A Hard Lesson in Holiness

Scripture Reading: Leviticus 10:1-11

Today's Treasure: "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:23-24).

Leviticus 10:1-11
The Death of Nadab and Abihu

1 Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke of when he said:
" 'Among those who approach me
I will show myself holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.' "
Aaron remained silent.
4 Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, "Come here; carry your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary." 5 So they came and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses ordered.
6 Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not let your hair become unkempt, and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the LORD will be angry with the whole community. But your relatives, all the house of Israel, may mourn for those the LORD has destroyed by fire. 7 Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting or you will die, because the LORD's anointing oil is on you." So they did as Moses said.
8 Then the LORD said to Aaron, 9 "You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 10 You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, 11 and you must teach the Israelites all the decrees the LORD has given them through Moses."

Accounts like this one really have a way of shaking us up. God owes us no explanation for His righteous judgments. After all, "as for God, his way is perfect" (Psalm 18:30). However, He often allows us to peek inside a rebellious heart so we can learn from it. Consider Nadab and Abihu's grave sin. Leviticus 10:1 says they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord. What could have made the fire they used strange, unholy, or unauthorized? The only coals that could be used to keep the altar of incense perpetually burning were those taken from the altar of sacrifice . Priests used authorized censers to scoop coals from the altar of sacrifice and to place them underneath the altar of incense to keep it burning. Nadab and Abihu made the fatal mistake of placing fire underneath the altar of incense from some other source. So unacceptable was the offering that they were consumed. This judgment seems harsh to us, but we must understand that God was using this generation of priests to teach all subsequent generations how to approach Almighty Yahweh. Moses' explanation was clear: those who share the privilege of being nearest to God must also bear the responsibility of exemplifying His holiness through obedience.  "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." (Luke 12:48b).

A perfect link exists between the two altars in the tabernacle of testimony: the only coals that could heat the incense to make it a fragrant offering were those on which the blood of sacrifice had been spilled. Any other fuel for petition and worship made it absolutely unacceptable. God lit the altar of sacrifice Himself when He accepted the offerings at the dedication of the tabernacle. Any other fire was strange fire. And any other coals except those stained in blood were unacceptable.

The two altars were positioned as they were because fragrant offering was possible only on the basis of sacrifice. Until someone had experienced atonement at the first altar, he or she could not offer the fragrant incense of prayer, praise, and worship at the second altar. Why? Because there would be no intercessor! You see, we never have the right to simply chat with God. No matter how spiritual we become, on our own we will never have the right to lift even the most pious prayers to God. Only Christ has that right. He must intercede with our every word before the throne of grace. Only after we have met Him at the altar of sacrifice are we eligible for petition, praise, and worship at the altar of incense.

John 4:23-24 says, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth." What is worshipping in spirit and truth? When God created humans, He gave them something no other creature had received: a spirit. This spirit makes us in His image because God is spirit. Our spirit gives us the capacity to know and experience God. Our soul, on the other hand, is the source of our emotions and personality-that which represents our conscious selves. The third component of the triune human is the physical body. When God says that we must worship Him in spirit, He means that the only acceptable worship is that which is motivated and controlled by our spirits. The body and soul may accompany the spirit in worship, but they can never acceptably overthrow it. Our bodies and souls may express praise as long as they only accompany a deep spiritual longing to know and reverence God. Only the spirit can provoke and control worship for it to be acceptable. We can clap our hands or lift our hands as an accompaniment to spiritual worship, but the emotion and personality can never acceptably take the lead. Any variance from this balance would be "strange incense" (Exodus 30:9, KJV). Spiritual worship comes from our very core and is fueled by an awesome reverence and desire for God. Spiritual worship is focusing all we are on all He is, both personally and universally. It is the incomparable expression of both awe and affection for God. And it is one of the highest privileges we can experience on this earth.

Now let's consider the meaning of worshipping in truth. The book of John uses the same word for truth several times. Every verse you are about to read translates the word truth from the same Hebrew word, aletheia. This word means unveiled reality.

John 1:14: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

John 1:17: "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 8:32: "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

John 14:6: "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'"

John 16:13: "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."

Jesus Christ is the Truth through whom we must worship! He is our only access to the throne of grace.

How do we ensure that our worship combines both spirit and truth? Acceptable worship proceeds from the Holy Spirit inside us only on the basis of the Savior who died for us. That is what it means to worship in spirit and truth. To worship any other way is to offer "strange incense." To place our incense before the throne of grace on any other basis except the blood atonement of Jesus Christ is to offer "strange fire" (Lev. 10:1, KJV). Thus, the incense of our prayer and worship is the Holy Spirit, and the fire that enables the fragrance to rise is Jesus Christ. The One who deems the fire and incense acceptable or unacceptable is Father God. All three members of the holy Trinity act on our behalf. All of the Godhead combines to offer us the privilege of true worship. God the Father invites us to worship, God the Son ignites us to worship, and God the Spirit incites us to worship. To worship inappropriately will not likely cause our physical deaths because we enjoy the grace of Calvary, but it can indeed cause the momentary death of communication with the Almighty.

Adapted from A Woman's Heart: God's Dwelling Place, by Beth Moore, pages 120-123. Nashville: LifeWay Press, 1995. Used by permission.