“(Not So) Consecrated Priests, pt.2 (Leviticus 9-10)" | 2/18/24
Leviticus 9-10 | 2/18/24 | Will DuVal
The story is told of an American ambassador stationed in England shortly after the Revolutionary War who, while he was using the restroom one day, noticed that his bitter hosts had disrespectfully hung a portrait of George Washington over the loo (the toilet). So, emerging from the bathroom, the ambassador remarked, “You know, I can’t think of a better place for President Washington’s portrait… Cuz I bet nothing is better at scaring the POOP out of you Brits!” (joke adapted from https://upjoke.com/ambassador-jokes)
A good ambassador faithfully represents the one who SENT him, even under hostile conditions. In the BIBLE, this was the role of a PRIEST. Priests were called to represent God to his people, while also representing the PEOPLE back to GOD. They were God’s appointed mediators for facilitating relationship between impure SINNERS and a HOLY and therefore otherwise unapproachable God. Priests made that relationship POSSIBLE.
And we saw last Sunday that God has now called US today, the Church, to be “a holy priesthood… a people for his own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:5,9). We are PRIESTS, God’s ambassadors and intercessors, sent out as his representatives in this dark, lost world, and called to BRING people to HIM.
And last week, we examined God’s instructions for the ordination of priests in Leviticus 8, part 1 of this 2-part message. And we considered eight prerequisites for those called to serve as priests. Let’s quickly recap them:
1) Priests must be… CALLED (8:1-2)
God specifically called Aaron and his sons to this service. Not because of their righteousness, but in SPITE of their sin; Aaron had LED the people in rebellion against God, by building the Golden Calf. But God gets glory from choosing and USING once-separated sinners - like Aaron, like me, like YOU - to be his now-sanctified, HOLY priests.
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2) Priests must be CONFIRMED (8:3-4).
Confirmed by the COMMUNITY they are called to serve.
God instructed Moses in v3, to “assemble all the congregation” for the priests’ ordination. Because sheep need to KNOW their shepherds. And conversely, you’re not a LEADER if no one’s following you. Priests must be TRUSTED not only by the One they represent, but by those to whom we are SENT as well.
3) Priests must be COMMANDED (8:5)
The word “commanded” appears 20x in chapters 8-10! In order to represent God faithfully, we desperately need His DIRECTION, His guidance. Before WE can lead anyone else, we must first be LED by the Lord, and we FOLLOW his lead. Especially his commission - his COMMAND - to “go and make DISCIPLES of ALL nations” (Mt 28:19).
#4) But before we can go and tell OTHERS, we must first be CLEANSED (8:6, 14-17)
“Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water.” (6)
Because Jesus said, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” (Jn 13:8)
Before Aaron could do a THING as priest, he first had to be CLEANSED HIMSELF. He had to bring a bull for HIS OWN sin offering. Actually, he brought a bull EVERY DAY, for EIGHT days - the biblical number of completion, SEVEN… plus ONE! - that’s how completely SINFUL Aaron was. But that’s also how completely FORGIVEN and SANCTIFIED God was making him.
Just as he does US. “the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God… And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 6:9-11). Praise GOD!
#5) Priests must be CLOTHED (8:6-9)
We must be EQUIPPED for the job. Just as the Levitical priests suited up daily for THEIR work, so too must WE suit up TODAY in the “whole armor of God” (Eph 6:10-18).
#6) Priests must be CONSECRATED (8:10-13; 18-24; 30-31).
“Set apart”, holy unto the Lord, for HIS purposes.
The Levitical priests were consecrated with the holy anointing OIL, to MARK them for God’s service; WE are marked, today, with God’s holy anointing SPIRIT.
Then the priests offered a RAM as a whole BURNT offering, to symbolically dedicate their WHOLE LIVES to God; WE are called to “present our bodies [our whole selves] as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1).
THEN the priests offered the ram of ordination, and rubbed ITS blood on their ear, thumb and big toe; and we TOO ought to dedicate our ears for the HEARING of God’s word, our hands for the DOING of God’s WORK, and our FEET for walking in God’s WAYS.
7) Priests must be CONCILIATED (8:25-29) In other words, RECONCILED back to God. MOST of this ordination ceremony was performed by MOSES, because even the PRIESTS needed a PRIEST. They TOO were sinful. And the Church, of ALL people, ought to recognize that WE need Jesus as much as ANYONE! “But for the grace of GOD, go we!” And now we are reconciled reconcilers, filled with a passion and an urgency to see OTHERS set FREE from their sin too, by Christ’s same reconciling grace.
Lastly, for LAST week: 8) Priests are COMMITTED (8:31-36).
Eventually, at the end of ch8, the priests were called to RESPOND. Not passively, but ACTIVELY. So we said: even though Jesus does the HEAVY lifting when it comes to salvation - HE is God’s TRUE high priest, God’s PERFECT representative ambassador, the only SAVING INTERCESSOR, who can stand in the place of sinners - and yet, Jesus chooses to USE us, to bring people to him. May we be COMMITTED, faithful to our calling.
So that’s the recap. Now let’s add 8 ADDITIONAL requirements of priests with Aaron’s INSTALLATION in ch9, and then the priesthood’s DESECRATION in ch10. We find 3 more positive traits in ch9, followed by 5 negative traits in ch10 that we’re called to AVOID as priests.
Would you to STAND… Leviticus 9-10; the word of the Lord:
“On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel, 2 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. 3 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, 4 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.’” 5 And they brought what Moses commanded in front of the tent of meeting, and all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord. 6 And Moses said, “This is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.” 7 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 has commanded.”
[And we’re gonna SKIP vv8-21, because they essentially just record that Aaron DID it; he faithfully executed his sin offering, his BURNT offering, and then the PEOPLE’S sin, burnt, grain, peace and WAVE offerings. So we’ll skip down to v22…]
22 Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. 23 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. 24 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.
[Now ch10:v1] Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “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 Aaron held his peace.
4 And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel 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.” 5 So they came near and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said. 6 And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar his sons, “Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the congregation; but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning that the Lord has kindled. 7 And do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.” And they did according to the word of Moses.
8 And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, 9 “Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. 10 You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, 11 and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.”
12 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. 13 You shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your due and your sons' due, from the Lord's food offerings, for so I am commanded. 14 But the breast that is waved 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 due and your sons' due from the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the people of Israel. 15 The thigh that is contributed and the breast that is waved 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 due forever, as the Lord has commanded.”
16 Now Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it was burned up! And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the surviving sons of Aaron, saying, 17 “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? 18 Behold, its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary. You certainly ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded.” 19 And Aaron said to Moses, “Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering 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?” 20 And when Moses heard that, he approved.”
[This is the word of God… SEATED…]
The first (or NINTH) prerequisite of priests now, is that
9) We must be COMPLIANT (9:1-21)
OBEDIENT. Most of ch9 just records Aaron’s OBEDIENCE to perform ALL that God had instructed him to.
It’s not enough for us to be COMMANDED; we must COMPLY with God’s commands. It’s not enough to be COMMITTED, and try our BEST to obey; we need to actually DO it!
And again, friends - I want to show you that this is not just an OT thing. Like ‘God USED to care about the Law and his commands, but now with Jesus it’s all just grace and we can live however we want.’ NO! Remember: 613 laws in the OT; 1,050 in the NT!
And ONE of the most often-repeated commands is… OBEY!
“Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15)
He said “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”” (Luke 11:28)
1 Pet 1:14-15 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.”
Now, it’s important to remember that our obedience doesn’t SAVE us, any more than the ISRAELITES’ obedience did! Did God wait until he’d given them the Law, to see if they’d actually OBEY him, before RESCUING His people?
NO! He DELIVERED them from slavery in Egypt as an act of pure GRACE before Israel even had the CHANCE to obey or disobey his Law. Just as he does US - We don’t obey God to GET him to love and save us; we obey God as a RESPONSE to His gracious love and forgiveness. My kids don’t follow the family rules in the hopes that maybe THEN I’ll love them; they KNOW how much I love them, and that love MOTIVATES and EMPOWERS their response in obedience.
This is the very BEST motivation for serving God as PRIESTS, in our evangelism and discipleship of others. Not to get Him to LOVE us more. Not for the eternal REWARD, that accompanies our faithful stewardship the GOSPEL. Not even out of love for OTHERS - rescuing them from Hell. No, the first and GREATEST commandment is to love WHO?
THE LORD YOUR GOD. We love and serve others for HIS sake, out of obedience to and love for HIM.
I love BASKETBALL. I want my kids to love BASKETBALL. I don’t think Ellery DOES, yet, but a couple times a week she’ll still come outside and PLAY it with me. And that’s almost MORE loving, isn’t it? The fact that she’s not even playing it out of love for the GAME yet; she’s playing it out of love for ME! (Now, of course in TIME, I hope she comes to love basketball for herself. Just as over time, we ought to be developing a heart after God’s OWN heart, to love the things, love the LOST PEOPLE, that HE loves…)
But the greatest motivation for ANYTHING we do is love for God. We love because he first loved us. We love each OTHER, and we love the unsaved, because Jesus showed us HIS love for them, on the CROSS. If they’re worth him DYING for, they’re worth us preaching to; sharing the gospel with them, through both our words AND our actions.
Of all the offerings out there, our obedience is God’s favorite sacrifice we can bring Him. 1 Samuel 15:22 ““Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” Let us OBEY Him.
10) Priests are CAREGIVERS (9:22)
Their job - OUR job - is to bless and SERVE OTHERS!
That’s what Aaron does here in vv22 & 23: “he BLESSED the people”. And he will spend the rest of his LIFE, his priestly ministry, blessing Israel by SERVING as their intercessor.
Priests CARE for people. It must still be true of the LEADERS of God’s people; we pastors/elders are called to “Pay careful attention… to all the flock… to care for the church of God” (Acts 20:28). Jesus asked Peter, “Do you LOVE me?”, and then he said IF you love me, Peter, you will “tend my SHEEP” (Jn 21:16). Take care of my FLOCK.
But to the extent that we ALL now serve as priests to those who do not YET know the Lord, we are called to BLESS and to SERVE them as well.
1 Peter 3 exhorts us to “bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”
Likewise, Proverbs 11 promises “Whoever brings blessing will be enriched.”
That was God’s original PLAN in calling ABRAHAM: he was blessed in order to serve as a blessing to ALL peoples (Gen 12:1-3).
So Philippians 2 encourages us to “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than ourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (3-4)
Jesus himself declared: “whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mk 10:45).
Just as “we love because he first loved us”, so too we know that we SERVE because Jesus first served US. We BLESS others, because of how much we ourselves have BEEN blessed - eternally blessed! - by Christ.
We are SAVED to serve; blessed to BE a blessing to others.
#11) Priests are CHRIST-CELEBRATORS (9:23-24)
What is the end RESULT, of Aaron’s meticulous COMPLIANCE with all of God’s instructions?
V23: “so the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.” Ultimately ALL of our ministry, our obedience ought to be in the service of GOD’S GLORY; that HE would be magnified. As Jesus enjoined us in Matthew 5: “let your light shine before others, so that they may… give glory to your Father in heaven” (v16).
But here in Leviticus 9, Israel gets a glimpse of the manifest presence of God’s glory, when God condescends to meet with them in a powerful, palpable way. And when he DOES, God’s presence is once again accompanied by FIRE in v24. Just as God appeared to Abram in Genesis 15 as a “smoking fire pot and a flaming torch”... God appeared to MOSES in the burning bush, in Exodus 3… God led his people through the wilderness as a pillar of FIRE by night. So often throughout Scripture, God’s presence is represented by FIRE.
But here in Leviticus 9, it’s not just symbolic; THIS fire “consumed the burnt offering… on the altar”.
And what was the peoples’ RESPONSE? “when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces”. They WORSHIPED.
And the first ones to SHOUT? The first ones on their FACES? It HAD to be Aaron and the priests. If for no other reason than they were standing just outside the tent of meeting, in the very COURTYARD where God’s fire SHOT down from heaven; they must have fallen on their faces in FEAR, if nothing else. Indeed, the fear of the Lord is intimately connected with our worship of Him: Psalm 33 declares, “Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all [its] inhabitants stand in awe of him!
…Shout for joy in the Lord… Praise [him].” (vv8,1)
Priests lead not only in our obedience and in our service to others, but more than ANYTHING, in our WORSHIP.
We might think, “Well, SURE, if God’s glory showed up THAT powerfully - FIRE from heaven! - of course then I’d worship…”
But friends, God has revealed his glory to US even more potently than these Levitical priests EVER experienced: “[God’s] Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). We’ve got something they NEVER had: “the [very] radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb 1:3); we’ve got JESUS!
Brothers and Sisters: what is our proper RESPONSE, to having ENCOUNTERED God’s manifest PRESENCE and GLORY in the person of JESUS CHRIST?
We ought to SHOUT, and fall on our FACES… in WORSHIP.
I’ll be honest: sometimes I FANTASIZE about the day that God’s presence shows up so POWERFULLY and UNDENIABLY here at West Hills that there is LITERAL shouting; physical prostration; I PRAY that God would bless us with such a personal, palpable outpouring of His SPIRIT.
It’s OKAY to SHOUT in church. Actually, it’s COMMANDED, a few DOZEN times throughout God’s word; he calls us to “Shout for JOY, all the earth!” (Ps 66:1; 100:1, et al)
When God’s people CELEBRATE what he’s done for us in sending His Son to DIE for us, and triumph over the grave, to RAISE us from death to life - that is no time for solemn, dignified veneration; our worship ought to look and sound and feel more like a PARTY!
By the way, Spoiler Alert: EASTER this year, we’re gonna be in Leviticus 23, the “Holy Feasts” of the Lord, and the sermon title is probably gonna be “PARTYING God’s Way”. So invite your friends; even unchurched folks want to know how to throw a good party. And NO ONE throws one better than GOD. But of course we’re ALSO gonna consider not just HOW we party, but WHY - because Jesus really is ALIVE! And we can be TOO, if we belong to Him.
But now let’s turn to ch10, and this strange, SCARY story about Nadab & Abihu, the SONS of Aaron, who desecrated the priesthood just as quickly as it was inaugurated. And it shows us FIVE traits that must NOT be true of God’s holy priests:
#1) Priests must NOT be DISOBEDIENT (10:1-2).
Why did God strike them dead on the spot in v2? Because “they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had NOT commanded them.” Kenneth Mathews explains: (98) “the [Hebrew] word unauthorized means strange, or foreign. The same word is used for a “stranger… outside [one’s] family unit” (Dt 25:5); it also names a “forbidden woman”, outside a person’s marriage (Proverbs 2:16)”.
So this FIRE that Nadab and Abihu offered was “foreign”; it fell OUTSIDE of God’s prescribed means of worship.
And what WAS the fire that God prescribed? It was the fire God Himself had SENT DOWN FROM HEAVEN, at the end of ch9! THAT’s why the priests were instructed never to let the fire GO OUT (6:13); because the ONLY fire that is acceptable in God’s holy place is the holy fire that God himself BESTOWS upon us.
Just consider the significance today for our OWN worship, Church: the only worship that God accepts is the worship that he not only ASSIGNS us, but that he himself ASCRIBES to us. God not only TELLS us how he desires to be worshiped; he must actually GIVE us the ability to worship him properly. That’s why Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit”; without God’s own Spirit, the HOLY Spirit empowering us, it’s not really WORSHIP at ALL. We need the “fire” from ABOVE!
We’re left to SPECULATE about the MOTIVATION for Nadab and Abihu’s disobedience. Were they following in the footsteps of their formerly rebellious father AARON; was this fire their own attempt to build a Golden Calf? Were they simply SCARED to get too close to the Lord’s fire? Had they just failed to listen CAREFULLY to God’s instructions? Ultimately we don’t know, and ultimately it doesn’t MATTER; disobedience is DISOBEDIENCE. And as we saw back in chs4 & 5 with the sin & guilt offerings: unintentional sin is still just that: SIN. And it STILL carries consequences. Sometimes LETHAL ones!
Mathews notes (99): “It was fitting that fire coming from the Lord consumed them, since they [were guilty of] neglecting the holy fire of God. The fire that had solicited such joy… from the people initially (9:22-24) now was a source of death and fear.”
Once again, fire is a great metaphor. Because fire can WARM and comfort us, on a really cold day, like today. But fire can ALSO consume, even KILL us. Fire can be life-SAVING, or life-THREATENING; it all depends on what you DO with it.
And the same is true of GOD, friends. Hebrews 12:29 declares “our God is a consuming fire”. He will EITHER burn away your sin - every IMPURITY within you, and sanctify you in his refining fire; OR, God will consume you in his fiery, yet holy JUDGMENT against your sin. God will either be life-saving or life-threatening to you; what will you DO with him, with JESUS?
We must NOT be DISOBEDIENT.
#2) Priests must NOT be DISHONORING (10:3)
God warns AARON now in v3, after he watched his sons get incinerated: “‘Among those who are near me, I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’”
This functions as BOTH God’s EXPLANATION for why he killed Aaron’s sons, as WELL as God’s WARNING to Aaron HIMSELF, lest he TOO should die. God essentially says: “Aaron, you’ve got 2 choices here: if you want to stay NEAR me, stay WITHIN my good graces, you MUST sanctify me”.
Now that verb means something DIFFERENT when it is used of God, then it does with US. When WE are sanctified, we are MADE holy; when GOD is sanctified, he is SHOWN to be holy. 1 Peter 3:15 exhorts us to “honor Christ the Lord as holy, in your hearts”.
So God lays it out for Aaron: “I know you’re upset about your kids, but either you HONOR me as holy, as RIGHTEOUS in all my judgments, even when you don’t LIKE them, OR if you FAIL to sanctify me, you will go down just like THEY did, and here’s the thing: either way, Aaron, I WILL be glorified, in ALL people.” When I reward those who HONOR me… AND when I JUDGE those who DISHONOR me - in either case, in EVERY person, I WILL be glorified.
In Exodus 9, God tells Pharaoh, “I raised you up, AS Pharaoh, for this purpose: that I might DESTROY you, and get GLORY for myself” (v16). This is probably the hardest truth to STOMACH in the entire BIBLE: If God is truly SOVEREIGN - i.e., in control of EVERYTHING, even… no, ESPECIALLY!, in charge of SALVATION… of who’s in and who’s out - then is it the case that God not just “ALLOWS”, but in some sense actually “ASSIGNS” people to HELL? If God has to CHOOSE us - if our salvation “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy… on whomever HE wills” (Rom 9:16), then what about those who DON’T get “chosen”??
And here is God’s REALLY tough, but really TRUE answer to that question, in Romans 9: “What if [I] God, desiring to show [my] wrath and to make known [my] power, have endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of [my] glory for vessels of mercy, which [I] prepared beforehand for glory” (22-24)? In other words, if God gets more GLORY from only saving SOME, while DAMNING others, such that his mercy might stand out in even starker CONTRAST, then who are WE to judge; WE’RE just the CLAY; HE is the potter; to GOD be the GLORY!
And we will bring him glory - either by honoring him as holy, or by being judged for dishonoring him. So many people out there REFUSE to recognize God at all, or if they DO, they really just hang his portrait over their TOILET. And maybe that’s FITTING, because if THAT is how you’re gonna dishonor God, then he oughta scare the CRAP out of you!
“I WILL be sanctified as your Lord, or I will be GLORIFIED as your JUDGE; you pick!”
Friends: the choice is CLEAR. HONOR God.
#3) Priests must NOT be DEFILING OR DEFILED (10:4-5, 7-11)
The way in which we honor God as holy harkens back to point #1: it is through our OBEDIENCE. And specifically, later in Leviticus, God will call the priests, and really ALL the people, to obey Him in matters of PURITY. We’ll spend all next Sunday, in chapters 11-15, looking at God’s regulations concerning PURITY - pure vs impure ANIMALS for eating, purification after CHILDBIRTH, laws about cleansing for LEPROSY, purifying a house containing MOLD, purification after bodily discharges - get EXCITED!
So I won’t spoil too much here, other than to point out: this is another INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT part of the story to stomach. Imagine your Aaron here. And you’re in the tent of meeting ministering when all of a sudden this FIREBALL from heaven INCINERATES two of your sons. What do you DO in that moment? I’ll tell you what MY natural reaction is: fire or not, I’m running TO my kids! But God says in v5, “NO, Aaron; stand BACK. Let Mishael and Elzaphan come get them instead; ministering priests must not touch a dead BODY” (Lev 21:11-12).
What’s your SECOND reaction? To GRIEVE, to CRY for your sons! But God says in v6 now: “No, Aaron; let the REST of Israel mourn for them; you are not to rend your HOLY garments in grief, lest you too DIE.”
So Aaron thinks, “Well, can’t I at least follow them outside the tent, to say my final GOODBYES?” v7: God says, “No, you must stay HERE, inside the tent, because my holy anointing OIL is still upon you.”
So Aaron thinks, “Good GRIEF! Literally… no; NOT literally; this is BAD grief. I’m not even ALLOWED to grieve! FINE, I’ll just get DRUNK instead. At least I’ve got plenty of WINE here in the tabernacle, thanks to all those DRINK offerings God prescribed; I’ll just DROWN my sorrows away!”
But v9, God says, “Oh and by the way, Aaron: NO BOOZE. Not while you’re INSIDE the tent, ministering. I need you SOBER, cuz you’ve gotta be able, v10, to “distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean”. And not only THAT, but v11: you’ve gotta be prepared “to teach the people of Israel all the statutes” that I’ve given them; how THEY TOO must pursue holiness, and avoid defilement.
Here’s the point, friends: God’s calling to obedience, to holiness, it isn’t contingent on our FEELINGS, or our CIRCUMSTANCES. Aaron wasn’t happy with God here. And if there was EVER a time for God to make an EXCEPTION to His rules about touching corpses, or leaving the tent, or drinking wine - THIS was the time. But he DIDN’T make an exception.
It’s EASY to follow God when the sun’s shining and your belly’s full and things are going your way. But will we STILL follow when it all comes crashing down around us? When the roof LITERALLY falls in and kills your entire family, except for your nagging wife, who tells you to “Curse God and DIE”; will we still say, “The Lord GIVES, and the Lord takes AWAY; BLESSED be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).
May we not - under ANY circumstances - defile God’s holy name.
Similarly, #4) Priests must NOT be DITHERING (10:6, 12-18)
To “dither” means “to act irresolutely; to vacillate”.
God tells Aaron, “You gotta PICK: who do you love MORE - your SONS, or ME? What is the greater OFFENSE here today, Aaron, in your eyes: your sons being robbed of their LIVES, or ME being robbed of my GLORY??” THAT’s why I don’t want you to mourn their deaths, Aaron; because if you’re gonna mourn ANYTHING today, you ought to be grieved by their SIN… that RESULTED in their deaths - “The WAGES of sin IS… DEATH!”
That’s why Moses gets mad at Aaron later in v16. Moses checked to make sure Aaron had eaten the sin offering like he was supposed to, and he HADN’T; Aaron let the whole thing burn up. Another breach of God’s protocol! Aaron’s character is once again called into question: where does his ultimate allegiance lie? With his SONS, or GOD? “Choose this day whom you will serve,” Aaron,” Moses essentially says to him, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”” (Josh 24:15)
Elsewhere God’s word warns us against having a “DIVIDED heart”. I love David’s prayer in Psalm 86: “unite my heart to fear your name [O Lord]. I give thanks to you… with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.”
How about US, Church? Have we decided today whom WE will serve, and will we SERVE him with an UNdivided heart, with our WHOLE heart, whole mind, whole soul, whole strength?
Lastly, #5) Priests must NOT be DISAVOWING (10:19-20)
To disavow means “to disclaim… connection with, or responsibility for”. To SHIRK one’s responsibility, culpability, GUILT.
And this is why Aaron’s life is SPARED at the end of the story - because even though he broke protocol by not eating the sin offering, he says he DID so, because of his OWN GUILT in the matter! That’s what he means when Moses questions him and Aaron replies: “If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the Lord have approved… [considering] such things as these have happened to me?” Aaron’s saying, it wasn’t just my SONS’ sin that resulted in their death; it was MY sin; I am implicated here too. If I had been a better father, and “trained them up in the way they should go”, then they wouldn’t have DEPARTED from it. If I had been a better leader, a better HIGH priest, then perhaps this whole tragedy could have been avoided. But Moses, their deaths are not ONLY God’s judgment against THEM - THEIR sin - but against ME, as well! So it would be improper, SINFUL, for me to benefit by eating the meat of this sin offering”; remember that was the one CAVEAT listed back in ch4 with the priests eating the sin offering: they couldn’t be rewarded for their OWN sin. Aaron didn’t disavow himself of guilt.
Application for us: how many of our lost loved ones are still trapped - enslaved to their sin- because of OUR disobedience and failure to share the GOSPEL with them, to PRAY and PLEAD for them?
CONCLUSION: Man! what a note to END on, huh? So let’s not END there. Let’s end HERE, instead:
As priests, we must be
1) CALLED (8:1-2)
2) CONFIRMED (8:3-4)
3) COMMANDED (8:5)
4) CLEANSED (8:6, 14-17)
5) CLOTHED (8:7-9)
6) CONSECRATED (8:10-13; 18-24; 30-31)
7) CONCILIATED (8:25-29)
8) COMMITTED (8:31-36)
9) COMPLIANT (9:1-21)
10) CAREGIVING (9:22)
11) CHRIST-CELEBRATORS (9:23-24)
We must NOT be:
1) DISOBEDIENT (10:1-2)
2) DISHONORING (10:3)
3) DEFILING / DEFILED (10:4-5, 7-11)
4) DITHERING (10:6, 12-15)
Or 5) DISAVOWING (10:16-20)
So let me ask you: Anyone else feeling a bit overwhelmed, by that list? What do we DO with a list like that?
Well, I’ll tell you what we DON’T do: we don’t “disavow” ourselves of God’s very real calling on our lives: to HOLINESS. We must pursue holiness, with ALL that is within us.
…AND when we STILL fall short, we must fall into the merciful, forgiving arms of JESUS. Our GREATER high priest. The priest we all aspire to be like but fail to. Praise God, for JESUS’ priestly intercession, on OUR behalf. To reconcile rebel sinners like us with our holy God.