And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD.
Numbers 26:61 stands in the record of the second numbering of Israel in Numbers 26, taken at the end of the forty years of wandering. Comparing that census with the numbering in chapter 1 shows how the numbers of the tribes changed during the wilderness years. At that second numbering, not one man of those numbered the first time was alive to witness it except Caleb and Joshua, for every other person had fallen in the wilderness. Not one rebel remained alive.
That terrible failure happened simply because the people were wicked, with sin in their midst breaking out at last in open, wanton rebellion against God. By a solemn oath He excluded them from the land and doomed them to die in the wilderness. The second numbering was calculated to impress upon the people that God will fulfill His threatened judgments, and makes manifest beyond dispute that He does so. Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before the Lord because they did not submit to God's will, which teaches submission to God's will.
This teaches those on whom the ends of the world are come that their hopes of entering the kingdom of God cannot be stronger than Israel's hopes at the first numbering. Their tokens of God's favor, presence, and willingness to save cannot be greater than Israel had. Yet Israel came short of the promised land. Sin carried in the heart inevitably brings ruin.
Numbers 26:61 stands in the record of the second numbering of Israel in Numbers 26, taken at the end of the forty years of wandering. Comparing that census with the numbering in chapter 1 shows how the numbers of the tribes changed during the wilderness years. At that second numbering, not one man of those numbered the first time was alive to witness it except Caleb and Joshua, for every other person had fallen in the wilderness. Not one rebel remained alive.
That terrible failure happened simply because the people were wicked, with sin in their midst breaking out at last in open, wanton rebellion against God. By a solemn oath He excluded them from the land and doomed them to die in the wilderness. The second numbering was calculated to impress upon the people that God will fulfill His threatened judgments, and makes manifest beyond dispute that He does so. Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before the Lord because they did not submit to God's will, which teaches submission to God's will.
This teaches those on whom the ends of the world are come that their hopes of entering the kingdom of God cannot be stronger than Israel's hopes at the first numbering. Their tokens of God's favor, presence, and willingness to save cannot be greater than Israel had. Yet Israel came short of the promised land. Sin carried in the heart inevitably brings ruin.