Leviticus 8-10 - Our God is a Consuming Fire

as we get to chapter 8 here in the Book of Leviticus we're gonna read about the ordination and the installation of the priests and you'll remember that back in Exodus well maybe you don't remember but in fact if you don't I'll go ahead and put it up on the screen for you but back in Exodus chapter 29 the first part of that verse says now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them that they may serve me as priests and I put a little note there that consecrate means to set apart so this was something that God had told Moses to do to set apart the priests to do their ministry so this is here in Leviticus where we actually read about it taking place and as we talk about this I want to remind you of something I want to remind you that in the New Testament we are priests Jesus is our high priest right and we are priests of God and so you need to understand that because there's a lot of interesting connections that God wants to make connecting the dots for you and I - to our even our ministry today but it begins in chapter 8 verse 1 by saying the Lord spoke to Moses saying take Aaron and his sons with him and the garments and the anointing oil and the bull of the sin offering in the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread and assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting everybody in Israel was to know that these men had been set aside now remember something all of the Levites which were the descendants of Levi in other words the tribe of Levi they were all priests we that's why we call him the Levitical priests but Aaron who was a Levite and his descendents were the only ones who could be high priests so only the arianna priests could take that position of high priest you might say what's the difference between the priest and the high priest well the Levitical priests were basically kind of they took care of the temple first of all it was the the tent of meeting while they were in the wilderness but later on much later on actually the temple they took care of things they they they made sure everything was where it was supposed to be for the people to come into worship but only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies and take the blood of the sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the sins of Israel once a year now there were other aspects of the job of high priest that came into this but that was his most important position and that only happened once a year on the Day of Atonement so God wants the entire congregation assembled and it says in verse 4 that Moses did as the LORD commanded and the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting and Moses said to the congregation this is the thing that the Lord has commanded to be done and Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water so everybody is watching as Moses brings out Aaron and his four sons and he begins washing them with water what a strange sight that must have been for everybody just to kind of stand there and it says and he put the coat on him and tied the sash around his waist and clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him and tied the skilfully woven band of the ephod around him binding it to him with the band and he placed the breast piece on him and in the breast piece he put the Oram and the Thummim what in the world are those the ermine that we don't know very much actually about the Urim and the Thummim except that they were used by the high priest to determine the will of the Lord how it worked we don't know it's never explained to us in the scriptures but it was used to discern the voice of God in a particular situation verse 9 says and he set the turban on his head and on the turban in front he set the golden plate the holy crown as the Lord come moisés now we if you when you go through the the book of Exodus and you read how this all this garment for the high priest was made you realize that this was incredible I mean the craftsmanship the workmanship that went into this thing the colors it was beautiful it was bright there were beautiful blues and and and other you know colors that went into it but it was all meant to set the high priest apart to show that you know he was different he was set apart and that's what that whole idea of consecration is all about and of course as priests of God you and I are also set apart we talked about that quite a bit last week and God wanted them to know that the work of the high priest was a work that was set apart and with a very unique role among the people of Israel verse 10 then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it and consecrated them and he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times and anointed the altar in all its utensils and the basin and it's stand to consecrate them and he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him all right anointing oil well anointing oil was used because it symbolically represented the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of an individual who also anoints us for service so as the oil flows and and is anointed on these various things it it speaks of the work of the Spirit you know using these things using this person for his service and this picture of Aaron's ordination and this only happened one time for Aaron afterwards when he passed from the scene his son would be brought up in the same sort of a way and he would be anointed in the same way as high priest but this picture was so powerful for the people of Israel it that it remained an idea in their minds depicting the blessing of the Lord just be poured out upon someone so and you know it's kind of something we've lost you know we actually still we anoint people with oil when we're praying for them for healing in keeping with a passage in the book of James you know is are there any sick among you let them call for the elders they will anoint them with oil and so forth you know we do it as still it still has a symbolic place in the body of Christ but we don't do it the way they did it they would take a flask of oil and pour it over somebody's head I gotta admit that'd be kind of fun you know to kind of do that to somebody first of all we're not really into the greasy look but you know that that was a that pouring of the oil over somebody's head is really a very appropriate picture though of just this work of the spirit that just drenches and and flows downward from the head downward in fact this whole idea of the anointing oil being part of Aaron's ordination made its way many many many years later into the Psalms and for the Israelites was a constant picture of the overflowing blessing of the Lord there's a three verse Psalm that I want to I'll just share with you of the first couple of verses Psalm chapter 133 check this out it says behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity that's the theme that's the context of the psalm but look at how they depicted it's like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard on the beard of Aaron running down on the collar of his robes it's like the dew of Hermon that's Mount Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion for there the Lord has commanded the blessing life forevermore so you can see how the psalmist uses these various word pictures to describe this blessing this overflowing blessing and this is a beautiful picture not just of overflowing blessing but it's a beautiful picture of the blessing flowing down I - I need to connect with you on that for just a second because you might not know what I mean by that notice how the psalmist even says you know and they're trying to kind of help you to illustrate it the oil is poured upon the head running down upon his beard down upon the collar of his robes notice that he speaks of that progression of the oil flowing downward and the oil or the anointing always flows downward now here's the deal Aaron is the picture of our high priest who is Jesus Christ we are what the body of Christ right as the anointing flows upon our spiritual head Jesus Christ it flows down from him the blessing always comes from him to the body as the as the anointing flows downward that's one of the reasons why everything we pray we pray in the name of Jesus some people wonder you get into you become a Christian or whatever in priests don't take you long to figure out to you everybody kind of ends their prayer with you know in Jesus name what's that all about well it's all about that he is our source he's the source of all that we have all that we do all that we are all the blessing all the anointing comes from our head it flows down upon the body of Christ now it's a beautiful picture but it's also an interesting picture of even an individual home one of the toughest challenges is to convince dads who by the way are the head the Bible says you know in Ephesians chapter 5 that the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church right so there's also an overflowing blessing that takes place in the life of a family as that blessing is poured out upon the head of the family and put and and sprinkles down to the family members the various family members and so forth the wife and to the children and and so forth but that blessing is supposed to flow that's the way it goes that's the picture we see in Scripture right and it it's it's important that we recognize it it I gotta say some it bothers me sometimes when a woman comes down for prayer and she she comes and you know she'll come to our prayer team or something or even come up to me on occasion and you know say pastor would you pray for me and I'm always happy to do that but I say where's your husband oh he's back he's talking to somebody something or other go get him go get him there's a progression here I am NOT the spiritual head of that particular married woman her husband is whether he knows it or not whether he walks in it or not God wants to bless that woman as that overflowing blessing comes from the head on down and you know it's like hey your husband is the spiritual he should be interceding for you just as Christ intercedes for his body the Bible says that our head is constantly interceding for his body the church constantly praying right so it's like husbands pray for your wives and there's there's something about your prayer guys for your wives that Trump's mine because I am NOT her spiritual head you know you are guys you are her spiritual head God wants to bless your wife and your family men through you right there's a progression it flows downward so you know cooperate with God in the way he wants to do things in terms of the blessing that he wants to you know bring let's keep going verse 13 and Moses brought Aaron's sons and clothed them so now it's it's the boys clothed them with the coats and tied sashes around their waists and bound caps on them as the LORD commanded Moses remember the sons of Aaron are the only ones who can ascend to the position of High Priest and so they would do upon the passing of their dad with the first oldest son and on down verse 14 then he brought the bull of the sin offering and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull of the sin offering and you remember what that's all about that that transmission you know taking you know confessing sins and so forth interesting picture what's really interesting about this is that this is the high priest and his sons who are laying the hand on this animal whose which is going to be sacrificed now remember the high priest is the one who's going to go into the Holy of Holies once a year he's gonna make atonement for all the people he's gonna bring the blood of the sacrifice on behalf of the whole nation of Israel on the day of atonement but before this man goes in to do that he has to himself be forgiven alright so in other words you have a sinful man in this case ministering to a sinful people or for a sinful people so the bull is brought and it says and he killed it and Moses took the blood and with his finger put it on the horns of the altar around it and purified the altar and poured out the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it to make atonement for it and he took all the fat that was on the entrails and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat and Moses burned them on the altar but the bull and its skin and its flesh and its dung he burned up with fire outside the camp as the LORD commanded Moses then he presented the RAM of the burnt offering so we've done the sin offering now we're gonna do the burnt offering and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the RAM and he killed it and Moses through the blood against the sides of the altar he cut the ram into pieces and Moses burned the head and the pieces and the fat he washed the entrails and the legs with water and Moses burned the whole Ram on the altar it was a burnt offering with a pleasing aroma a food offering for the Lord as the LORD commanded Moses remembered the burnt offering was where the entire animal was consumed in the sacrifice and that signified a complete giving over of oneself to the Lord okay giving over once completely to God verse 22 says then he presented the other ram the ram of ordination your Bible may say Ram of consecration and this is a special offering just for the ordination service and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the RAM and he killed it and Moses took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot strange sort of a ceremonial thing is it not well this was symbolic of once again the whole person being given over to the service of to the Lord from you know head to toe it you and I would say you know he he's completely given over he's he's you know his whole heart but this signifies all of his service all of his life given over to the work of the Lord and and by the way you'll notice why is it the right earlobe why is it the right thumb why is it the right toe well remember something right was always considered to be the position of strength okay it was your first it was your best a child a son born into your family would be referred to as the son of my right hand when Jesus is seated after his ascension the Bible says he was seated at the right hand of the glory and power and majesty of God and that is the position of power it's always considered the position of power it's a symbolic sort of a thing but that's the way it was actually in the Old Testament days people who are left handed were kind of looked at a little oddly because they were very different you know but we've kind of gotten over that so there was a great symbolism that went on and then this is all repeated it says in verse 24 then he presented Aaron's sons and Moses put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet and Moses through the blood against the sides of the altar and then he took the fat and the fat tail and all the fat that was on the entrails and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat and the right thigh and out of the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord he took one unleavened loaf and one loaf of bread with oil and one wafer and placed them on the pieces of fat and on the right thigh and he put all these things in the hands of Aaron in the hands of his sons and waved them as a wave offering before the Lord then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar with the burnt offering this was an ordination offering your Bible again may say consecration with a pleasing aroma a food offering to the Lord and Moses took the breasts and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord it was Moses's portion of the ram of ordination as the LORD commanded Moses then Moses took some of the anointing oil and of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron and his garments and also on his sons and his son's garments so he consecrated Aaron and his garments and his sons and his son's garments with him and Moses said to Aaron and his sons boil the flesh at the entrance of the tent of meeting and there eat it and the bread that is in the basket of ordination offerings as I commanded saying Aaron and his sons shall eat it and what remains of the flesh and the bread you shall burn up with fire and you shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days until the days of your ordination are completed for it will take seven days to ordain you as has been done today the Lord has commanded to be done to make atonement for you at the entrance of the tent of meeting you shall remain day and night for seven days performing what the Lord has charged so that you do not die for so I have been commanded and Aaron and his sons did all the things that the LORD commanded by Moses so our ordination of Aaron and his sons is talked about here in Leviticus chapter 8 so we move on to chapter 9 and this you know chapter 9 basically covers the beginning of their duties and how they did their duties as they took them up and then at the end of the chapter there's a special section of an appearance by the Lord in fire showing that he had approved of these things and you're gonna see how that plays into the following chapter but here in chapter 9 verse 1 it says on the eighth day so now the the the consecration period or ordination period is finished Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel and he said to Aaron take for yourself a bull calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering both without blemish and offer them before the Lord and say to the people of Israel take a male goat for a sin offering and a calf and a lamb both a year old without blemish for a burnt offering and an ox and a ram for peace offerings to sacrifice before the Lord and a grain offering mixed with oil for today the Lord will appear to you and they brought what Moses commanded in front of the tent of meeting and all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord and Moses said this is the thing that the LORD commanded you to do that the glory of the Lord may appear to you then Moses said to Aaron draw near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and for the people and bring the offering of the people and make atonement for them as the LORD commanded so Aaron drew near to the altar and killed the calf of the sin offering which was for himself and the sons of Aaron presented the blood to him and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar and poured out the blood of the base of the altar but the fat and the kidneys in the long lobe of the liver for the from the sin offering he burned on the altar as the LORD commanded Moses the flesh and the skin he burned up with fire outside the camp then he the burnt offering and Aaron's sons handed him the blood and he threw it against the sides of the altar and they handed the burnt offering to him piece by piece and the head and and he burned them on the altar and he washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar then he presented the people's offering and took the goat of the sin offering that was for the people and killed it and offered it as a sin offering like the first one and he presented the burnt offering and offered it according to the rule and he presented the grain offering took a handful of it and burned it on the altar besides the burnt offering on of the morning then he killed the ox and the RAM the sacrifice of peace offerings for the people and Aaron's sons handed him the blood and he threw it against the sides of the altar but the fat pieces of the ox and of the RAM the fat tail that which covers the entrails and the kidneys in the long lobe of the river of the liver they put the the fat pieces on the breasts and he burned the fat pieces on the altar but the breasts and the right thigh Aaron waved for a wave offering before the Lord as Moses commanded then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them and he came down from offering the sin offering in the burnt offering and the peace offering and Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting and when they came out they blessed the people and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar and when all the people saw it they shouted and fell on their faces so understand what has taken place here this is really after the period of their ordination the first time that Aaron and his sons go through the whole process of sacrifice they do everything the Lord told them to do then Aaron and Moses go into the tent of meeting as they emerge Aaron blesses the people and fire comes out from the altar and burns everything that is on it in the in the viewing of all the people this is the Lord appeared to them that day and it says they shouted and they fell on their faces and everybody was amazed but whenever God does a powerful work it is always a possibility for those who are involved in that work to begin to take something unto themselves and think that their kind of something and that's what we're going to read about here in Leviticus chapter 10 it says now nate ab and Abihu the sons of Aaron each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire your Bible may say strange fire before the Lord which he had not commanded them and this basically is telling us that the two oldest sons of Aaron decided to approach God completely on their own there was no specific purpose other than just approaching God they just decided you know they were going to approach God well check out what happens in verse 2 and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord I want you to stop there because this is a challenging set of verses for us to kind of look at because when we look at it particularly from the perspective of where we live today it this kind of assaults our sensibilities here a little bit we're thinking now what in the world fire comes out from the altar and literally consumes these men they died on the spot what is going on here well we're not told actually why these men did this but regardless it was a reckless and very foolish thing for these men to engage in on the surface you know what it kind of looks like is just a couple of guys who did nothing more than I guess commit a ceremonial misstep oops shouldn't have gone in when we did maybe should have waited for dad or something like that but at the heart of this act there was a reckless disregard for God's law and his character there were I mean this was wrong on so many levels to begin with and remember something these these men heard the instruction of the Lord as it related to coming before the Lord and they knew first of all these were the wrong people to be handling the incense being presented to the Lord this was something that their dad was supposed to do as high priest these men who are not the high priest were not to take incense in these sensors before the presence of the Lord that wasn't even supposed to happen next they acted at the wrong time the only time Aaron was supposed to bring incense before the Lord in just this way was on the day of atonement and it was only Aaron who was supposed to do it but that was the only day when something like that should have happened and then were we're told that they acted with the wrong instruments since they used their own sensors instead of the sensor of the high priest remember the the sensor of the high priest had been anointed and prepared and set apart for taking incense into the Holy of Holies theirs had not and they knew that right and then finally they acted under the wrong authority they didn't talk to Moses they didn't talk to their dad they obviously weren't trying to follow the Word of God which you know they had heard Moses give them related to these things and and we're told that they used the wrong fire as well you know your Bible says unauthorized or strange fire you see the high priest was told to take coals from the brazen altar and use those in his incense sensor to take it before the Lord on the day of atonement but see these men supplied their own fire so this was an unauthorized entrance and so forth even with the fire and it seems to me that basically the the critical error that these two men made is that they decided that what they wanted and what they believed was just as important as what God had revealed and that's an important thing for you and I to think about here for just a moment because somehow these men felt like they had the right at this moment to kind of cut and paste their own ideas their own desires their own beliefs over the top of what God had shown them and on the agenda that he laid out and so forth and and I bring that up to you because quite honestly it's something that we've seen repeated it's an error that's been repeated many times since in fact what these two men did reminds me a lot of what we see in various parts of Christianity you know rather than a reverence and a respect for God's Word a lot of many churches today have kind of embraced teachings and beliefs that are nowhere found in the pages of Scripture and practices you know it's like where'd you get that that's not in the Bible and so you ask the question well where did that come from if it's not in the Word of God where did it come from well where else but the example of nade a band Abba Hugh who basically said I know let's do it this way we kind of know best you know we're gonna give it a try and so forth and and paid for their error with their lives you know what we've just read here in Leviticus chapter 9 is a historical event that the nation of Israel has had since it happened and was recorded and has been passed down to them they've had this the Christian Church has had it to but the nation of Israel has had it for even longer and you know they failed to learn the lesson from it because the lesson is don't just do whatever you think don't do whatever you think is right as it relates to God and approaching him and and the way we walk with him on a daily basis walk according to the word but you know you look at the history of the Jews they didn't learn the lesson from Nadab and Abihu do you remember when jesus confronted the the religious people of his day let me put a passage up on the screen for you from Matthew chapter 15 this is verses 7 through 9 he says Jesus said you hypocrites Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me they worship me in vain and look at this last sentence their teachings are but rules taught by men people that's just the example of native and Abihu let's try it this way let's go this direction let's just kind of see what happens and unfortunately it's happening in just too many churches Christian churches today so let's take a look at this judgment that God brought upon these two men look at verse 3 with me here in your Bible it says then Moses said to Aaron and this is a very important statement this is what the Lord has said among those who are near me I will be sanctified and before all the people I will be glorified and yet we're told Aaron held his peace now I don't know if you have an NIV on your lap I kind of liked the way the NIV puts this let me put this on the screen for you here's how the New International Version renders it 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 and that is such an important statement in other words Moses is basically saying to Aaron you know God warned us that you can't just approach him in any reckless or casual manner you can't just approach God he's holy I mean when you when you read through the scriptures in the Old Testament you read through Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy and Numbers if there's one thing that you come away with it's don't approach God don't even get close right when when the priests when they were on the move in the wilderness and the priests were carrying the Ark of the Covenant the rest of the nation of Israel had to keep their distance like a hundred two hundred yards it's like don't even get close to that thing what is and then you know when God was giving them the Ten Commandments you know that the whole nation of Israel heard the voice of God giving them the Ten Commandments and they totally freaked out when they heard that voice but you remember what God said to Moses repeatedly before he did it he said don't let the people come up here or they will die he said they are not even to touch the side of the mountain lest they die and Moses was told that repeatedly don't come you know the message is clear you guys in the Old Testament don't come near God don't come near him the only way certain people in the Old Testament could approach God was if they had the right calling and the blood they had to have the blood they could only enter in with blood first for the sins of their own and then for the sins of the people and and only once a year so hopefully the message is loud and clear now again we're talking in Old Testament active aren't we don't go near God whatever you do okay it's almost like the writer of Hebrews had this very story here in Leviticus in mind when he wrote something in the twelfth chapter of that New Testament letter let me put that on the screen for you Hebrews chapter 12 beginning verse 28 therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship because remember we're priests with reverence and awe look at this last phrase for our God is a consuming fire it's interesting even in the New Testament it reiterates the fact our God is a consuming fire right so important for us to see this we keep forgetting this man cannot approach a holy God you guys remember when when King David the before King David became King back when Saul was King you'll remember that the Ark of the Covenant had been stolen from Israel they took it out to battle treating it like their lucky charm or their rabbit's foot and they got pasted by their enemies and the ark was stolen taken away and eventually by the grace of God the Ark made its way back to the land of Israel and it was being kept on kind of the outskirts of the land really right on the border of Israel by a guy David heard that this guy was having his Sox blast off so he basically said hey we're gonna bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem and so he put together this huge parade of people he got this new ox cart remember to put the Ark on and he got the musicians all going and cranked up and started this big celebration of people and so forth and so on and and check this out let me show you just a couple of the verses from this it's from 2nd Samuel chapter 6 it says in David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with songs and tires and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals and when they came to the flight a threshing floor of ney Khan it says Souza put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen had stumbled we're told and the anger of the Lord was kindled against newsa and God struck him down there because of his error and he died beside the Ark of God and you'll remember as you go on and read that story David was kind of he was grieved and he actually got angry and he said how in the world can we do this that's that's a good question and now you're answering that you're asking the right questions David how in the world can we do this actually it moved David to go back to the scriptures and find out that oh there's a prescribed method for moving the Ark of the Covenant it's to be the priests on poles not on an oxcart and they did it right the second time but they learned by sacrificing one of David's men because our God is a consuming fire you know today we totally take for granted the fact that because of the blood of Jesus Christ we can enter the presence of God whenever and wherever we wish but we forget we forget what Jesus had to suffer to gain us access that he suffered with our sin he was punished with our iniquity we forget that he poured out his life unto death so that you and I could waltz into God's presence whenever we want and that's why we can come into God's presence whenever we want remember the the overwhelming message of the Old Testament is you can't come before God sorry you're out of luck Chuck you just can't do it God is a consuming fire well guess what God is still a consuming fire he hasn't changed he didn't just decide when the New Testament rolled around you know what I've been hard on these people you know dropping them dead like flies here and there whenever they touch this whenever they go there now we're not gonna do that anymore I'm gonna turn over a new leaf and let him just come on in whenever they want nothing like that happened what took place is Jesus died on the cross horribly suffered horribly pouring out his blood so that you and I might be robed in His righteousness so that we might enter into the Holy of Holies the very presence of the throne room of God that's why we get to come you guys and but we forget we forget our God is still a consuming fire he just doesn't consume us because we're clothed in the blood of Jesus Christ and you know it's a it's a powerful and beautiful New Testament reality but look at look at Ephesians chapter 3 Christ Jesus our Lord in whom we have boldness and look at this access with confidence through our faith in him so do you get to come into God's presence because you're a good person no our access is through faith faith in what he did for us on the cross it's finished it's done it's complete your sins are covered they are they are paid for and now by faith we come into the presence of God and it's a wonderful wonderful blessing but people don't ever forget what had to happen to gain you that access because you have something that the people of Israel never had at least back at that time that total access to God anytime verse 4 and Moses called mishael and elsif and the sons of ozl the uncle of Aaron and said to them come near carry your brothers away from the front of the sanctuary and out of the camp so they came near and carried them in their coats out of the camp as Moses had said Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar his sons his so these are his two remaining sons do not let the hair of your heads hang loose and do not tear your clothes lest you die and wrath come upon you or excuse me come upon all the congregation but let your brother's the whole house of Israel be wailed the burning that the Lord has kindled in other words don't mourn or don't show your mourning in the typical ways let the rest of the people of Israel do it for you and so you know once again this is one of those things that you and I read in the Bible and we're kind of like really God really don't let them mourn don't let Aaron and his two remaining sons mourn the death of the other two boys you have to remember something these men are official representatives of the altar of God and for them to go through the typical process of mourning during this time for those who had just violated the altar would be seen as an opposition to the judgment that God had rendered in this case and it was a severe judgment there's no two ways about it but God had these men had done these things with full knowledge they knew that what they were doing was wrong they knew that they were not to go before the Lord that way and they violated the specific directives that God had given he had warned them over and over and over don't do it and they did it anyway and they paid the price and for Aaron and his remaining surviving sons not to mourn was to show that they understand there's a price but there's a cost there are consequences related to violating the revealed Word of God furthermore verse 7 God said to them and do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting lest you died for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you and they did according to the word of Moses and the Lord spoke to Aaron saying drink no wine or strong drink you are your sons with you when you go into the tent of meeting lest you die it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations and of course the whole reason there is to be under the influence of something like strong drink while they're ministering is only going to heighten their possibility of doing something stupid and losing their life for it you are to distinguish verse 10 between the holy and the common and between the unclean and the clean and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses Moses spoke to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar his surviving sons take the grain offering that is left of the Lord's food offerings and eat it unleavened beside the altar for it is most holy you shall eat it in a holy place because it is your Dew and your son's dew from the Lord's food offerings for so I am commanded but the breast that is waived and the thigh that is contributed you shall eat in a clean place you and your sons and your daughters with you for they are given as your Dew and your sons do from the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the people of Israel the thigh that is contributed and the breasts that is waived they shall bring with the food offerings of the fat pieces to wave for a wave offering before the Lord and it shall be yours and your sons with you as a do forever as the Lord has commanded now the chapter ends with an interesting sort of a commentary here now Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering and behold it was burned up it was not to be completely burned up it was to be eaten by the high priest and his sons at least a portion of it and he found out that it was completely burned and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar the surviving sons of Aaron's say why have you not eaten the sin-offering in the place of the sanctuary since it is a thing most holy and has been given to you that you may bear the iniquity of the congregation to make atonement for them before the Lord behold it's blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary you certainly ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary as I commanded and Aaron said to Moses behold today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offerings before the Lord and yet such things as these have happened to me if I had eaten the sin offering today would the Lord have approved and when Moses heard it he approved or he relented so what's happening here Aaron is basically communicating that his sons had fulfilled the requirements of taking care of the offerings as they were supposed to be but because of what had just happened to the two brothers Nate AB and ABI who they felt that eating the the the special meal before the Lord would just be inappropriate in the midst of their broken hearts and Aaron simply explained it to his brother and he said you know in light of what has happened to us this day I just felt like it wasn't appropriate I could not partake of that with joy and with Thanksgiving and I just couldn't receive it in it with the right heart and it just my heart's just not in it and when Moses heard that he realized that Aaron was trying actually to be reverent instead of irreverent isn't that interesting you know God understands you know I mean even though he told them that they weren't to mourn in the usual way when they responded with their broken hearts in the midst of this situation God God didn't strike him dead you know so it's an interesting sort of a thing you know that we see throughout the course of Scripture there are times when human need enters into the equation related to the law and things are done which usually are not supposed to be done but that human need supersedes the law you'll remember David came at a time was hungry went to the high priest asked if there was anything to eat he said well only the bread that was on the on the table of showbread the the bread of the presence it's here but that's all we have well that was only be eaten by the priests and yet the priests gave it to David and he handed it to his men and in that case the human need superseded the specifics of the law you know you remember in during the time of Jesus we're told in the book of John that while Jesus was in the city a woman was literally cast at his feet and the people who threw her there explained to Jesus that this woman had been caught in the act of adultery and they went on to say Moses says that wierdest stone this sort of an individual caught in the act as they were what do you say of course the whole thing was meant to trap Jesus right because first of all they weren't able they weren't supposed to kill anybody under Roman rule they didn't have the right to take a life to be honest with you and they could get in pretty serious trouble by doing it it doesn't mean they didn't do it from time to time but but they weren't supposed to and if Jesus said yeah according to the law stone such a person you know they could just instantly go to the Romans and say well he's no he's a law breaker and no friend of Rome and whatever all else and if he said no don't stone her then they could basically say you know he doesn't care about the law of God so either way they figure we got him we got him but you remember the need of the moment superseded and and Jesus said basically responded by saying yeah okay fine so all right stoner but let him who is without sin cast that very first stone the Bible tell that beginning with the eldest they began to just drop their stones and go away and Jesus responded to the woman and said where are your accusers where are those who brought you Jesus I there's nobody here he said so no one condemns you no well neither do i condemn you go and sin no more again the law stated that a stoning was required in a situation of that sort of adultery remember it was kind of a trumped up thing anyway because you know the woman if the woman was caught in the act of adultery where was the man she can't be in the act of adultery on her own so we know that something weird is going on here to begin with but second of all you see mercy triumphs over judgment and we see it repeatedly in the Word of God so anyway that's where we're going to stop for tonight and we'll pick up where we left off next time so let me close in prayer father thank you so much for giving us this time tonight in the word and as priests of God as the body of Christ we thank you for the pictures that we are given here in the Book of Leviticus that help us to gain a better understanding of this this ministry that you've given to us and Lord we we recognize that in the scriptures in the Old Testament that you are seen as a holy unapproachable God a consuming fire Lord we forget sometimes that you haven't changed that you are still the holy unapproachable God that you always have been and always will be and yet we know tonight that because we have accepted what Jesus did on the cross for us that through his blood we now have access into your presence anytime father please don't let us take that for granted don't let us become casual about approaching a holy God but may we at the same time indulge quickly and boldly as we come before the throne of grace to come to the one to whom we cry Abba Father and lay our petitions before you and praise your holy name we thank you for the word that we've been given tonight may it fill our hearts we look to you through Jesus Christ our Savior amen amen god bless you have a good rest of your Wednesday you your righteousness like the mighty Mountain your justice float like the oceans time I will lift my hand vote to worship you my king

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

Views: 17,918

Rating: 4.7882352 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament, Leviticus 8, Leviticus 9, Leviticus 10

Id: 0HTxjO6hhZ0

Length: 55min 14sec (3314 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 27 2016