is a snare and curse that corrupts, destroys and brings debilitating influence wherever it goes. Hardness, criticism and want of love instead of consecration, cherishing what is common as sacred until eyesight fails so sacred and common can no longer be discerned, and divided half-hearted leadership displease God and imperil the soul. Such scattering rather than gathering, departing from God, opening the heart to infidelity, quenching the Holy Spirit, calling light darkness and darkness light under Satan's deception until truth and error cannot be distinguished, and using influence against truth require humbling the heart and changing the entire course. Full consecration and work on altogether different lines from inward to outward by the Holy Spirit must replace divided service.
In councils and business, loud boisterous talking, unsanctified zeal, bold propositions, loud-voiced speeches, combativeness, and a selfish un-Christlike spirit are strange fire positively forbidden in His work. Partiality, favoritism, hypocrisy, bribery, sarcasm, criticism, jesting, joking and foolish speech, worldly selfish plans divorcing religion from business, worldly theories and common maxims of business houses, secret financiering, and carrying on God's work by determined human will without humbly seeking God refuse to bow in deed and truth before His authority. Confederating by mutual support, grasping to gather what has not been earned, giving serving the Lord little place with no time to pray, and leading others into false paths bring condemnation through the leaven of selfishness like dry sapless withered branches. Meeting opposition with a combative self-directed spirit instead of Christ's spirit can betray the cause at victory's point, and one wrong move may take months or years to undo. True service empties the heart of self-confidence, self-esteem, selfish ambition, stubbornness and self-will to be filled with infinite wisdom, listens, believes and obeys when God speaks, and combines diligence, integrity and godliness with pure clean unadulterated service learned from Christ's meekness.
In editorial and educational work, filling wide-circulation papers with common matter instead of precious instruction, with long articles ignoring the near coming of the Son of man in the clouds with power and great glory, and dependence on pictures and things unrelated to vital issues for this time put common matter where sacred work belongs. Papers going to the world must contain more than common publications, with pure wheat thoroughly winnowed from chaff, and true higher education is not gained by dealing with lives and sentiments of men who do not know the Lord's Word. Misuse of God-given abilities to explain creation and providence by human philosophy and supposed science instead of appealing to God brings strange fire into sacred service and profanation under judgment. Turning from God's Word to mix the sacred with what serves human lust and ambition brings the same accountability as mingling strange fire with the sacred.
Worship polluted by appetite, tobacco and liquor is strange fire God will no more accept than the sons' offering, for He remains exact in requirements and has not changed in particularity since Moses' day. Priests entering with mouths polluted by tobacco would have met the same fate as those consumed for dishonoring sacred service, because God required sacred cleanliness. Praying, singing, preaching and teaching while breath, lips and body are defiled by liquor and tobacco, while nerves and brain are paralyzed and benumbed by narcotics, is positive defilement, an offense and insult to a holy sin-hating God dwelling in unapproachable light, and an incense most acceptable to Satan. Indulgence blunts sensibility so worshipers make no difference between sacred and common and bring holy things down to polluted souls, and intemperance in eating likewise disqualifies ministers from seeing the difference and reveals disregard for warnings, though sentence may not fall speedily.
Deceptive spiritualistic ideas advocated as holy fire are common unauthorized fire, and acting under one's own spirit instead of God's Spirit makes imagination deceptive, leads to false conclusions, distorts appearances, and opens the way for satanic agencies upon the imagination. Erroneous methods brought in by Satan, permitted at the very center of the work, would hopelessly ruin God's cause. Light from any other source than the holy altar is false light, and those who should shine as bright lights to flash light on others' pathway become bodies of darkness when tapers are kindled from selfishness, untruthfulness and unfair dealing instead of from God.
Self woven into the work, living for pretense and display, and weaving little distracting threads of apparently little consequence that attract mind and eye and absorb attention when attention belongs to God are common fire. Neglect of watchfulness and prayer, a heart not under the Spirit's control, exalting self, complaint and unjust dealing toward fellow workers God is using, letting appetite take the helm to control mind, rejecting light on denial of appetite, and eating and drinking as one pleases pervert perception so sacred fire is not prized above common and character is cheapened by common thoughts and lustful practices while men think it makes no difference. God's sacred fire must consume commonness, selfishness, neglect and self-direction in management of His cause, especially serious in sacred responsibility. Sacred fire is a heart controlled by the Spirit, earnest prayer like Daniel, careful words and deportment, love and fear of God, respect for brethren, and grace to remain faithful true and untainted, with full cooperation of divine and human agencies and study of Bible characters to keep appetite from ruling.
Nadab and Abihu, priests and sons of Aaron, offered incense with common unauthorized fire instead of the sacred fire God himself had kindled and commanded to be kept burning, and fire went out from the Lord and devoured them so that they died before him in public worship just after he had shown acceptance of the commanded sacrifices. They were highly favored men who knew the holy character of the service, but partial intoxication from wine benumbed their brains and dulled moral perception until they could not distinguish holy from common, joined to long-practiced self-indulgence and disregard for authority that even Aaron's indulgent training had fostered, and their impaired judgment did not excuse them because they became responsible when they chose to drink before duty. The commanded sacred fire represents God himself and communication with humanity opened through Jesus Christ alone whose mediation the incense kindled by holy fire emblems, and is his holy principles, love, character and the Holy Spirit to be used in all service, while strange fire is any service, method or principle of human kindling without heaven's signet. God must be sanctified in those who come near him and glorified before all the people, so any deviation from explicit directions in holy service brings sure judgment with no plea of meaning no harm, and greater light brings severer reckoning. Putting the common in place of the sacred repeats the same contempt, whether in exalting Sunday a common working day in place of the seventh day God sanctified, or in substituting human methods, unsanctified speech, selfish gain and worldly standards for Spirit-guided work in ministry, teaching, councils and worship.
The Act and Setting
Nadab and Abihu were Aaron's sons and priests who offered incense with unauthorized common fire instead of the sacred fire God himself had kindled. That sacred fire was commanded for all sanctuary service, was to be used in every act of service, represented God, and was required to be kept burning day and night and never to go out. Their use of strange fire He had not commanded was direct transgression and dishonoring of their sacred office, and the lesson is that unrighteousness by those responsible for God's service greatly dishonors Him and He will not tolerate it. Strict obedience to every word from His mouth is demanded of all who engage in His service, and the sacredness of His work is to be preserved as fully now as in ancient Israel.
Fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. This happened in public worship in the sight of the people, as a terrible manifestation of divine judgment for disregarding His express command. It came just after God had shown acceptance of the commanded sacrifices by letting His own fire fall from heaven, which the priests were then commanded to use for incense and keep burning continually on the altar. Aaron did not rebel or murmur when his two sons were thus killed. Treating precious truths and warnings as no more valuable than common fire repeats the same contempt of treating sacred things as common that brought that judgment.
They acted as highly favored men who had gone up with Moses, Aaron and the seventy elders and seen the God of Israel. They knew the holy character and solemn responsibility of the service and the holiness required of those who come near Him where His presence is manifested. They knew that careful self-examination and sanctification were required before entering the sanctuary. With full and clear use of reason they would have recoiled with horror from the presumptuous transgression, and those who have to do with sacred things must do nothing that mars the perfection of their work, remembering that a heavenly Watcher constantly beholds their work and the spirit brought into it.
Causes Behind the Sin
Nadab and Abihu had freely used wine until partial intoxication benumbed their brains, beclouded the intellect, debased the faculties, weakened nerve power and discernment, and dulled the senses and moral perception. In that state they could no longer distinguish between the holy and the common, the clean and the unclean, and right and wrong, and appetite led them to downfall and to strange acts. The same corrupting and unfitting power belongs to beer, tea, coffee, and other intoxicants and stimulants, which corrupt the blood, blunt moral perception, inflame animal passion over the intellectual and spiritual nature, harden the conscience, and leave men unable to offer a living sacrifice holy and acceptable. Worship defiled by such indulgence of appetite and passion treats sacred things as common and is not acceptable.
Their fatal mistake grew out of long-practiced self-indulgence, unbroken sinful custom, lack of self-control, and failure to learn respect for authority and exact obedience. Disrespect shown to their father became disregard for God's positive requirements, and habit chained them so that even elevation to sacred office could not break the sinful custom. Appetite had dulled spiritual perception and reasoning until holy things lost their sacredness and disobedience appeared pleasing, leaving them unprepared for sacred office and weak where they should have been strong. God was testing character to call out the highest powers of the mind and to teach firm principle, strictly temperate habits, and a continual sense of the sacredness of the work.
Aaron had contributed to that unfitness by indulgent, misplaced tenderness, gentle remonstrance, and neglect to command respect and reverence, train to obedience, self-denial and reverence for parental authority, and restrain with firmness. His sons therefore disregarded parental authority and did not realize the necessity of explicitly following God's requirements, offering common fire with incense contrary to express direction and prohibition on pain of death. Their death was God's own work of justice awakened against them where parental authority was neglected. The same misplaced love and indulgence of children in wrong now prepares them for certain displeasure and destroying wrath.
Their reason was clouded while indulging appetite for wine under its exciting stimulus, yet impaired judgment from drink did not excuse them. They became responsible when they put the cup to their lips and chose to drink before duty, and by that choice they were accountable for actions done under alcohol's influence. God does not excuse sin because drink unfitted them for sacred duty, does not sanction wrongdoing in His work, and a good purpose cannot justify acting on wrong principles. Indulging appetite cost them their lives.
The case led directly to the command that those serving before the Lord abstain from wine and strong drink, so judgment would stay clear to distinguish holy from unholy and to teach the statutes. Those engaged in God's work must practice strict temperance, keep appetite and habits strictly controlled, keep the whole being under God's protection, and never tempt the Spirit, mindful that God's eye is upon their work. This warns physicians, ministers, teachers, youth, and all in sacred work, lest sowing to the flesh bring corruption and even the unforgivable sin against the Holy Ghost. Their history taught Daniel and his companions, who knew it from the Pentateuch, to refuse wine at the king's table, to avoid all customs, practices, and indulgences that dishonor God, and to keep the straight path of strict temperance in order to protect physical and mental powers.
Meaning of the Fires
The fire God commanded was of heaven's own kindling, representing God himself, never to go out, and to be used in all His service, while light taken from any other source is false light. The lamp is kept burning and trimmed by the very hand that lit it only as the bearer walks in the footsteps of Jesus, surrenders life to His guidance and service, lives and practices every word proceeding from the mouth of God, and brings truth into practical life, keeping golden oil in vessels with lamps. For such God has made provision for every position in which they are placed, so that those who kindle the taper only from the divine altar hold the lamp firmly by power kept burning day and night. Taking fire from the divine altar means first talking with God to ascertain what spirit one is of, then closely and critically examining every point, every method, every principle in the light reflected from the Sun of Righteousness, holding holy and just principles sacred, keeping unspotted from the world, ever looking to Jesus and marking the spirit in which He worked to follow His example. True disciples so test their own spirit and decisions by God's Word, treat its holy and just principles as sacred, and give to others its pure principles as counsel, guide, and supreme authority by asking what saith the Lord rather than what saith men.
Those who should stand in the clear light and shine as bright lights in a dark place to flash light on the pathway of others and show the way to walk become bodies of darkness when their tapers are kindled from selfishness, untruthfulness, and unfair dealing instead of from God. Those who talk the truth fluently but lack faith that works by love and purifies the soul kindle strange fire continually, grafting professed truth into the natural vine. They reveal the natural temperament, the passions of the unrenewed heart, dethroned reason, coarse unchristian character, self and hereditary tendencies, self-indulgence, deception and falsehood, and are a wild vine bearing fruit unto death, dead while they seem to be alive. They cannot discern their own human sparks from God's sacred fire.
The divine fire represents communication between God and humanity opened through Jesus Christ alone. The incense kindled by holy fire, rising before God mingled with the earnest prayers of the people without, is an emblem of Christ's mediation. The priests' strange fire had no divine Saviour represented in it and was as the offering of Cain.
The sacred fire is God's holy principles, His sacred fire of love that makes people tender, kind, and sympathetic toward those in danger, in contrast to harsh, overbearing treatment that reflects pride. It represents Christ's character and the holy influence of a life that honors the sacredness of the work, while fire not kindled by God is strange fire abhorrent to Him and especially offensive when offered by one with greater responsibility. In worship Christ is the true altar and the Holy Spirit is the true fire to be used with offerings, received into the character as healing words and to be used in all effort. The fire kindled by God is holy and is to consume what is common and selfish in those serving Him, namely commonness, selfishness, intemperance, lust, cheapness, human ideas and self-directed service that replace God's plans. Those who serve must therefore hide self in Him and represent Christ's character rather than try to improve God's work through conceit and grasping, and the sacred must not be mixed with the common.
Strange or common fire is any point, method, principle, or service that does not bear the signet of heaven and must not be accepted. It is human kindling and sparks of man's own making, with self and selfishness enthroned instead of divine wisdom. It symbolizes a counterfeit religious influence in contrast with the divine light being rejected.
Holiness Obedience and Judgment
Leviticus 10:2 shows that Nadab and Abihu died when fire from the Lord consumed them after they offered unauthorized common fire in the sanctuary, and their deaths were judgment for treating holy service as common and disregarding God's directions. The judgment made clear that God must be honored and kept holy by those who approach Him and glorified before all the people, and that sacred work requires obedience to the duties and boundaries He appoints. Sacred things must not be mingled with the common, the sacred must not be brought down to the common level, and no commonness or cheapness is to be brought into sacred work. All who are in God's service and profess to believe the truth must closely examine themselves whether they are in the faith and whether they are offering sacred or common fire, and all who name the name of Christ must depart from iniquity. Those who minister in sacred things must approach God with reverence, humility, cleanliness, practical godliness, and submission to instruction and to the holy standard He requires.
Any deviation from explicit directions in holy service was punishable with death, proving that God exactly marks iniquity and visits sins of thoughtlessness, negligence, forgetfulness, and even ignorance when light has shone. No plea of meaning no harm or thinking to do God service excuses disregard of light, partial obedience is not enough, and it is not enough that nearly everything in worship is done as He commanded. Offering unauthorized worship to God is no small matter, treating strange fire as acceptable and saying it makes no difference is abhorrent to Him, and such worship cannot be dismissed as harmless. Their fate illustrates the danger of taking up sacred duties without divine authorization, and the sin was self-exaltation in mingling common fire with the fire of God's own kindling. Those who have seen the glorious manifestation of God's character have melted and subdued hearts, are lost to self in the consciousness of His wonderful glory and their own utter unworthiness, and will not exalt themselves or offer such presumption, while those who resist correction and persist proudly in their own way are given over to perverted thinking.
Transgression brings sure consequence, for God bears long but the transgressor bears his sin, and disobedience in the use of wine and in worship was met with slaying punishment that holds people accountable. God shows no partiality now as then, holding people accountable in the present as He did then, and He does not excuse wickedness, especially in those entrusted with responsible places. People given greater light, privileges, and responsibility face greater severity when they disregard God's requirements. His directions to Aaron teach that His people should acknowledge the justice of His corrections so that others may fear, for sympathizing with those punished instead of recognizing God's dishonor makes the sympathizers guilty with the transgressor. God opposes injustice and will purify His church of moral defilement, and the same kind of judgment threatens those who claim to serve God while resisting His work, taking authority that is not theirs, and using sacred principles for unrighteous purposes.
Sabbath Parallel to Strange Fire
Leviticus 10:2 shows the sure punishment that falls when the common is put in the place of the sacred. Nadab and Abihu as priests had been commanded to offer always only the fire of God's own kindling, kept burning before God day and night as a law ever to be observed. They had used wine too freely so their minds were not keen but confused and perverted, unable to distinguish between the sacred and the common, and they offered strange fire before the Lord which He commanded them not and dishonored Him. Therefore fire went out from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord, and God rejected their offering. The same sure consequence will fall upon those who exalt Sunday, a spurious sabbath and common working day, in place of the seventh day which the Lord sanctified and blessed, and upon all who strive to make His law a dead letter and set it aside as of no consequence.
Taking a common day upon which God placed no sanctity and clothing it with sacred prerogatives and declaring it holy gives it no sanctity, for it is a strange sabbath He commanded not and a strange fire He will not accept. Presenting to the world as the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week kept as holy instead of God's Sabbath has no Thus saith the Lord for its authority, dishonors God by human institution, and ignores the Sabbath command which He made the sign of obedience. God's statutes are to be reverenced and obeyed, God is supreme authority in all His requirements, and though He bears long with the transgressor he must surely bear the consequence of his own sin. Their immediate death by fire from the Lord for departing from explicit commands in worship warns that violation of His commandments is no light matter and must be followed exactly rather than treated as optional. Known transgression of His commandments becomes habit as conviction of truth wears away, as with professing Christians who promise obedience but do not obey.
Breaking the fourth commandment by trampling the Eden Sabbath and accepting a sabbath God did not institute, replacing the seventh-day Sabbath He specified with a common day, is not now punished at once with temporal death. But persistent transgression and rejection of light end in death, which is the final punishment for those who persist. God means the particular day He sanctified, and people must follow His directions exactly rather than substitute their own choice or what they think will do just as well.
Strange Fire in Present Work
In general, offering common fire is substituting human methods, plans, wisdom, unsanctified opinions and worldly standards for God's appointed way and Spirit-guided work, mingling sacred work carelessly with common ideas born of self, which cheapens truth and turns things upside down. Zeal does not make such service acceptable, and outward performance does not sanctify it, for only what God has appointed may be used in holy offering. Human devices, defects and natural inclinations must not replace work guided by the Spirit of God, and the death of Aaron's sons warns against departing from God's methods. Strained human effort, overwork without prayer, worldly cares crowding out prayer, and service with Christ left out leave workers unable to discern sacred from common. Through careless self-indulgence the senses are beclouded so that men place themselves where they cannot distinguish between the sacred and the common.
Ministers and teachers must not offer strained, poorly prepared service instead of work empowered by the Holy Spirit, for sacred lessons require superior talent and perfect workmanship. They dishonor God when they bring worldly or unverified ideas such as politics into the pulpit instead of faithfully presenting truth received from God. Theatrical preaching and outward display, human inventions, and showy methods carried out without humility and Christlike methods are common fire that does not glorify Him. Storytelling mingled with the Word, cheap illustrations that degrade holy things, overuse of pictures, and filling sacred work with common matter where sacred work belongs likewise put the common where only the sacred belongs. Claiming the Spirit's authority for human changes, including changing another's words while insisting God inspired the changes, is presenting as divine what is of one's own making. The Lord's work must be distinguished from common affairs by giving meat in due season, giving the trumpet a certain sound, with fewer pictures and more real, solid, spiritual food.
Harsh, sharp, critical, severe and condemning words from pen or lips are strange fire that God does not accept, and forbidden words can destroy hope, courage and faith and wound those who belong to Christ. Human passion flashing out from an agitated spirit, human judgment, prejudice, murmuring, jealousy, suspicion and evil speech dishonor God, bruise souls, and poison even truth like a drop of gall. Careless, light, perverse and rash words must be restrained by a purified heart, with the tongue guarded and speech as Christ spoke. Sacred fire is healing words of gentleness, kindness, courtesy and love as holy incense, truth spoken in love by meek agents who preserve Christ's fragrance, with mind filled with pure holy thoughts and well-chosen words especially among unbelievers who measure the worker. Harshness joined with self-importance, self-exaltation, self-righteousness, arbitrary authority, domineering, oppression and restricting God's people by rules He did not establish misrepresents His character.
Selfishness and covetousness mingled with sacred work are strange fire, and the offense is measured by the position of trust occupied because responsibility for influence of mind upon mind is proportionate to trust given. Grasping for higher wages, working only for pay, idleness while God's cause needs help, treating His work as common business, bargaining for gain, fraud, and abandoning justice, equity and righteous principle turn handling of what God made sacred into a common unholy use. Diverting means the Lord moves His people to give for a certain purpose, appropriating money that should flow into His treasury, and appropriating treasury funds partake of worldly policy instead of keeping the sacred trust holy. Commercial work brought into a sacred institution defiles it and joins its workers with the enemy of souls. Those handling sacred things must not defile God's work by mingling common fire in business lines but bring heaven's pure holy principles permanently into work, giving themselves without reserve so influence becomes holy power in family, school and church through practical benevolence, self-denial and self-sacrifice.
Relying on unsanctified men, consulting lawyers in church matters, trusting self instead of God, and acting as men destitute of the Spirit are using common fire, which is human principles without sanction in the Word, self and pride of opinion, Pharisaism separated from the Bible standard, and men taking God's place by assuming authority over fellows without His authority. Devising showy projects, exalting human authority above the divine, human inventions and plans eclipsing sacred things and excluding divine instruction, and presenting human plans as divinely sanctioned while disregarding God's leadings greatly dishonor God and show loss of spiritual discernment. Domineering and oppressing fellow workers, restricting God's people by uncommanded rules, harsh overbearing treatment, pride, loftiness, a spirit desiring to rule, and a controversial combative attitude when preconceived ideas are crossed misrepresent His character. Substituting human plans for God's holy principles even when claimed to advance His cause leads to oppression, injustice, wickedness and harm, brings no true advancement, and God rejects practices that violate truth and righteousness and will not vindicate injustice invoked in His name. Church leaders who rely on their own plans and opinions rather than the Holy Spirit repeat this misuse and become supplanters, so God's institutions must be guarded by discreet, pure-minded, righteous managers in full dependence on God as a distinct holy people separate from the world.
Backslidden, unconverted handling of sacred responsibility mixes the common with the sacred, for without Christ's spiritual life-blood circulating there is no growth until conversion and being born again, so counsels and decisions are worthless and misleading and do harm. Unconverted control in training youth, fitting workers to one man's mind, judgment and experience and giving work his own mold, is a snare and curse that corrupts, destroys and brings debilitating influence wherever it goes. Hardness, criticism and want of love instead of consecration, cherishing what is common as sacred until eyesight fails so sacred and common can no longer be discerned, and divided half-hearted leadership displease God and imperil the soul. Such scattering rather than gathering, departing from God, opening the heart to infidelity, quenching the Holy Spirit, calling light darkness and darkness light under Satan's deception until truth and error cannot be distinguished, and using influence against truth require humbling the heart and changing the entire course. Full consecration and work on altogether different lines from inward to outward by the Holy Spirit must replace divided service.
In councils and business, loud boisterous talking, unsanctified zeal, bold propositions, loud-voiced speeches, combativeness, and a selfish un-Christlike spirit are strange fire positively forbidden in His work. Partiality, favoritism, hypocrisy, bribery, sarcasm, criticism, jesting, joking and foolish speech, worldly selfish plans divorcing religion from business, worldly theories and common maxims of business houses, secret financiering, and carrying on God's work by determined human will without humbly seeking God refuse to bow in deed and truth before His authority. Confederating by mutual support, grasping to gather what has not been earned, giving serving the Lord little place with no time to pray, and leading others into false paths bring condemnation through the leaven of selfishness like dry sapless withered branches. Meeting opposition with a combative self-directed spirit instead of Christ's spirit can betray the cause at victory's point, and one wrong move may take months or years to undo. True service empties the heart of self-confidence, self-esteem, selfish ambition, stubbornness and self-will to be filled with infinite wisdom, listens, believes and obeys when God speaks, and combines diligence, integrity and godliness with pure clean unadulterated service learned from Christ's meekness.
In editorial and educational work, filling wide-circulation papers with common matter instead of precious instruction, with long articles ignoring the near coming of the Son of man in the clouds with power and great glory, and dependence on pictures and things unrelated to vital issues for this time put common matter where sacred work belongs. Papers going to the world must contain more than common publications, with pure wheat thoroughly winnowed from chaff, and true higher education is not gained by dealing with lives and sentiments of men who do not know the Lord's Word. Misuse of God-given abilities to explain creation and providence by human philosophy and supposed science instead of appealing to God brings strange fire into sacred service and profanation under judgment. Turning from God's Word to mix the sacred with what serves human lust and ambition brings the same accountability as mingling strange fire with the sacred.
Worship polluted by appetite, tobacco and liquor is strange fire God will no more accept than the sons' offering, for He remains exact in requirements and has not changed in particularity since Moses' day. Priests entering with mouths polluted by tobacco would have met the same fate as those consumed for dishonoring sacred service, because God required sacred cleanliness. Praying, singing, preaching and teaching while breath, lips and body are defiled by liquor and tobacco, while nerves and brain are paralyzed and benumbed by narcotics, is positive defilement, an offense and insult to a holy sin-hating God dwelling in unapproachable light, and an incense most acceptable to Satan. Indulgence blunts sensibility so worshipers make no difference between sacred and common and bring holy things down to polluted souls, and intemperance in eating likewise disqualifies ministers from seeing the difference and reveals disregard for warnings, though sentence may not fall speedily.
Deceptive spiritualistic ideas advocated as holy fire are common unauthorized fire, and acting under one's own spirit instead of God's Spirit makes imagination deceptive, leads to false conclusions, distorts appearances, and opens the way for satanic agencies upon the imagination. Erroneous methods brought in by Satan, permitted at the very center of the work, would hopelessly ruin God's cause. Light from any other source than the holy altar is false light, and those who should shine as bright lights to flash light on others' pathway become bodies of darkness when tapers are kindled from selfishness, untruthfulness and unfair dealing instead of from God.
Self woven into the work, living for pretense and display, and weaving little distracting threads of apparently little consequence that attract mind and eye and absorb attention when attention belongs to God are common fire. Neglect of watchfulness and prayer, a heart not under the Spirit's control, exalting self, complaint and unjust dealing toward fellow workers God is using, letting appetite take the helm to control mind, rejecting light on denial of appetite, and eating and drinking as one pleases pervert perception so sacred fire is not prized above common and character is cheapened by common thoughts and lustful practices while men think it makes no difference. God's sacred fire must consume commonness, selfishness, neglect and self-direction in management of His cause, especially serious in sacred responsibility. Sacred fire is a heart controlled by the Spirit, earnest prayer like Daniel, careful words and deportment, love and fear of God, respect for brethren, and grace to remain faithful true and untainted, with full cooperation of divine and human agencies and study of Bible characters to keep appetite from ruling.