PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Leviticus 9-10
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“What you are to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.” (Leviticus 9:6)
We were made to live with God, to experience and reflect God’s glory and greatness.
Our rebellion has disconnected us from God, and from really knowing God.
God’s glory is so great, and our sin so great, we can’t survive being with God.
This sense of God’s greatness is lost on us, but it was also lost on the people then.
They were formed and trained to experience God through statues and creatures.
They associated ‘god’ with perverse and violent rituals and beliefs.
God had to change the way they thought about God, and themselves.
These bloody offerings are vastly different than the sacrifices of other religions.
They exposed the seriousness of sin, but also the wonder of grace.
Through these dramatic sacrifices, God shows us the value placed on us.
God wants to live with us, to ordain us as partners, to make us great again.
All these sacrifices symbolize what it takes to do that; ultimately what Jesus had to do.
God doesn’t want blood, God wants us; sin needed to be condemned for that to happen!
God does not punish sin to shame us; God condemns sin to restore us, to make us glorious!
PRAYER
Lord, may I not be reckless like Nadab and Abihu, but may I devote my heart and life to as your partner, committed to offering myself in love to you and others!
“He brought the burnt offering and offered it in the prescribed way….Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering … 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.”
God is Holy – there is no playing around – worshipping God in a disrespectful way – just for the fun of it – or playing church. I must not belittle my Lord and Saviour. It cost his lifeblood to make me clean! He offered the perfect sacrifice in the right way! Lord may I not take my love and service for you lightly. You are Holy!
Do this and live. Those were the instructions for the priests God had given through Moses how He was to be served. Nadab and Abihu were careless and disregarded His commands. God means what He says to regard Him as holy – to do His will. We/I am here to serve the Lord and not the other way around. God desire justice and righteousness and it is only through the blood of Christ I am made whole. Lead me Spirit of the living God that my judgments and behaviour are always God honouring.
Have thine own way, Lord!
Have thine own way!
Hold o’er my being
absolute sway.
Fill with thy Spirit
till all shall see
Christ only, always,
living in me!
I read these words and I thought;
Where did they get grain in the desert?
How did they feed the animals in the desert?
When you kill an animal it is bloody and messy, smelly and sticky, it attracts flies.. They put the blood on and around the altar and on the ground. Ugh!
How did they clean up afterwards?
Where did they get the water?
How did they clean their clothes?
Why did God need to kill Nadab and Abihu? It makes me afraid.
The last verses Lev. 10:16-20 don’t make any sense to me.
I don’t see any grace in these 2 chapters, it just seems foul and horrible.
If this was all I knew about God I doubt I would follow Him.
The Gospels show an entirely different God.
This is just one more time when I have to let go of the revulsion and the triggers and say:
I don’t understand You Lord God. I have no idea, a lot of the time, why You do what You do.; but I will still choose to accept Your love and love You back and I want to serve and honor You.