- Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. Leviticus 10:1 – Exactly what took place isn’t outlined, but from the surrounding verses we can get a logical guess. After a weeklong time of waiting at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting these two sons of Aaron took their own censer with some of the holy incense in it and put their own fire to it. When it says they “came before the Lord” it likely means they sought to go past the veil into the Holy of Holies. With the command of the Lord for priests not to drink on duty also implies that these two sons may have even been drunk in the process. Whatever the specifics may have been, these men decided to handle approaching God their way, not the way God directed. The result? Their death. Trying to come before the Lord on your terms only ends in this result. Trying to come to God based on your own good works…the result is death. Trying to come to God based on someone else’s faith…the result is death. Trying to come before God with your own fire in ways He never directed you could…the result is death. While all our paths we try to create lead to death, God did make a path that does lead to life which is through His Son Jesus. Jesus is the way to true life with the Father. No one can get to the Father outside of Jesus. While the message that all our efforts and creativity can’t achieve us life with the Father is disappointing, praise the Lord that He made a way for us to have life with Him that is available to all. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3212
- Leviticus 10 Daily DEVO “And do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.” And they did according to the word of Moses. Leviticus 10:7 – So they did what God through Moses told them to do. What’s so special about that here? Well for Aaron he just saw two of his sons die because they didn’t do what God said. For the other two priests, Aaron’s other two sons, they just saw their two brothers die in front of them for not doing what God said. They saw the mistake of others, learned from it, and took a different path. We need to learn as well from the mistakes of those before us or around us. See what their choices bring into their stories and ask yourself if that’s the story you want your life to look like. If not, take a different path than them. Choose the path with the ending you want. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 892
- And Aaron said to Moses, “Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and yet such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the Lord have approved?” And when Moses heard that, he approved. Leviticus 10:19-20 – The issue Moses brought to Aaron was that he didn’t eat on the sin offering that God had given to him as his portion. Yet we see Aaron’s reason was because such things had happened to him. What happened? Aaron just lost two of his sons because they handled the work of God in an unauthorized way. Aaron’s heart was broken because of the loss of his two sons and knew taking part of the offering with such a heart wouldn’t have been honoring to God. While we don’t know how Aaron truly felt in this moment, we do see Aaron’s character come out here. In the middle of deep sorrow he still chooses to serve the Lord. Even when he sees his two sons being carried out dead he remains faithful to God. Maybe how he handled the sin offering wasn’t correct but the intentions of his heart was approved by the Lord. How then does the difficulties and sorrows of life impact your pursuit of God? Do you remain steadfast or does the pain push you away from God? What level of pain would push you away? Our story reminds us that even deep, deep pain and loss don’t have to end with us walking away from God. We can experience that pain and still remain faithful. What I encourage you to do though is don’t wait till the moment after the pain has entered into your story to choose whether you’ll remain faithful. Choose today, for better or for worse, you’ll remain faithful after Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1933
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