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Leviticus
Chapter Ten
Leviticus 10
Chapter Contents
The sin and death of Nadab and Abihu. (1,2) Aaron and his
sons forbidden to mourn for Nadab and Abihu. (3-7) Wine forbidden to the
priests when in the service of the tabernacle. (8-11) Of eating the holy
things. (12-20)
Commentary on Leviticus 10:1,2
Next to Moses and Aaron, none were more likely to be
honourable in Israel than Nadab and Abihu. There is reason to think that they
were puffed up with pride, and that they were heated with wine. While the
people were prostrate before the Lord, adoring his presence and glory, they
rushed into the tabernacle to burn incense, though not at the appointed time;
both together, instead of one alone, and with fire not taken from the altar. If
it had been done through ignorance, they had been allowed to bring a
sin-offering. But the soul that doeth presumptuously, and in contempt of God's
majesty and justice, that soul shall be cut off. The wages of sin is death.
They died in the very act of their sin. The sin and punishment of these priests
showed the imperfection of that priesthood from the very beginning, and that it
could not shelter any from the fire of God's wrath, otherwise than as it was
typical of Christ's priesthood.
Commentary on Leviticus 10:3-7
The most quieting considerations under affliction are
fetched from the word of God. What was it that God spake? Though Aaron's heart
must have been filled with anguish and dismay, yet with silent submission he
revered the justice of the stroke. When God corrects us or ours for sin, it is
our duty to accept the punishment, and say, It is the Lord, let him do what
seemeth him good. Whenever we worship God, we come nigh unto him, as spiritual
priests. This ought to make us very serious in all acts of devotion. It
concerns us all, when we come nigh to God, to do every religious exercise, as
those who believe that the God with whom we have to do, is a holy God. He will
take vengeance on those that profane his sacred name by trifling with him.
Commentary on Leviticus 10:8-11
Do not drink wine or strong drink. During the time they
ministered, the priests were forbidden it. It is required of gospel ministers,
that they be not given to wine, 1 Timothy 3:3. It is, Lest ye die; die when ye
are in drink. The danger of death, to which we are continually exposed, should
engage all to be sober.
Commentary on Leviticus 10:12-20
Afflictions should rather quicken us to our duty, than
take us from it. But our unfitness for duty, when it is natural and not sinful,
will have great allowances made for it; God will have mercy, and not sacrifice.
Let us profit by the solemn warning this history conveys. When professing
worshippers come with zeal without knowledge, carnal affections, earthly,
light, vain, trifling thoughts, the devices of will-worship, instead of the
offering of soul and spirit; then the incense is kindled by a flame which never
came down from heaven, which the Spirit of a holy God never sent within their
hearts.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Leviticus》
Leviticus 10
Verse 1
[1] And
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put
fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the
LORD, which he commanded them not.
Strange fire —
Fire so called, because not taken from the altar, as it ought, but from some
common fire.
Before the Lord —
Upon the altar of incense.
Which he commanded not — Not commanding may be here put for forbidding, as it is, Jeremiah 32:35. Now as this was forbidden
implicitly; Leviticus 6:12, especially when God himself made
a comment upon that text, and by sending fire from heaven declared of what fire
he there spake; so it is more than probable it was forbidden expressly, though
that be not here mentioned, nor was it necessary it should be.
Verse 2
[2] And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died
before the LORD.
From the Lord —
From heaven, or rather from the sanctuary.
Devoured them —
Destroyed their lives; for their bodies and garments were not consumed. Thus
the sword is said to devour, 2 Samuel 2:26. Thus lightning many times kill
persons, without any hurt to their garments.
Verse 3
[3] Then
Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be
sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be
glorified. And Aaron held his peace.
The Lord spake —
Though the words be not recorded in scripture, where only the heads of
discourses are contained, yet it is probable they were uttered by Moses in
God's name. Howsoever the sense of them is in many places.
I will be sanctified — This may note, either, 1. their duty to sanctify God, to demean
themselves with such care, and reverence, and watchfulness, as becomes the
holiness of the God whom they serve; whence he leaves them to gather the
justice of the present judgment. Or, 2. God's purpose to sanctify himself, to
manifest himself to be an holy and righteous God by his severe and impartial
punishment of all transgressors, how near soever they are to him.
That come nigh me —
Who draw near to me, or to the place where I dwell, and are admitted into the
holy place, whence others are shut out. It is a description of the priests.
I will be glorified — As
they have sinned publickly and scandalously, so I will vindicate my honour in a
public and exemplary manner, that all men may learn to give me the glory of my
holiness by an exact conformity to my laws.
And Aaron held his peace — In acknowledgment of God's justice and submission to it. He murmured
not, nor replied against God.
Verse 4
[4] And
Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and
said unto them, Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of
the camp.
Moses called Mishael — For Aaron and his sons were employed in their holy ministrations, from
which they were not called for funeral solemnities.
Brethren —
That is, kinsmen, as that word is oft used.
Out of the camp —
Where the burying-places of the Jews were, that the living might neither be
annoyed by the unwholesome scent of the dead, nor defiled by the touch of their
graves.
Verse 5
[5] So they went near, and carried them in their coats out of the camp; as
Moses had said.
In their coats — In
the holy garments wherein they ministered; which might be done, either, 1. as a
testimony of respect due to them, notwithstanding their present failure; and
that God in judgment remembered mercy, and when he took away their lives,
spared their souls. Or, 2. because being polluted both by their sin, and by the
touch of their dead bodies, God would not have them any more used in his
service.
Verse 6
[6] And
Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not
your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon
all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the
burning which the LORD hath kindled.
Uncover not your head — That is, give no signification of your sorrow; mourn not for them;
partly lest you should seem to justify your brethren, and tacitly reflect upon
God as too severe; and partly lest thereby you should be diverted from, or
disturbed in your present service, which God expects to be done chearfully.
But bewail the burning — Not so much in compassion to them, as in sorrow for the tokens of divine
displeasure.
Verse 7
[7] And
ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest
ye die: for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you. And they did according
to the word of Moses.
Ye shall not go from the tabernacle — Where at this time they were, because this happened within seven days of
their consecration.
The oil of the Lord is upon you — You are persons consecrated peculiarly to God's service, which therefore
it is just you should prefer before all funeral solemnities.
Verse 9
[9] Do
not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into
the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever
throughout your generations:
Drink not wine — it
is not improbable, that the sin of Nadab and Abihu was owing to this very
thing. But if not, yet drunkenness is so odious a sin in itself, especially in
a minister, and most of all in the time of his administration of sacred things,
that God saw fit to prevent all occasions of it. And hence the devil, who is
God's ape, required this abstinence from his priests in their idolatrous
service.
Verse 10
[10] And
that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and
clean;
Between holy and unholy — Persons and things, which Nadab and Abihu did not.
Verse 11
[11] And
that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath
spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.
Ye may teach —
Which drunken persons are very unfit to do.
Verse 12
[12] And
Moses spake unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons that were
left, Take the meat offering that remaineth of the offerings of the LORD made
by fire, and eat it without leaven beside the altar: for it is most holy:
Eat it —
Moses repeats the command, partly lest their grief should cause them to neglect
their meat prescribed by God, (which abstinence would have been both a
signification of their sorrow which God had forbidden them, and a new
transgression of a divine precept;) and partly to encourage them to go on in
their holy services, and not to be dejected, as if God would no more accept
them or their sacrifices.
Verse 13
[13] And
ye shall eat it in the holy place, because it is thy due, and thy sons' due, of
the sacrifices of the LORD made by fire: for so I am commanded.
In the holy place — in
the court, near the altar of burnt-offerings.
Verse 14
[14] And
the wave breast and heave shoulder shall ye eat in a clean place; thou, and thy
sons, and thy daughters with thee: for they be thy due, and thy sons' due,
which are given out of the sacrifices of peace offerings of the children of
Israel.
In a clean place — In
any of your dwellings, or any place in the camp, which was kept clean from all
ceremonial defilement. In any place where the women as well as the men might
come, for the daughters of the priest might eat these as well as their sons, if
they were maids, or widows, or divorced, Leviticus 22:11-13.
Verse 16
[16] And
Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering, and, behold, it was
burnt: and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron which were
left alive, saying,
He was angry with Eleazar — He spares Aaron at this time, as overwhelmed with sorrow, and because
the rebuking him before his sons might have exposed him to some contempt; but
he knew that the reproof though directed to them, would concern him too.
Who were left alive —
And therefore ought to have taken warning.
Verse 17
[17]
Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is
most holy, and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation,
to make atonement for them before the LORD?
God hath given it to you — As a reward of your service, whereby you expiate, bear, and take away
their sins, by offering those sacrifices, by which God through Christ is
reconciled to the penitent and believing offerers.
Verse 18
[18] Behold,
the blood of it was not brought in within the holy place: ye should indeed have
eaten it in the holy place, as I commanded.
The blood was not brought in — Because Aaron was not yet admitted into the holy place, whither that
blood should have been brought, 'till he had prepared the way by the sacrifices
which were to be offered in the court.
Verse 19
[19] And
Aaron said unto Moses, Behold, this day have they offered their sin offering
and their burnt offering before the LORD; and such things have befallen me: and
if I had eaten the sin offering to day, should it have been accepted in the
sight of the LORD?
They have offered —
They have done the substance of the thing, though they have mistaken this one
circumstance.
Such things —
Whereby, haying been oppressed with grief, it is not strange nor unpardonable
if I have mistaked.
Should it have been accepted — Because it was not to be eaten with sorrow, but with rejoicing and
thanksgiving.
Verse 20
[20] And
when Moses heard that, he was content.
He rested satisfied with his answer. it
appeared, that Aaron sincerely aimed at pleasing God: and those who do so, will
find he is not extreme to mark what is done amiss.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Leviticus》
10 Chapter 10
Verse 1-2
Nadab and Abihu . . . offered strange fire.
The fall of Nadab and Abihu
Nadab and Abihu were no inconsiderable personages. They were the
sons of Israel’s priest, the nephews of Israel’s leader, the head of Israel’s
princely elders. They had been with Moses and Aaron in the hallowed mount; they
had looked upon the glorious vision of God as He appeared on Sinai; they had
been chosen and consecrated to the priesthood; they had stood by and assisted
Aaron in the first operations of the Hebrew ritual; and in all that camp of
God’s ransomed ones, Moses and Aaron alone had higher dignity than theirs. But,
from the mount of vision they fell into the pit of destruction. They were
accepted priests yesterday; they are disgraced victims of God’s holy
indignation to-day. An event so startling and melancholy, occurring at the very
inception of the Mosaic ceremonies, challenges our special attention, and calls
for serious thinking.
I. Let us inquire,
then, into the nature of the offence which called out this startling visitation
upon these unfortunate men. The context shows that it was not one isolated and
specific act of disobedience. It was of a complex nature, and involved sundry
particulars, each of which contributed to make up the general crime for which
judgment came upon the guilty ones. The special statute recorded in the ninth
verse, of which this occurrence seems to have been the occasion, furnishes
ground for the inference, that Nadab and Abihu had indulged too freely in
stimulating drinks, and thus incapacitated themselves for that circumspection
and sacred reverence which belonged to the priestly functions. And if this
inference be correct, we have here another among the many sad exhibitions of
the mischiefs wrought by indulging in a too free use of intoxicating liquors.
The history of strong drink is the history of ruin, of tears, of blood. It is,
perhaps, the greatest curse that has ever scourged the earth. But, although
drunkenness was most likely the root of Nadab and Abihu’s offending, it was not
the body of their came. If these men had not been first “set on fire of hell”
by excessive indulgence in drink, they would never perhaps have been driven to
the daring impiety which cost them their lives. The head and front of the sin
of these men, as I understand it, was the presumptuous substitution of a
will-worship of their own, in defiance of what God had appointed. In three
points did they offend--first, in the time; second, in the manner; and third,
in the matter of the service which they undertook. It was the prerogative of
Moses or Aaron to say when their services were needed; but they went
precipitately to work, without waiting for instructions, or asking for
directions. It was for the high priest alone to go in before the Lord and offer
incense at the mercy-seat; but they wickedly encroached upon His functions, and
went in themselves. Never more than one priest was to officiate in burning
incense at the same time; but they both together entered upon a service which
did not belong to either. These things in themselves evince a very high-handed
disregard of Divine order. But the great burden of their sin rested in the
matter of the service. They “offered strange fire”--common fire--fire wholly
foreign to the fire which God had kindled for such purposes. They thus obtruded
what was profane into what was holy, desecrated God’s ritual, cast contempt
upon His institutions, put their own will-worship above His sacred regulations,
and thus called down upon themselves a judgment which made all Israel tremble.
II. Let us now
consider some of the implications, surroundings, and foreshadowings of this sad
occurrence. The shadows of the future were linked in with the facts of the
past. Scarcely had Christianity been constituted, until we find a foreign and
fitful spirit insinuating itself into the operations of those into whose charge
its earthly services had been given (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; 1 John 4:3). Along with pontifical
power, came in great doctrinal and moral corruption. The one was a part of the
other. Bishops retired from the pulpits to sit as spiritual lords, superior to
all the kings of earth; the Virgin Mary was installed as the world’s mediator;
earthly priests assumed the work of intercession, and undertook to forgive and
license crime for a price; the Church was driven to the wilderness; another
Abihu in his drunkenness had entered the Holy Place, and was offering strange
fire before the Lord. And the thing that hath been is the thing that is. Philosophy still has its additions to make to
the Word of God. Heathenish pomp still moves to lift itself up in our temples.
Human reason is still at work to devise ways to worship and please God which He
has not commanded. Men are still
found who claim authority to perform offices for the souls of others, which
belong only to our great High Priest in heaven. Thousands there are who flatter
themselves that they are doing great things in their worship, though the spirit
that is in them is not at all the Spirit of Christ. But it shall not always be
so. There is a price annexed to all these usurpations and irregularities with
regard to holy things. God has magnified His Word above all His name; and he
that adds to or takes from it, has his reward specified, and his portion
reserved for him. Nadab and Abihu were suddenly and miraculously cut off in the
midst of their sin; and so shall it be at last with all the confederates in
usurpation and wrong, whether secular or ecclesiastical. Fire from the Lord
shall slay them. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
Repulsive incense
I. Their offensive
offering.
1. What rendered their incense odious to God? “Strange fire.”
2. What corresponding offensiveness may mar our offerings? The fire
is “strange” when our religion or work is the outcome of
II. Their rash
impiety.
1. Fearless presumption.
2. Wilful disobedience.
III. THEIR ALARMING
DESTRUCTION.
1. Remember the God with whom we have to do.
2. The rebuke which presumption will receive. (W. H. Jellie.)
The sin of Aaron’s sons
I. How elevation
to high and holy positions does not place men beyond the temptation and
liability to commit sin.
II. How the
committal of sin merits, and may meet with sudden corresponding retribution.
III. How such
retribution, while it condemns the sinner, vindicates the broken law and
glorifies the lawgiver.
1. We may note that the punishment they received--
2. God thus manifesting Himself as a consuming fire showed--
3. Strange fire is offered upon God’s altar when worship is presented
with--
Nadab and Abihu
I. The position of
these two men. Regularly ordained priests of the Lord (Exodus 40:12-16). They had a right,
therefore, to burn incense before the Lord.
II. The charge
against these men (Leviticus 10:1).
1. The letter of the law was violated (chap. 16:12, 13).
2. The essence of this sin (verse3).
III. The punishment
inflicted on these men (Leviticus 10:2). The punishment indicates
the unspeakable importance with which God regards implicit and strict obedience
to the letter of all His ordinances.
IV. The conduct of
aaron, the father of these two men. “Held his peace.”
1. How great the grace needed for this.
2. How exemplary the use of needed grace in such a trial as this.
V. The accustomed
mourning for the dead was prohibited in respect to these men (Leviticus 10:6). Does not the rebellious
element oftentimes enter into our mourning, and thus the grace of God, in
bereavement, becomes of no practical value?
VI. The new
prohibition (Leviticus 10:8-11). The connection in
which this prohibition stands suggests--
1. That Nadab and Abihu were probably under the influence of some
intoxicating liquor when led to offer “strange fire” before the Lord.
2. That such liquors have a tendency to unfit any one for any true
spiritual exercise, because of their exciting nature.
Lessons:
1. How profound a lesson is here taught in regard to the only
acceptable manner of administering the ordinances of God’s house--not with the
strange fire of willworship, nor by the slightest deviation from the prescribed
order.
2. We learn the unfitness of those who minister in holy things, who
neglect the proper observance of the ordinances, and teach men so to do.
3. Let us learn to submit to God’s judgments, however severe.
4. Let us avoid everything that would disqualify us for acceptable
worship. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
Lessons
1. No new or strange doctrine to be brought into the Church.
2. God’s election free, and of grace, not of any worthiness in man.
3. That God is no accepter of persons.
4. God is to be glorified even in His judgments.
5. Of a double power of the Word, to life or death.
6. The bodies of the dead to be reverently used, and after a seemly
manner to be buried.
7. That it is lawful upon just occasion to be angry. (A. Willet,
D. D.)
Moral observations
1. In prosperity we must think of adversity.
2. Not to present ourselves before God with carnal, vile, and strange
affections.
3. Wherein a man sinneth, he shall be punished.
4. To submit ourselves to the will of God.
5. That men should not for the occasion of private grief neglect the
public business, especially in God’s service.
6. Against the sin of drunkenness, especially in ministers.
7. That our sins are an offence unto Christ, and to all the celestial
company.
8. Not to be too rigorous toward those who are in heaviness, and sin
in weakness. (A. Willet, D. D.)
Strange fire
Their sin was that to burn incense withal, they took not the fire
from the altar of that which came down from heaven, and was preserved by the
diligence of the priests till the captivity of Babylon, but other fire, which
therefore is called strange fire because it was not fire appointed and
commanded. Which fault in man’s eyes may seem to have excuse, and not to
deserve so fearful a punishment. For they were but yet green in their office
and so of ignorance might offend, being not yet well acquainted with the nature
of their office. Again, of forgetfulness they might offend, not remembering or
thinking of the matter as they ought. Thirdly, there was no malice in them, or
purpose to do evil, but wholly they aimed at God’s service with a true meaning,
although in the manner they missed somewhat. But all these, and whatsoever like
excuses, were as fig-leaves before God, vain and weak to defend them from
guiltiness in the breach of His commandment.
1. First, with what severity the Lord challengeth and defendeth His
authority in laying down the way and manner of His worship, not leaving it to
any creature to meddle with, but according to prescription and appointment from
Him. Content He is that men shall make laws for human matters, concerning their
worldly estate in this earth as shall be fittest for the place where they live.
Laws against murder, theft, oppression, &c., but for His Divine worship He
only will prescribe it Himself, and what He appointeth that must be done and
that only, or else Nadab and Abihu their punishment expected, that is, God’s
wrath expected, in such manner as He shall please.
2. But doth not a good intent and meaning prevail with God, albeit
the thing be not expressly warranted? Yourself judge by that which you see
here, and in many other Scriptures. Had Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron,
here any ill-meaning towards God, or did they of malicious purpose offend Him
and procure their own destruction? No; you must needs think their intent was
good, but because they swervest from the Word, that good intent served not. The
words out of Deuteronomy are not, you shall not do ill in your own eyes, “But
you shall not do that which seemeth good”--good I say, and I pray you mark it,
you shall not do that, but shall keep you to My commandment. Be it never so
good, then, in my conceit, that is, be my meaning never so good, it profiteth not,
neither shall excuse God’s destroying wrath more than it did here these sons of
Aaron. “There is a way,” saith Solomon, “that seemeth good to a man and right,
but the issues thereof are the ways of death.” Such assuredly are all
will-worships not grounded upon the Word, but upon man’s will and good intent.
“They shall excommunicate you,” saith our Saviour Christ, “yea, the time shall
come that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God good service.” What
then? Shall his so thinking excuse his bloody murder? Joseph had no ill-meaning
when he prayed his Father to change his hand and lay his right hand upon his
elder son’s head. What ill meant Joshua when he wished Moses to forbid those
that prophesied? Micah’s mother, when, according to her vow, she made her son
two idols? Peter’s meaning had no hurt in it when he forbade Christ to wash his
feet; with a number like places in Scripture. Yet you know no good intent was
accepted in these cases. No more shall it ever be when it is not agreeing to
the Word, which only is a Christian man and woman’s true and perfect guide.
Let, therefore, these things take place within us, and never wrestle we against
the Lord, for He is too strong for us, and His will must stand, not ours. Oh,
why should it grieve me to be ruled by His word, seeing it is so sure a way for
me to walk in? Or why should any teacher deliver to me that which he never received of God
to be delivered to His people? If they crave obedience why should they be
angry, that I pray to have it showed out of His Word whom only I must obey? Be
hath prescribed a form of serving Him, that form He will accept and bless with
eternal peace; all other forms He will abhor and punish. Nadab and Abihu preach
so unto us and all flesh. They wish us to take heed by their harm. God is in
other things full of patience, but in this He is full of wrath, and His
authority to appoint His own worship, He will not endure it to be taken from
Him by any man. (Bp. Babington.)
Nadab and Abihu
In this passage we have the law of worship announced, not
in the measured statements of a statute, but in words of terror spoken with
tongues of flame. What answer does the incident give us to the vital question,
How can men worship God acceptably?
I. The character
of the worshipper is a factor of importance. Those who, like the apostle, are
“in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”--and every day may be a “Lord’s day”--are
caught up into the realm of spiritual vision, and stand face to face with
realities that on lower levels are at best the dreams and hopes of faith.
Worship as an offering may be formal, though even for that to be acceptable
there midst be some preparedness of heart; but worship, in order to prove a
revelation, must be spiritual, and in securing that the attitude of soul is
everything.
II. The purpose of
the worshipper is an element of which god makes account. Whatever other reasons
influenced Nadab and Abihu to offer “strange fire,” it is evident that they had
some selfish end to serve. God looks down into every pulpit, and into every minister’s
heart, and judges every prayer, and criticises every sermon, and estimates the
worth or worthlessness of the service offered, according as He finds or furls
to find a singleness of purpose to honour Him the sovereign motive that
originates and regulates it all. As God looks down on our Sabbath assemblies,
in how many pews He sees men and women offering “strange fire,” instead of
bringing the appointed sacrifice. The spirit of devotion that animates real
service is omitted.
III. The preparation
for worship is a matter to which god attaches great importance. The numerous
directions in the Jewish ritual looking to personal purity were all symbolic
and significant of the value of character in the office of worship (Psalms 24:3-4; 1 Timothy 2:8; Hebrews 10:22). Both the old covenant and
the new are imperative in insisting upon right character as essential to right
worship.
IV. The mode of
worship has its limits of importance. The Jewish ritual was complicated, but it
was in all its parts significant. A distinguished writer has said that “whoever
would write out the spiritual symbolism of the Book of Leviticus, would give
the world a fifth Gospel.” Nadab and Abihu were punished for departing from the
Divinely established order of service. The folly of men is never so apparent as
when it sets itself up as being wiser than God. Under the Christian
dispensation larger liberty of choice is allowed. Men are free to adopt such
methods of worship as are most affluent in ministries to their spiritual life.
But the old underlying principle which was sovereign in the Jewish ritual still
remains in force. Any method of worship which is anything more than a means to
an end, any ceremony which suffers the thought to go no further than itself, is
radically defective. (E. S. Atwood.)
A sad incident
I. The grievous
sin of nadab and abihu.
II. The severe
punishment of their sin. The punishment in its severity seems out of proportion
to the sin. But on this question two considerations of great importance should
be duly weighed.
1. The time at which the sin was committed. They were now getting the
sacred ritual into full operation; and it was of essential importance that a
people such as the Israelites were at this time should be taught that all
sacred things should be reverently regarded, and all religious services
performed in a devout spirit and becoming manner, and with minute attention to
Divine directions.
2. The persons by whom the sin was committed. They were the elder
sons of the high priest, and were consecrated to the holy office of the
priesthood, “the very persons whose official charge it was to maintain” the
sacredness of religious institutions. A severe punishment was necessary for the
welfare of the nation.
III. The exemplary
submission of Aaron.
IV. The burial of
the bodies of the offenders. What a sight that was passing through part of the
camp--the dead bodies of two men recently so distinguished in relationship and
office, now so distinguished as examples of the awful judgments of God, and in
their priestly vestments too! How fitted to impress even the most frivolous
with the sacredness of Divine institutions and the dread peril of violating
Divine directions!
V. The mourning
because of the judgment upon the offenders.
VI. The legislation
to which these things gave rise (Leviticus 10:8-11).
1. The law. That the priests should abstain from every kind of
intoxicating drink during their sacred ministrations (cf. Ezekiel 44:21)
.
2. The reasons by which the law was enforced.
VII. THE SUBJECT
SUGGESTS LESSONS:
1. On worship. We should worship God in the way which He has
appointed--with humility, with reverence, &c.
2. On sin and its punishment. Every sin, unless repented and
forgiven, must be punished. But presumptuous sins, such as that of Nadab and
Abihu seems to have been, are specially heinous and ruinous (cf. Numbers 15:30-31; Psalms 19:13)
.
3. On submission to the will of God. Imitate Aaron in this.
4. On fitness for the service of God. Aaron and his sons might not
touch or even approach the dead, &c. The servants of God must keep
themselves from everything that might defile them. “Be ye clean that bear the
vessels of the Lord.”
5. On temperance. The wise man wilt be temperate in all things and at
all times. When about to enter upon sacred services it is specially advisable
to abstain entirely from everything intoxicating. The inspiration for such
services should not be spirituous, but spiritual. (William Jones.)
Strange fire
I. Who offered it.
Nadab and Abihu. The last one would have expected to be guilty of such a sin.
They were not ignorant, but over-zealous people, who only imperfectly knew the
law. But they were the sons of Aurora Could hardly be ignorant of the sin they
were committing. The best that can be said of them is that they were not
sufficiently thoughtful. Ignorance and thoughtlessness are sinful in those with
whom knowledge is possible, and who have many incentives to consideration. We
should strive to know that we may more perfectly do the will of God. The great
probability is that their sin was not merely sin of ignorance, but presumption.
Preferred their choice to God’s.
II. What they
offered. From chap. 16., Numbers 16:18; Numbers 16:46, it is clear that they
should have taken a coal from off the altar. Every act of worship was strictly
prescribed. Intention to beget in the minds of the people a profound reverence
for the will of God. In everything to consider His will first. To find their
happiness in obedience. Instead of acting in accordance with the will of God
they obeyed the impulse of their own proud and selfish hearts. It is likely
that the time of offering was also wrong.
III. How they were received.
They draw near and swing their censers. And suddenly “there went out fire,”
&c (verse 2). Their strange fire had been replied to with a fire more
strange to them. They were struck dead as by a lightning-flash, h sudden and
emphatic protest against their presumption. Learn--
1. To study earnestly that we may more perfectly obey the will of
God.
2. To avoid trifling with holy things and ordinances.
3. The instruments of sin may become instruments of punishment. With
fire they sinned, by fire they were overthrown.
4. The very gospel, if abused, may become an instrument of
condemnation. (J. C. Gray.)
“Strange fire”
Ere that “eighth day” had closed (chap. 10:19), when
Jehovah had sent fire from heaven to consume with delight the offerings laid
upon His altar, in token of acceptance--yea, that very day Satan was again at
work, this time with the sons of Aaron, leading them to offer--
I. “strange fire,”
in direct violation of God’s command (Leviticus 10:1). His fire was to be ever
burning upon His altar (Leviticus 6:12-13), continually fed by
what ascended as “a sweet savour” to the Lord; and “strange fire,” like strange
incense (Exodus 30:9), was an abomination to Him.
But man is ever prone to think his way, his fire, his incense as good or better
than God’s. And where God’s Fire--i.e., the Holy Spirit--has been
manifestly working, there surely does Satan begin to work by his emissaries, as
in the case of Jannes and Jambres (2 Timothy 3:5-9; Exodus 7:11; Exodus 7:22; Exodus 8:18); and again with the
“vagabond Jews, exorcists” (Acts 19:6-17), in the days of St. Paul.
Satan inspires “false teachers,” “seducing spirits” (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Peter 2:1), who, like Nadab and
Abihu, shall “bring upon themselves swift destruction.”
II. The sons of
aaron had been specially privileged. The sons of Aaron represent--as we
know--the Church, whose members are also partakers of many privileges (Hebrews 6:4). But--as “they are not all Israel which
are of Israel” (Romans 9:6), so all called Christians are
not “Christ’s “; and it is just in the professing Church that we may expect to
hear of “strange fire,” and false worship, inaugurated by “false teachers,” who
shall bring in destructive heresies” (2 Peter 2:1, R.V.); and “many shall
follow their pernicious ways” (Leviticus 10:2, A.V.). Especially will
this be the case as we approach the end of the age--“the last days”--when
“perilous times shall come” (2 Timothy 3:1).
III. “fire from the
lord,” sent forth in judgment, as in the case of Nadab and Abihu. That fire is
used of the Lord for judgment we learn from many passages in Scripture. See, as
to the past--
1. “The cities of the plain” (Genesis 19:24-29), “making them an
ensample,” &c. (2 Peter 2:6; Jude 1:7).
2. At Taberah, because of the complaining of the children of Israel (Numbers 11:1; Psalms 78:21).
3. “The two hundred and fifty men that offered” “incense” (Numbers 16:2; Numbers 16:35; Psalms 106:18).
4. The captains and their fifties (2 Kings 1:10; 2 Kings 1:12). Then as to the
future, we read--“Our God shall come:. . . a fire shall devour before Him,”
&c. (Psalms 50:3; see also 97:3). “The Lord
Jesus shall be revealed . . . in flaming fire,” &c (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8); and “that
wicked”--or lawless one referred to--shall be consumed (2 Thessalonians 2:8). “A fire . . .
from God out of heaven” shall devour those gathered against the saints and the
“beloved city” (Revelation 20:8-9). And “the devil, that
deceiveth them,” shall be “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone” (Leviticus 10:10). He who had energised
many with “strange fire” will be consigned to the “everlasting fire prepared,”
&c. (Matthew 25:41). Appalling indeed to think
of these judgments to come; and while we speak of such things let us give good
heed lest we should seem to have aught of the spirit of James and John, which
called forth our Lord’s rebuke (Luke 9:51-56). Let us rather first test
ourselves, and then in love warn others. He is ready to give the Holy
Spirit--His purifying, guiding Fire to all who ask (Luke 11:13). Lastly, observe--
IV. Aaron’s
attitude of silent submission to the swift and appalling judgment with which
his sons were visited. “Aaron held his peace.” Think of the agony of the
father’s grief, yet not a word l He knew his sons’ great sin, and Jehovah’s
perfect justice. The silence of Aaron may also teach that our “Great High
Priest” could not intercede for any guilty of the sin He declared should “not
be forgiven” (Matthew 12:31-32; Mark 3:28-30): “Blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost,” to which the “strange fire” seems to point. (Lady Beaujolois Dent.)
Clerical apostasy and usurpation
Many a pious heart has been saddened, and sickened almost unto
death, over the calamities that have befallen the camp of the Lord in the shape
of apostasies, false doctrine, unholy living, and reckless usurpation. Who among
us that could not tell the story of many a heart-rending fall in the Church of
God! More than once have I seen the man in affluent prosperity a great patron
of the Church, prompt in his place in all the services of the sanctuary, and
esteemed as one of Israel’s elders; but when reverses and bankruptcy came I
have seen him turn aside to walk in the ways of the ungodly, the forger, the
counterfeiter, the robber, and even the ribald blasphemer. Many a time have I
seen the poor man in his daily toil, seemingly walking humbly with his God, and
attentive to the things that relate to heavenly treasures; but when the tide of
fortune came and gave him riches, or advanced him to places of influence and
distinction, he forgot his Church and pious associations, and drifted away into
pride like Lucifer’s, or into covetousness as niggardly as Shylock’s. I have
seen men of the loudest professions; yea, men ordained to stand as watchmen on
Zion’s walls, secretly dallying with the demon of vicious appetite, until they
became the reeling sport of boys upon the street, the shame of their
denomination, and the tenants of ignoble graves. And history tells again and
again of men whose heads reached unto the clouds, who in an unguarded hour came
down, like some tall pine of the forest which makes the wilderness howl in its
fall; of impious hands touching the holy vessels of God’s sanctuary; of false
incense burned in the holy place, until the very lamps and stars were hid, and
the very house of salvation made a den of robbery and death. (J. A. Seiss,
D. D.)
The sin of Nadab and Abihu
These men were not at liberty to take each his own censer; there
was a utensil provided for that action, and for any man to bring his own
ironmongery to serve in such a cause was to insult the Spirit of the universe.
This is how we stand to-day: every man bringing his censer--his own
censer--which means the prostitution of personality, the loss of the
commonwealth-spirit and of the recognition of the unity and completeness of the
Church. There are men who spend their time in amending Providence: Nadab and
Abihu represent two such men to-day. There are men who are always trying to
naturalise the supernatural: this is what Nadab and Abihu did. They said in
effect, “This evil fire will do quite as well; build your life on reason; order
all the ministry of your life by coherent and cumulative argument; drop the
ancient words, and choose and set new words of your own; there is no
supernatural: let us banish superstition and inaugurate the reign of reason.” Nadab
and Abihu had a kind of church, but a church without the true God--an
uninhabited shell, a mockery, a base irony--the baser because it was in a sense
religious. There are men who substitute invention for commandment. This is what
Nadab and Abihu did: they invented a new use of the common censer; they brought
into new service common fire; they ventured to put incense thereon when only
the pontiff of Israel was allowed
to use such incense; they invented new Bibles, new laws, new churches, new
methods; they were cursed with the spirit of extra independence and
individuality, with the audacity of self-trust--not with its religious worship
and adoration. This all occurs every day, and it occurs quite as rudely and
violently in the current and flow of our own history. All this invention and
all this deposition of God and of law comes just as swiftly after our conscious
realisations of the Divine presence as this instance came swiftly upon the
conscious benediction of God. “There is but a step between me and death.” It
would seem as if a universe might intervene between true prayer and the spirit
of distrust and cursing yet not a hair’s-breadth intervenes. A man on his knees
is next to the worst self, namely, a man with clenched fists defying the
heavens. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A solemn judgment
This judgment that fell upon the two sons of Aaron seems very
severe. But notice that the high and dignified position they occupied made sin,
in their case, far more grievous and calculated to do much more extensive
mischief among Israel, than if it had been perpetrated by some one occupying a
less conspicuous position in the state. Though sin is in itself always the
same, yet, committed in the high places of the land by those who occupy in
Church or in State lofty and responsible positions, it has an aggravation and
an enormity that it has not when committed by those who occupy lowlier and
obscurer spheres in the land. Not that the sin differs in its absolute and
personal guilt, but that it differs in the influence it spreads around it. Evil
in high places is very contagious--is seen by many, and imitated by more. And,
in the next place, this was the commencement of a new economy. The commander of
an army, or the commander of a flexor, must insist upon rigid discipline at the
commencement of the military expedition, or of the sailing of the fleet; if he
do not, the issue is disastrous to the soldiers and the sailors, as it will be
injurious to great interests and painful to him. Therefore, at the commencement
of a new economy, it was requisite that it should be seen that the least of
God’s laws may not be transgressed with impunity; and that the authority of God
alone, struck upon the least and the loftiest, must be the great reason why
there should be instant, unqualified, and undiluted obedience. (J. Cumming,
D. D.)
Speedy judgment
If God had struck them with some leprosy in their forehead, as he
did their aunt Miriam soon after, or with some palsy, or lingering consumption,
the punishment had been grievous. But He, whose judgments are ever just,
sometimes secret, saw fire the fittest revenge for a sin of fire; His own fire
fittest to punish strange fire; a sudden judgment fit for a present and
exemplary sin: He saw that if He had winked at this, His service had been
exposed to profanation. It is wisdom in governors to take sin at the first
bound, and so to revenge it that their punishment may be preventious. Speed of
death is not always a judgment: suddenness as it is ever justly suspicable, so
then certainly argues anger, when it finds us in an act of sin. Leisure of
repentance is an argument of favour. When God gives a man law, it implies that
He would not have judgment surprise him. (Bp. Hall.)
God’s orders must be carried out
If the architect of a house had one plan, and the contractor had
another, what conflicts would there be! How many walls would have to come down,
how many doors and windows would need to be altered before the two could
harmonise! Of the building of life God is the Architect, and man the
contractor. It is for God to give the orders, and for us to carry them out. (H.
W. Beecher.)
No strange fire permitted
There is only one way of obeying God, and that is by doing just as
God tells us to do. Satan began the trial of improving on God’s commandments in
the Garden of Eden. Cain followed up the idea, and substituted the fruit of his
own toil for the designated lamb, as a sinner’s acceptable offering Each of
these attempts proved a curse as well as a failure; and so it will be to the
end of time. The sons of Aaron were consecrated priests when they offered other
fire on God’s altar than that which God had commanded. Saul was the anointed
king over the Lord’s people when he offered sheep and oxen contrary to the
command of God. Both priest and king were punished of God for their
disobedience in failing to worship God in God’s commanded way. God is the same
God to-day as then, His commands concerning worship are as binding now as four
thousand years ago-binding on theological professors, preachers, and
Bible-class teachers. It is not enough to proffer an offering to God in
worship, you must worship Him according to His commandments, or you must take
the consequences of your disobedience. It is important, then, that you know
what is God’s law concerning His day, His house, His Word, His worship. Your
eternal interests hang on your fidelity in little things as well as in great. (H.
C. Trumbull.)
Reverence in holy things
Contrast with the conduct of Nadab and Abihu the reverence
displayed by the young King Edward of England. One of his companions, wishing
to aid him in his efforts to grasp something just beyond his reach, placed a
large Bible for him to step on. “No,” said Edward, stooping to lift the volume,
“I shall never tread on God’s holy Word.” Possibly there was a touch of
superstition here; but was not the spirit commendable? What is sacred is to be
held as sacred. The meanest thief is the one who runs off with a
church-collection; for he adds sacrilege to his other crime. Show how we may in
a very real sense offer strange fire. Is there not something of irreverence in
the chipped coins and torn bills that find their way into the contribution-box?
Custom may make us treat sacred things with levity. Luther tells us that he
knew priests whose sacred office had become a mere form, and who, instead of
repeating the proper formula in the consecration of the bread and wine, mumbled
irreverently, “Bread thou art, and bread thou wilt remain;-wine thou art, and
wine thou wilt remain.” Has our church-going degenerated into a meaningless form? (American
Sunday School Times.)
Verse 3
Aaron held his peace.
Aaron; or, the disturbing and tranquilising influences of life
I. The disturbing
influences. Physical sufferings, secular anxieties, social grievances, moral
remorse, heart bereavements. To the last of these Aaron was now the victim.
1. He has lost two sons. A double trial.
2. He had lost two sons after they had reached maturity.
3. After they had entered upon the most important and honourable
office in life. What a disappointment!
4. In the most sudden way.
5. With no hope for their future blessedness. They were struck down
by offended justice, without a moment for repentance.
II. The tranquilising
influences of human life. “He held his peace.”
1. There are three kinds of calming influences that are resorted to
by men under trial--the carnal, the stoical, and the Christian.
2. The last of these is the only true tranquilising force. It
contains at least four doctrines that tend to pacify the human spirit under the most trying
circumstances of life.
Silence in affliction
I. Even a child of
God may be exercised with sore trials and afflictions, that may lie very heavy
upon him. (Psalms 38:2; Job 9:17). And what wonder, if the
children of God meet with trials upon earth, where they were never promised,
nor could rationally expect their rest? What wonder, seeing they so often sin,
and procure the evils under which they groan? All this is consistent with the
love of a father, and our relation to him.
II. What is implied
in being silent under the trials God sees fit at any time to exercise us with?
1. A deep sense of God’s hand in what we suffer. This was the ground
of David’s silence: “I was dumb, and I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst
it” (Psalms 39:9). And Hezekiah, mourning,
directs his eye to God and heaven. “What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto
me, and Himself hath done it” (Isaiah 38:15).
2. It includes a subscribing to God’s justice in all His dealings
with us, and that whatever He takes from us or lays upon us, we dare not to
conclude the worse of Him in our thoughts or to open our mouths against Him.
Thus being silent is opposed to self-justification, as being convinced that He
hath punished us less than our iniquities deserve.
3. It includes a resigning ourselves to God, as having the most
unquestionable dominion over us, and right to do with us and ours as seems good
in His sight (Job 3:12).
4. It includes resting in His pleasure, as that which is wisest and
best; in opposition to murmuring and impatience, inward frets and discomposure
of soul.
III. What
considerations may help to work the soul of a child of God into so desirable a
frame, as to be mute when God’s afflicting hand may be most pressing upon him.
The reasonableness of this frame may appear--
1. From God’s unquestionable right to dispose of us and ours as He
pleases. When it is His will which is done upon us, His sovereignty should
teach His creatures to be silent (Romans 9:21-22).
2. It should teach us to be silent in whatever instance God afflicts; as it is He that continues to us many other mercies, which
have been all forfeited, and which might have been as justly removed as those
He has taken away.
3. We ought to be silent under what God will have us suffer, as
considering we have many ways sinned and offended against Him (Job 40:4-5).
4. We have reason to be silent, as considering that all God’s
dispensations, how afflictive soever, are conducted by unerring wisdom to His
own glory. And if God be glorified, why should we be dissatisfied?
5. The people of God have reason to be silent under every affliction
He brings upon them, considering He hath made with them an everlasting covenant
ordered in all things and sure, which is sufficient to be all their salvation
and is all their desire (2 Samuel 23:5).
Application:
1. To be impatient under affliction is unbecoming a child of God,
considered as a new creature.
2. To oppose our wills to the will of God is high presumption, and
both provoking to God, and dangerous to ourselves (Isaiah 45:9).
3. It is contrary to our covenant engagements. When we yielded
ourselves to God, did we not expressly agree that He should lead us to heaven,
and that we would follow Him through what way He pleased to show us--through
seas or wildernesses, or through any, even the roughest paths, so He brought us
safe to the promised land.
4. Impatience under affliction is inconsistent with our own prayers.
Submission to the will of God is, or ought to be, our daily request, and
especially under such trials.
5. It would bring us under the charge of ingratitude to our best
benefactor and friend. Has God heard my main prayer, and drawn me to Christ?
Yet, if He lays His hand upon me in this or the other instance, shall I by my
complaints drown all the remembrance of His former loving-kindness and grace?
Moreover, what a slight should we put on the remaining everlasting rest, should
we repine at present sufferings, which are so soon to issue in endless joy! (D.
Wilcox)
.
Silence under affliction
I. What it is for
the afflicted and bereaved to hold their peace under the correcting hand of
God.
1. It certainly implies, in the first place, that the afflicted and
bereaved should not complain of the Divine conduct towards them. They have no
ground to complain, because God takes nothing from them but what He has given
them, and inflicts no more upon them than they deserve and He has a right to
inflict.
2. For the afflicted to hold their peace implies that they not only
cease to complain, but that they cease to think hard of God. It is much easier
to suppress their verbal complaints than to suppress all their inward repinings
under the correcting hand of God.
3. The only way in which the afflicted and bereaved can get rid of
their inward murmuring thoughts is cordially to approve of the conduct of God
in causing them to suffer their present afflictions and bereavements. Nothing
can remove hatred of God but love to God. Nothing can remove opposition to God
but submission to God.
II. Why the
afflicted and bereaved ought to hold their peace and silently submit to the
correcting hand of God. This is their duty--
1. Because they always deserve the bereavements which they are called
to suffer. They are under the same obligations to submit silently and
unreservedly under the frowns of God as to rejoice under His smiles.
2. The afflicted and bereaved ought to hold their peace and silently
submit to the correcting hand of God because He has a right to afflict and
bereave them whenever He sees it necessary to do it
3. It becomes the afflicted and bereaved to bow in silence to the
sovereign will of God because He always afflicts and bereaves them at the
proper time. It is well that God does not allow men to choose when He shall
afflict them. He always knows the best time, and when He does afflict them they
must know that He sees good reasons to afflict them at that time rather than
any other. And since He sees good reasons for afflicting them at such a
particular time they have no ground to complain but ought silently to submit to
His unerring wisdom, whether they are high or low, or whether they are young or
old.
4. That men ought to hold their peace under the afflicting hand of
God because He always afflicts them in the best way as well as at the best
time.
Improvement:
1. It appears from the nature of silent submission under Divine
corrections, that it must be highly pleasing to God. It is the very spirit
which He requires them to feel and express while He lays His chastising hand
upon them. He says to them, “Be still, and know that I am God.”
2. It appears from the nature of sincere submission under trials and
afflictions that insubmission is extremely criminal. When either saints or
sinners complain under Divine corrections they practically say that He who has
made them shall not reign over them. Can there be anything more displeasing to
God?
3. It appears from the nature of true submission under afflictions
that it is something different from stupidity. Stupidity consists in despising
the chastenings of the Lord. Mankind are far more apt to be stupid than to be
faint under afflictions and bereavements. They try to overlook the hand of God
in them, and to consider them as mere accidents, or necessary evils, which
could not be avoided and must be borne. Such stupidity under Divine corrections
in the sinners in Zion God severely condemned. If afflictions do not remove
stupidity they increase it; if they do not soften the heart they harden it; and
if they do not produce submission they create obstinacy. But the afflicted are
extremely apt to misconstrue the effect of their afflictions and to mistake stupidity
for submission, and imagine that they feel resigned when they only feel stupid
and insensible.
4. True submission is diametrically opposite to stupidity and is
perfectly consistent with the keenest sensibility under the correcting hand of
God. It becomes the bereaved to view their bereavements, as far as possible, in
all their painful effects and consequences, that they may exercise a deep and
unlimited submission to the Divine corrections. Though Aaron held his peace and
refrained from speaking, yet he did not refrain from thinking. His mind was undoubtedly awake, and
all his powers and faculties in vigorous exercise. There is much more danger of
feeling too little than of feeling too much under Divine chastisements.
5. If the afflicted and bereaved ought to hold their peace under the
chastising hand of God, then they ought to submit to the heaviest as well as to
the lightest chastisements.
6. It appears from the nature of submission that it is easy for the
afflicted and bereaved to determine whether they do or do not sincerely submit
to the correcting hand of God. There is no medium between approving or
disapproving His conduct in afflicting them. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
The silence of Aaron
An ancient philosopher has said, “Light sorrows speak; great sorrows
are silent.” The experience of the human heart, and of this life, where
affliction has so many degrees and arrays itself in so many different shades,
justifies this observation. The sacred poets of Israel, in this thought, had
anticipated pagan wisdom (see Isaiah 47:5; Lamentations 2:12-13).
1. The impressions and the conduct of Aaron cannot be usefully estimated
without a knowledge of the event.
2. It is a test of humility to be silent in the bosom of an
irreparable loss, of a profound affliction.
3. In the mute sorrow of Aaron, there is more than this wise
humility; we must see there also acquiescence.
4. Lastly, it is just to recognise in the conduct of Aaron lowly and
firm resignation. (A, Coquerel.)
Aaron’s silence in presence of God’s judgment
Doubtless Aaron looked somewhat heavily on this sad spectacle: it
could not but appal him to see his two sons dead before him--dead in
displeasure, dead suddenly, dead by the immediate hand of God. And now he could
repent him of his new honour to see it succeed so ill with the sons of his
loins; neither could he choose but see himself stricken in them. But his brother
Moses, that had learned not to know either nephews or brother when they stood
in his way to God, wisely turned his eyes from the dead carcases of his sons to
his respect of the living
God. My brother, this event is fearful, but just; these were thy sons, but they
sinned; it was not for God, it is not for thee, to look so much who they were,
as what they did. If they have profaned God and themselves, can thy natural
affection so miscarry thee that thou couldst wish their impunity with the
blemish of thy Maker? Show now whether thou more lovest God or thy sons. Showy
whether thou be a better father or a son. Aaron, weighing these things, holds
his peace, not out of an amazement or sullenness, but out of patient and humble
submission; and seeing God’s pleasure, and their desert, is content to forget
that he had sons. He might have had a silent tongue, and a clamorous heart.
There is no voice louder in the ears of God, than a speechless repining of the
soul. There is no greater proof of grace, than to smart patiently, and humbly
and contentedly to rest the heart in the justice and wisdom of God’s
proceeding. (Bp. Hall.)
Divine judgment and domestic ties
Serious people sometimes wonder how it shall be at the last
day--how godly parents shall be able to bear the sight of their Christless
children given over to everlasting death; whether the knowledge or sight of
near and beloved relatives in perdition will not interrupt and destroy the
peace Of heaven. But, if such persons would reason upon the subject from a standpoint
higher than the mere sympathies of nature, they would have less trouble
concerning it. Aaron looking upon his slain sons, is a picture of how it shall
be. When God’s ultimate judgments shall go into effect, their justice shall be
so conspicuous, and the goodness and glory of God in them shall be so luminous
and manifest, that it will not be in the power of any ransomed soul to think of
demurring, or indulging one tearful regret. When we come to see things in the
light of heaven, every enemy of God will appear so essentially an enemy to
ourselves and our peace, that, however otherwise related to us, we will be glad
to see them shut up in the dreadful
prison-house for ever and for ever. What are domestic ties and sympathies in
comparison with the glorious will of our blessed Lord? Jesus says, “He that
loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth
son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me.” Every saint is fully
wrapped up in the righteousness, wisdom, and goodness of his Lord. Everything
that God does carries the heart of the ransomed ones so completely with it, and
so overwhelms and swallows up all other affections, that they are as utter
nothing. Nadab and Abihu may die for ever under Aaron’s very eyes, and yet God’s
honour and glory in it leave him not a tear to shed, and not a word of
lamentation to utter. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
The silence of Aaron’s sorrow
I. The poignant
character of Aaron’s sorrow. The blow came and smote--
1. His patriotism--he would feel that Israel as a nation was
disgraced.
2. His piety--religion was dishonoured and God insulted.
3. His paternity.
II. The patient
conduct of Aaron under such sorrow. (F. W. Brown.)
God glorified before the people
If I so hold a mirror that I cause it to reflect on your dazzled
vision the brilliant rays of the sun, that mirror adds nothing to the lustre of
the grand orb of day; it only directs the light towards you. If I write to you
in most glowing and graphic terms concerning my bosom friend, I do not thereby
increase his well-known talents and virtues. I simply beget in your mind, or
foster, feelings of admiration, respect or love. So when you and I praise God,
we do not, we cannot, augment His essential glory. It is impossible for us
finite and dependent creatures to add anything to the infinite love, wisdom,
and power of the Divine One. But we can elevate Him in our own estimation,
increase our own comfort, stimulate our own spiritual life, and intensify the
affection which others entertain for Him. (J. H. Hitehen, D. D.)
The stillness of intense emotion
As I have felt a tear drop from a cloudless sky, and wondered
whence it could come, so have I seen a fair countenance full of openness,
serenity, and majesty, and the large still tear standing in the eye. Yet no
single muscle was distorted; it seemed to me like the stillness of intense
emotion, like the sorrow of goodness, like a broken heart at peace with its own
woe; as though one, whose hopes of earthly bliss had all vanished, were
comforted from within by the presence and assurance of Holy Love, saying, “It
is well, peace be unto thee.” (John Pulsford, D. D.)
The broken heart is like a broken harp
The broken heart is like a broken harp. The harp is either
absolutely silent, or sends forth discordant sounds. Human grief is so deep
that it is either speechless or gives expression to bitter complaints and hard
thoughts. Whatever human ministries may accomplish by way of modifying it, they
do not heal. Here is the superiority of Christ Jesus in His treatment. He
“heals” the broken-hearted.
Service for God not to be interrupted by adversity
A certain heathen making an oration, as he was sacrificing to his
god, in the midst of his devotion, word was brought him that his only son was
dead: whereat being nothing at all moved, he made this answer, “I did not get
him to live for ever;” and so went on with his business. Thus when we are
entering into the sight of God’s favour, it may so please Him to try us by
afflictions; there may news come of a ship wrecked at sea, of a chapman broke
in the country, of the death of friends and allies, &c. Yet ought we not
for all this to leave off our course in the service of Him, but rather
whatsoever comes cross, make it as it were a parenthesis, an ornament, not a
hindrance, in our progress to heaven. (J. Spencer.)
Undisturbed service
Valerius Maximus tells a story of a young nobleman, that attended
upon Alexander, while he was sacrificing; this nobleman held his censer for
incense, and in the holding of it, there fell a coal of fire upon his flesh,
and burned it so as the very scent of it was in the nostrils of all that were
about him; and because he would not disturb Alexander in his service, he
resolutely did not stir to put off the fire from him, but held still the
censer. If heathens made such ado, in sacrificing to their idol gods, that they
would mind it so as no disturbance must be made, whatsoever they endured: what
care should we then have of ourselves, when we come to worship the High God? Oh
that we could mind the duties of God’s worship, as matters of high concernment,
as things of greatest consequence, that so we might learn to sanctify the name
of our God in the performance of duty more than ever we have done. (J.
Spencer.)
Over-tenderness to the criminal
Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes. There is such a
thing as sinning through over-tenderness of feeling; and unless we are on the
“watch just here, we shall fail of being both just and merciful in our
sympathies and in our conduct. When a great crime is committed, it is not a
wise exhibit of tender feelings to dwell upon the peculiar temptations, and the
peculiar weaknesses, and the unfortunate early disadvantages of the brutal
criminal, to a forgetfulness of the sufferings of his innocent victims, and of
the wretchedness which his crime has brought into one home and another. It is
not that we are to take vengeance into our own hands; but that we are to
refrain from mourning over the execution of justice. It is a sinful as well as
a sickly sentimentalism which gives its tears to the criminal class in the
community, instead of to those who are wronged through crime. The prevalence of
this sentimentalism is one of the stimulating causes of crime. There is need of
the re-echoing of the words of God to His people over the displays of His
justice, “Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes” [in mourning over
the evil-doers] “but let . . . the whole house of Israel bewail the burning
which the Lord hath kindled.” Let the crime be mourned over, but not the criminal--as
a criminal. (H. C. Trumbull.)
“For the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you”
That oil must separate between you and the appearance of unbelief;
that oil is a restraint as well as an inspiration. Is it not so now, varying
the terms and the relations of things? If we could enter into the spirit of
that restriction, what different men we should be I The name of your country is
upon you: dishonour it not. A venerable name, never associated with meanness,
cowardice, corruption, or fear of man. Rise to the dignity of the signature
which is upon you. When you flee, the enemy will say your country has fled;
when you play the coward, the enemy will say the throne has tottered and the
sovereign has succumbed. The holy vow is upon you. You said you would be better
and do better. You punctuated the vow with hot tears; your emphasis was quite
an unfamiliar tone, so much so that we wondered at the poignancy of your
utterance, and felt in very deed that you were speaking the heart’s truth.
Remember that vow. The vow of the Lord is upon you. If you stoop, it will not
be condescension, it will be base prostration; if you palter with the reality
of language, it will not be ability in the use of words, it will be the
profanation of the medium which God has established for the conveyance and the
interchange of truth. The exalted position is yours. You are the head of a
family: if you go wrong, the whole family will suffer to the second and third
and fourth generations. You are known and trusted in business: if you be found
mean, untrustworthy, faithless, deceitful, the whole city will feel the anguish
of a pang, for you were regarded as a trustee of its honour and its reputation.
The anointing oil is upon you in some form or in some way. The name of Christ
is upon us all. We cannot get rid of it. In this way or in that we have all to
do with Christ, with His name, His honour, His cross, His crown. (J. Parker,
D. D.)
Verses 9-11
Do not drink wine.
Help to temperance
Combine with this verse Jeremiah 35:6; Ephesians 5:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:7. Intemperance,
one of the giant evils of the land, is self-imposed. This is its saddest
feature. All the evils connected with it might be swept away if men so willed.
I. The natural.
Use no intoxicants; and thus never acquire a passion for them.
II. The medical.
Some treat drunkenness as a disease; and by medicine seek to destroy the
appetite for alcohol.
III. The sanitary.
Asylums for inebriates have been opened, which combine physical and moral means
to effect a cure; and with success.
IV. The legal. Its
object is to control or arrest the evil; and by prohibition of its manufacture
and sale, to remove it from the land.
V. The voluntary.
This involves the pledge and membership in societies banded together for mutual
help and safety. Earnest work for others is a good preventative, so long as it
is actively continued.
VI. The spiritual.
Grace, wherever received, casts out the demon of drink.
VII. The
philanthropic. Here is a reform in which to engage. The beneficent change in
public sentiment demands devout thankfulness, and is prophetic of what shall be
achieved. (Lewis O. Thompson.)
Abstinence recommended
It is one of the attractions of a glass of wine to those who like
it, that it gives a different colour to everything the drinker looks at, just
as soon as it has any effect at all. If there were no effect from
wine-drinking, there would be no temptation to drink wine. But so soon as the
wine takes hold of the brain, the brain takes hold with a new grip of
everything it thinks of. Memory is keener, anticipation is brighter, and the
present is a great deal livelier. Everybody in sight or in thought looks
brighter, too. This isn’t so bad a world as it seemed an hour ago! “When the
wine is in, the wit is out.” What does a man under the influence of champagne
know of sharp distinctions in morals, or in social life, or in logic? The
inspired teacher was never more clearly inspired than when that teacher wrote,
“It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for
princes strong drink; lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the
judgment of any of the afflicted.” And it was God Himself who insisted that
priests should let wine and strong drink alone, lest they should fail to know
the difference between holy and unholy, clean and unclean, and lest they should
be unable to teach the truth aright. If you want to know what is right, and to
do what is right, and to be able to teach others to know and do right, do you
let wine and strong drink alone--before you go to church, and after you come
back from church. What is good enough for a king, and safe enough for a priest,
can wisely be your choice wherever you are. (H. C. Trumbull.)
Excitement to be avoided by ministers
The effect of wine is to excite nature, and all natural excitement
hinders that calm, well-balanced condition of soul which is essential to the
proper discharge of the priestly office. The things which excite mere nature
are manifold indeed--wealth, ambition, politics, the various objects of
emulation around us in the world. All these things act, with exciting power,
upon nature, and entirely unfit us for every department of priestly service. If
the heart be swollen with feelings of pride, covetousness, or emulation, it is
utterly impossible that the pure air of the sanctuary can be enjoyed, or the
sacred functions of priestly ministry discharged. If we are not keeping our
priestly garments unspotted, and if we are not keeping ourselves free from all that would
excite nature, we shall, assuredly, break down. The priest must keep his heart
with all diligence, else the Levite will fail, and the warrior will be
defeated. It is, let me repeat it, the business of each one to be fully aware
of what it is that to him proves to be “wine and strong drink”--what it is that
produces excitement--that blunts his spiritual perception, or dims his priestly
vision. It may be an auction-mart, a cattle-show, a newspaper. It may be the
merest trifle. But no matter what it is, if it tends to excite, it will
disqualify us for priestly ministry; and if we are disqualified as priests, we
are unfit for everything, inasmuch as our success in every department and in
every sphere must ever depend upon our cultivating a spirit of worship. (C.
H. Mackintosh.)
Testimony of a clergyman as to the value of total abstinence
The Rev. S. Hooke, vicar of Clopton, Woodbridge, offers the
following testimony:--“As there are so many of my clerical brethren who are
doubtful if they could carry on their arduous labours if they abstained from
alcoholic drinks, I write my experience of the last seven years, during which
time I have been an abstainer. I believe I can do treble the amount of work
without the use of these drinks than with them. At first I doubted if I could,
and it was with trembling hand that I signed the pledge of the C.E.T.S. But I
thank God from the depth of my heart that I took that step, for I am certain
that I have been able to do more real good by my advocacy of total abstinence
than I did before. On looking through my diary of last year I find I have
preached a hundred and seventy-five times, given forty-four temperance
lectures, ninety-five gospel addresses and cottage lectures, besides travelling
nearly four thousand miles. Included in the above are the sermons and addresses
I delivered at two Church Missions of ten days each. I am thankful to say I
enjoy robust health, which I am confident is the result, in part, at least, of
total abstinence. I am sure the happiness and joy of doing good to our fallen
brothers and sisters more than compensates for the loss of a trifling
gratification.”
The value of abstinence
It was Dr. Hook’s boast that for more than thirty years he
had “laboured in the manufacturing districts, not for the working classes, but
with them, in the measures desired by themselves for the improvement of their
class, and having for their object the formation of habits of temperance and
prudence; and especially that he had worked with them in the cause of rational
recreation and education.” It was with a view to aid this wide and general step
in the education of the masses that, late in life, he joined the temperance
movement, and became a pledged teetotaler. He used to tell the story of his
change in this direction in the following way:--“I had in my parish at Leeds a
man who earned 18s. a week; out of this he used to give 7s. to his wife, and to
spend the rest in drink; but for all that, he was a good sort of man. I went to
him and said, ‘ Now, suppose you abstain altogether for six months.’ ‘Well, if
I do, will you, sir?’ was his reply. ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I will.’ ‘What,’ said he,
‘from beer, from spirits, and from wine?’ ‘Yes. And how shall I know if you
keep your promise?’ ‘Why, sir, you ask my “missus,” and I’ll ask yourn.’ It was
agreed between us for six months at first, and afterwards we renewed the
promise. He never resumed the bad habit that he had left off; and he is now a
prosperous and happy man in business at St. Petersburg, and I am Dean of
Chichester.”
Total abstinence a safeguard in responsible positions
On almost all boilers connected with engines there can be found a
safety-valve. Whenever the boiler gets too full of steam and is in danger of
bursting, this little valve opens and lets the steam out. No one has to watch
it, for it opens of itself. There was once a man who wanted to travel on a
certain steamboat. He went to the boat and examined the machinery, but he found
that there was not an efficient safety-valve on the boiler, so he said to the
captain, “I won’t go on your boat, captain. You haven’t a proper safety-valve,
and I am afraid the boat may be blown up without it.” “Come down with me to the
engine-room,” said the captain, “and I will show you the best safety-valve in
the world.” When they reached the engine-room the captain went up to the
engineer, and laying his hand on his shoulder, said, “There, sir, is my
safety-valve, the best to be found anywhere--a man who never drinks anything
but cold water.” “You are right, captain; I want no better safety-valve than
that. I will go on this boat.” He knew that the engineer would always watch the
machinery, and if anything went wrong he would know it instantly. Only a sober
man ought to be trusted in such a responsible position; and when boats have
such engineers they have the best safety-valves in the world.
Verses 16-20
Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering?
Consideration for neglected duty
Part of this goat being a sin offering, should have been eaten--I
mean the shoulder and breast allotted to the priest--but it was all burned
contrary to the law, for which Moses was justly offended, having seen so lately
God’s wrath upon the other fault. The answer of Aaron you have in Leviticus 10:19, in effect and sense as
if he should have said, “I confess and acknowledge the ordinance of God is to
be kept, and we are to eat with joy of the parts allotted unto us of the
sacrifice for sin; the blood was not brought into the Tabernacle of the
testimony. But how could I eat with joy in so heavy and woful a case of my
children? Compelled, therefore, with the greatness of my grief, I did what I
did,” &c. At which answer, saith our chapter, Moses was content, so bearing
with his infirmity, considering his great sorrow, but not leaving an example to
forgive them that maliciously transgress the commandment of God. And as Moses
is said to have stayed his anger, so you see the Lord Himself did, not
punishing again this fault. It layeth open unto us the great kindness of our
gracious God, of whom the psalm saith, “He is full of compassion and mercy,
long suffering and of great goodness. He will not always be chiding, neither
keepeth He His anger for ever. He dealeth not with us after our sins, neither
rewardeth us according to our wickedness,” &c. Secondly, you may see here
how these ceremonial laws gave place to necessity, as David also in necessity
did eat the shewbread, which was otherwise unlawful for him to do; and Hezekiah
admitted to the Passover those that were not cleansed. But for moral laws there
is no dispensation for corporal necessity, but a constant course must be held
in obeying them. For it is not necessary that I should live; but it is ever
necessary that I should live righteously. Lastly, in that Moses admitted a
reasonable excuse, we may learn to abhor pride and to do the like; pride, I
say, which scorneth to hear what may be said against the conceit we have once
harboured. A modest man or woman doth not thus; but even for his servant or his
maid holy Job had an ear, and did not despise their judgment, their complaint,
or grief, when they thought themselves evil entreated by him. The example of
God Himself is instead of a thousand, who both heard and accepted of Abimelech
his excuse for taking away Abraham’s wife, “I know,” saith He, “that thou didst
it even with an upright mind, and therefore I kept thee also that thou
shouldest not sin against Me,” &c. Shall the Lord be thus sweet, and we so
dogged, so churlish, so stern and sour, that no excuse may serve for a thing
done amiss if once we have taken notice of it? Beware, beware, and remember
your own frailty well. A stubborn frowardness hath hurt many, sweet gentleness
and courtesy never any; but though wicked men were unthankful, yet our gracious
God was pleased. (Bp. Babington.)
Such things have befallen
me.
The afflictions which befall the servants of God
I. That sore
afflictions sometimes befall the servants of God.
1. The death of two sons by one stroke.
2. The distressing character of their death.
3. The prohibition of any expression of grief.
II. That under the
pressure of sore afflictions the servants of God are required to attend to
religious duties.
1. The obligatoriness of such duties is not annulled by trial. Trust
in God, and prayer and praise to him, are binding in sickness as in health, in
sorrow as m joy. So are all religious duties.
2. The need of the help which attention to such duties affords is not
diminished by trial, but rather increased.
III. That under the
pressure of sore afflictions the mind and heart of the servants of God often
seem unequal to a proper discharge of religious duties. On the day when this
calamity befell them, Aaron and his surviving sons did not accurately discharge
their sacred duties. It was expressly commanded that the flesh of those sin
offerings, the blood of which was not carried into the Tabernacle of the
congregation, should be eaten by the officiating priests (Leviticus 6:24-30). Instead of doing
this, Aaron and his sons burnt the flesh of the sinoffering (Leviticus 10:16-18). The error may be
viewed as--
1. An oversight caused by the things which had befallen them. In
great griefs the heart seems dead to every feeling but the predominant one, and
the mind seems incapable of sustained attention to anything except what is
related to its griefs. Meditation upon the holy Scriptures, prayer, spiritual
aspirations, communion with God--these seem impossible to the sorrow-stricken
soul. Needing them so urgently, yet the soul seems unable properly to attend to
them.
2. Intentional because of felt unfitness to eat of the “most holy”
flesh. This seems to receive most support from the words following the text:
“Such things have befallen me, and if I had eaten the sin-offering to-day,
should it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord?” The bereaved father seems
to have been not only sorrowful, but deeply awed and humbled by the things which had befallen
him, and to have felt that if he had eaten the “most holy” flesh in such a
frame of mind it would not have been acceptable to God. His case reminds us of
some who absent themselves from the sacrament of the Lord’s supper because of a
sincere feeling of unworthiness. But let such persons remember that Aaron’s
sense of unworthiness did not disqualify him for eating the flesh of the
sin-offering; he rather erred in not doing so.
IV. That when the
mind and heart of the suffering servants of god seem thus unfitted for
religious duties, God does not account such unfitness as sin. When Moses heard
the apology of
Aaron “he was content”; and we are warranted in regarding his “content” as an
evidence that God also was satisfied with the reason assigned by the high
priest for his deviation from the line of duty. Surely the Lord knew the
intense anguish which His servant was suffering, and regarded him with deepest,
tenderest pity. “The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” Here is
consolation for the sorrow-stricken soul. If in the day of your sore afflictions you seem to have no
heart for worship, your efforts to pray end in what seems to you to be utter failure,
and religious thought and emotion seem to have entirely departed from you, remember
the touching words of Aaron in his great calamity, “Such things have befallen
me”; remember also those other words, “And when Moses heard that, he was
content.” (W. Jones.)
The vicissitudes of life
Observe here again with yourself the strange and admirable change
of these worldly matters in the turn, as we say, of a hand. For but yesterday,
as it were, Aaron and these sons of his had a famous and glorious consecration
into the greatest and highest dignity upon earth, nothing under the sun being
more glorious than that priesthood in those days. And how may you think his
heart rejoiced to see, not only himself, but his children (which parents often
love more than themselves), so blessed and honoured? But, O change! how sudden
and fearful! O fickle, fading comfort, that man taketh hold of in this world,
whatsoever it be, if worldly! These sons so lately exalted and honoured to
their old father’s sweet and great joy, now lie destroyed before his face, to
his extreme and twitching torment. And how? Not by any ordinary and accustomed
death, but by fire from heaven, a sore and dreadful judgment. For what also?
Even for breach of commanded duty by the Lord, all which doubled and trebled
the father’s sorrow. As it did in David when his son Absalom died not a usual
death, and in rebellion and disobedience against his king and father. You
remember his passion then uttered: “0 my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom;
would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son my son.” He considered the
cause wherein he died, and the manner how he died; to a father so kind as David
was, both of them full of woe and sorrow. Let never, therefore, any prosperity
in this world puff us; for we little know what to-morrow may bring with it. The
glass that glittereth most is soonest broken; the rankest corn is soonest laid;
and the fullest bough with pleasant fruit is soonest slit, having more eyes
upon it, and more stones east at
it, than all the other boughs of the tree. Pleasant wine maketh
wise men fools, and fools often stark mad. Milo’s strong arm overthrew him, and
Caesar his ambition. The one trusted too much to nature, and the other to
fortune. As a spider’s web, so is a man’s greatness in this world soon wiped
away with a little whisk. (Bp. Babington.)
When Moses heard that, he
was content.--
A contented law
Some explanations carry their own conviction. We know the voice of
honesty when we hear it; there is a frankness about it that can hardly be
mistaken. But the meaning lies deeper; there can be no contentment in the
presence of violated law. Where a law is violated wantonly, nature can have no
rest; she says, “I cannot sleep to-night.” Thank God she cannot! When she can
forget her Maker, the end will have come in darkness, and there will in very
deed, in spirit and effect, be no more any God. Law must be satisfied in one of
two ways. Law can rest upon the ashes of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying, “Judgment
has been inflicted, righteousness has been vindicated, and the seal of
condemnation has been attached to the testimony of evil”; and mighty, imperial,
inexorable law sits on the desolated cities--“content.” That is not the way in
which the Lord would bring about His own contentment; still, there is the law:
fall upon this stone and be broken, or the stone will fall upon you and you
will be ground to powder. The gospel is a savour of life unto life, or of death
unto death. God would have law obeyed: all His ordinances carried out in simple
obedience, every statute turned into conduct, every appointment represented in
obedience and praise. Then the universe, faithful to her Creator, the stars never
disloyal to their Creator-King--the whole creation will say--“Content.” (J.
Parker, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》