Year 7, Day 99: Leviticus 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Leviticus 10 is a chapter that reminds me to be grateful for the grace of Jesus.  In Leviticus 10, we see two people – sons of Aaron, even – consumed by fire simply because they were careless about the distinction between holy and mundane.  Let’s talk about this for a second.

On first pass, it looks like these two sons are burned up because they aren’t listening.  While that may be part of the problem, remember just how many times God rants second chances to those who don’t listen.  Not listening to God may cause Him to get angry or frustrated, but it seldom leads to a direct death by a consuming fire.

What actually happens here is that these sons of Aaron bring unauthorized incense and fire and mix it with the fire of the Lord.  In other words, they mix that which looks like the Lord, but is really of the world, with that which is of the presence of the Lord.  I think that it is this mixing of the holy and the mundane that makes God angry.

By God’s very nature, He is holy.  Holy is a word that means different.  God’s very nature is different than us.  While He did create the world, He is different from it.  He is holy, the world is mundane.  When we take things of the world and equate them to God, we are cheapening God.  In fact, isn’t this one of the roots of idolatry?  When we make something with our own hands – literally or figuratively – and then equate it to God by worshiping it, is this not idolatry?

I think that this shows us why God gets so angry here.  What these sons of Aaron are doing is equating the mundane with a pure and holy God.  What I find scary is that they are doing this because of a casual approach to religion.  I don’t think that they intended to make God angry.  I think they did it because they weren’t really paying attention to God.  They were going through the motions of life and simply doing what they thought was right.

I think that this is a message that can speak to us.  God doesn’t call us to do what we think is right.  God doesn’t call us to go through life casually.  God calls us to obey Him.  God does want us to think, but He wants us to come before Him seeking His truth, not seeking our own truth and doing our own thing.

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