Fire from the Lord

The first day. For seven days Aaron and his sons were made ready as priests (chapter 8). Chapter 9 is their first day of serving God. A blessing. “Then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings” (9:22). What blessing means. To bless is to ask God to be good to someone. Later God gave the priests words to use: “The Lord bless you and keep you” (Numbers 6:24). Between God and people. A priest carried the people's offerings to God and carried God's blessing back to the people. Glory. “Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people” (9:23). God showed He had accepted the offerings. Jesus blesses too. Before Jesus went back to heaven, “He lifted up His hands and blessed them” (Luke 24:50). What we learn. God wants to bless His people. Jesus is the priest who brings us to God.

Ordination complete (9:1). After seven days of ordination (chapter 8), the “eighth day” (9:1) begins the priesthood's public work. Aaron offers first for himself and then for the people (9:7). The order shows that even the high priest needed atonement. The raised hand (9:22). Aaron's lifted hand and blessing come after the sacrifices. Blessing flows from atonement. Numbers 6:24-26 later gives the priests the words: “The Lord bless you and keep you.” A mediator. The priest stands in the middle. He represents the people before God and God before the people. The Hebrew kohen (say: koh-HEN) is the word for priest. The glory appears (9:23). The same kavod (say: kah-VODE) that filled the tabernacle in Exodus 40 now appears “to all the people.” God answers the work of the priests with His own presence. Christ the priest. Luke ends his Gospel with the risen Jesus, who “lifted up His hands and blessed them” (Luke 24:50). Aaron blessed the people after the sacrifices were offered. Jesus blessed His disciples after His own sacrifice was finished. He is our great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14), and He lives forever to bless His people.

For seven days Aaron and his sons got ready to be priests. On the eighth day they served God for the first time. Aaron gave the offerings just as God said. Then he lifted his hands and blessed the people. To bless someone is to ask God to be good to them. A priest stood between God and the people. He brought the people's gifts to God. He also brought God's blessing to the people. Then Moses and Aaron came out of the tent. God's glory came to everyone! God was showing He was pleased. He had come near to His people. Jesus is our priest now. He blesses us and prays for us.

Aaron was God's priest. He blessed the people. Then God's glory came. God was with His people!

Fire from God. “Fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar” (9:24). God Himself lit the fire. Accepted. The fire showed that God had accepted the offerings. The way to come near was working. Joy. “When all the people saw it, they shouted” (9:24). The ICB says “they shouted with joy.” Awe. Then they “fell on their faces” (9:24). Awe is a feeling of wonder and respect that makes you bow low. Both together. The people were glad and humble at the same time. A psalm says, “Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing” (Psalm 100:2). Another says, “Serve the Lord with fear” (Psalm 2:11). A fire to keep. Leviticus 6:13 says the fire on the altar was never to go out. The fire God lit was the fire the priests were to keep using. What we learn. When we see how great and good God is, we worship Him with joy and with respect.

Divine fire (9:24). The fire “came out from before the Lord.” God, not Aaron, ignites the altar. Heaven confirms the new priesthood in a way everyone can see. Something similar happens when Solomon dedicates the temple (2 Chronicles 7:1). Consumed. The fire “consumed the burnt offering and the fat.” The offering is accepted completely. The verb is the same one used in 10:2. The same fire that accepts the offering will judge the disobedience. Shouting and falling. The people shout and then fall on their faces. Joy and reverence are not opposites. Psalm 2:11 puts them side by side: “Serve the Lord with fear, And rejoice with trembling.” A perpetual fire. Leviticus 6:13 commands that the altar fire never go out. So the priests kept burning the fire God Himself had lit, morning and evening. Worship that fits God. This teaches us what worship is: God acts, and His people respond. We do not make God present by our feelings. We respond to what He has done.

Then fire came out from the Lord. It burned up the offering on the altar. God was showing that He accepted the gift. The people saw it with their own eyes. They shouted with joy! Then they bowed down with their faces on the ground. They were happy, and they were full of wonder. Both of those go together when we meet God. God is good, so we are glad. God is great, so we bow low. We can sing loudly to God. We can also be quiet before Him. Both are ways to worship. God loves it when we come to Him.

Fire came from God. It burned up the offering. The people shouted for joy. Then they bowed down.

Who they were. Nadab and Abihu were Aaron's oldest sons. Years before, they had gone up Mount Sinai and “saw the God of Israel” (Exodus 24:10). They were real priests, close to God. What they did. They “each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them” (10:1). A censer is a pan for burning incense. Profane. Profane means not holy, ordinary. The ICB says they “did not use the special fire Moses had commanded them to use.” Their own way. The main thing is clear: God had not commanded it. They chose their own way instead of God's way. Judgment. “So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord” (10:2). The same fire that accepted the offering now judged their disobedience. A sad day. Aaron lost two sons in one day. It was a sad and serious day for all of Israel, and it showed everyone how holy God is. What we learn. God decides how we come to Him. We do not make up our own way.

Privileged men (10:1). Nadab and Abihu had stood on Sinai and “saw the God of Israel” (Exodus 24:9-10). They did not sin because they knew too little. They were men who knew God's ways well. Profane fire. The Hebrew esh zarah (say: aysh zah-RAH) means strange or foreign fire. Exodus 30:9 had already forbidden “strange incense.” The key phrase is “which He had not commanded them.” What went wrong? God gives the reason in that one phrase. They put their own idea in place of God's word, and they did it in the very place where God had said exactly how to come near. That is enough for us to know: they worshiped in a way God had not commanded. The same fire (10:2). Fire “went out from the Lord and devoured them.” The verb echoes 9:24. The holiness that accepted Israel's offering is the holiness that judged the priests' proud disobedience. At the start of something new. God judged sin sharply at the start of the priesthood. He did the same at the start of the church, when Ananias and Sapphira died after lying to God (Acts 5:1-11). Both stories warn God's people not to treat Him lightly.

Aaron had two sons named Nadab and Abihu. They were priests, just like their father. Long before, they had gone up Mount Sinai with Moses. They had seen amazing things there. But now they did something God had not told them to do. They put fire and incense in their pans. It was not the fire God had commanded. They chose their own way to worship. Fire came from the Lord, and they died. That was a very sad day for Aaron's family. It shows that God is holy. We cannot come to Him any way we like. God shows us the way to come. That way is Jesus.

Two priests did not obey. They did it their own way. Fire came from the Lord, and they died.

God's words. Moses told Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke, saying: ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified’” (10:3). Regarded as holy. That means treated as holy, set apart, never ordinary. Priests came closer to God than anyone, so they had to be the most careful. Glorified. To glorify God is to show how great He is. Everyone was watching. Aaron's silence. “So Aaron held his peace” (10:3). He was a grieving father. He did not argue with God. He trusted that God was right. Learning from it. God then told Aaron that the priests must “distinguish between holy and unholy” (10:10) and teach the people God's laws (10:11). Holy, holy, holy. Isaiah heard angels call, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:3). What we learn. God is holy, and He is to be honored. Because of Jesus we can come near Him, with joy and with respect.

A word already spoken (10:3). Moses quotes the Lord: “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.” The verb for regarded as holy is from qadosh (say: kah-DOHSH), holy. Glorified comes from kavod, glory. Nearness and responsibility. “Those who come near” are the priests. The closer someone is to God's presence, the more seriously he must treat it. Jesus later said, “to whom much is given, from him much will be required” (Luke 12:48). Aaron held his peace. The verb describes silence. Aaron neither protests nor accuses God. His silence is grief that submits. Verses 6-7 add that the priests on duty were not to mourn publicly, though the whole nation could weep for them. Teaching holiness (10:8-11). Here God speaks to Aaron alone, the only time in Leviticus. Priests must “distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean” (10:10). The laws that follow teach Israel how to tell the difference. Holy and near. The God who must be regarded as holy is the same God who came near in 9:23. Both truths stand side by side. In Jesus we see them perfectly joined: He is holy, and He came near to us.

Moses came to Aaron. He told Aaron what God had said. God must be treated as holy by those who come near. Everyone must give God honor. Aaron did not say a word. He was very sad about his sons. But he did not argue with God. He trusted that God was right. Sometimes sad things happen that we do not understand. We can still trust God. God is holy, and God is good. He gave a way for us to come near. Jesus is our perfect priest. Because of Jesus, we can come close to God.

God is holy. We must honor Him. Aaron was sad, but he trusted God.

Fire from the Lord

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