The Danger of Going to Church. (Leviticus 10: 1-20)

The benefits of attending church usually encompass things like you might learn something, you might get encourage, you might even experience something, life the presence of the Lord. I’d class all of things as what the bible calls edification. I am sure we all like to be edified. But, I would like to suggest that there could be a danger in going to church. Actually, the New Testament speaks about that in several places, indicating a potential spiritual hazard if we gather with other believers. That phenomenon is also observed in the Old Testament.

Now, the church didn’t exist in the Old Testament, and I'm not suggesting that it did. However, they had a Tabernacle, which we've discussed, and that was their form of worship. The priests participated in various rituals during the day, and that constituted their form of worship. But an incident in the book of Leviticus highlights that going through this process was physically dangerous. It seems to me that this passage illustrates a similar principle mentioned in the New Testament.

So, here's what I'd like for us to do: I'd like to invite your attention to Leviticus chapter 10. I'm going to go through this passage as we've done with other various passages so far in Leviticus. Then, when I reach the end, I'll suggest how this might illustrate the same kind of principle in the New Testament. 

Let me say one more thing: we've looked at Chapter 8 and we've looked at Chapter 9. In those two chapters, the text repeatedly emphasizes that Moses and Aaron did what the Lord told them to do. You can't read those two chapters without walking away with the impression that they were obedient to the Lord. It repeatedly says that. But now we come to chapter 10, and that little notation is conspicuous by its absence. All of a sudden, you come to chapter 10, and that is no longer true. As a matter of fact, the opposite is true. So, with that in mind, let's start with Leviticus chapter 10.

The Profane Fire of Nadab and Abihu

Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So, fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke, saying:

‘By those who come near Me

I must be regarded as holy;

And before all the people

I must be glorified.’ ”

So, Aaron held his peace. Then Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp.” So they went near and carried them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said. And Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord has kindled. You shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.” And they did according to the word of Moses.

(Lev 10: 1-7)

Now, you'll recall the Tabernacle that we've looked at. In the holy place, there was an altar, and they burned incense on it. This tells us that two of Aaron's sons, who were priests, and it was their duty to go into the holy place, put a different kind of fire before the Lord. So, they're in the holy place before the Lord, and they're using this translation says, "profane fire". What in the world is profane fire? 

The Hebrew word actually means "strange". In other words, it was not what the Lord told them to do. So, what does that mean? Frankly, I don't think anybody really knows. There are all kinds of guesses by those who study this passage.

Some will say that they used fire taken from the brazen altar. Remember, when you first went into the gate of the Tabernacle, the first thing you encountered was the brazen altar. Maybe they took fire from that altar and went into the holy place. That's one suggestion, but we don't know that for sure. Some have said that they did it at the wrong time of day, that there were specifications in the book of Exodus chapter 30 as to how many times they should go in at what time in the morning and in the evening. Some have suggested that what they did is go in at the wrong time. All of these are speculations. We don't really know what was going on. We just know that whatever they did was a disobedient act before the Lord.

Another creative suggestion is that later in the passage, down in verse 9 (we'll get to it in a minute), there is a warning against drunkenness. It almost seems like it pops up out of nowhere. It doesn't seem to be part of the story at all. Why does that pop up? So, some have suggested that what they were doing is that they were in the service of the Tabernacle while they were drunk. That sounds like a shocking but entirely plausible thing, thing, we will keep that on your back burner; we're going to come back to something like that later. At any rate, they were disobedient to the Lord. There are all kinds of speculations about exactly what that was. What you need to know is they were disobedient. 

But the fire went out from the Lord, and they died before the Lord. Now, when it says fire went out from the Lord, apparently, that's a reference to the holy of holies. They're in the holy place, the first compartment of the temple, which is right before the veil of the holy of holies. And fire comes out from the presence of the Lord. So, it says they died before the Lord.

So, verse 1 says they were disobedient; verse 2 says they died. The wage of sin is death’ literally on this occasion. And fire came out and killed them. Apparently, it did not consume them entirely because they later get buried. But the point is the wage of disobedience is death. In spite of this Aaron holds his peace He just lost two of his sons. And Moses says, "Let me explain what's happened saying." The Lord says that those who come near Him, must be holy, and He must be glorified. So, this has to do with the Lord that they disobeyed Him. Moses says to his brother Aaron, "You know, you've just lost two sons, but we have to learn a lesson here. Those who serve the Lord have to be separated unto the Lord. Those who serve the Lord need to be holy before the Lord, and they need to glorify the Lord. What they did was the exact opposite of that. They were not holy; they were disobedient, and they were not glorifying the Lord; they were doing what they wanted to do."

The idea here is that we need to learn a lesson, and that is that those who serve the Lord need to be holy and ensure that we're glorifying Him and not just themselves. These men died because they were disobedient. Maybe there's a great lesson for us all; we'll go deeper into this later.

Moses then calls Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel, the uncle of Aaron, and says to them, carry their cousins out from the sanctuary and out of the camp.' Sand they are buried. They carried the bodies outside the camp. Does that strike you as significant? They buried them outside the camp. This is a pretty stark statement.

If you've been tracking with me as we've been going through Leviticus, remember we went through all the offerings in the first six chapters, and there was a part of the offering that wasn't good for anything, and they took it outside the camp and buried it. This is almost like saying that these men who disobeyed the Lord are worthless and they're going to be buried outside the camp, like the useless part of a sacrificial animal. In the context of Leviticus, this is a pretty stark statement. So, they disobeyed, they died, and in their death, they were disgraced. They were buried outside the camp. 

Normally when somebody dies, you mourn. Would that not be appropriate, the next appropriate thing? Moses says to everyone, "Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, in other words do not mourn them, and they do as Moses says. Now remember, Aaron is the high priest, and his sons are the priests. Two of his sons have just died, and now he says the other sons and cousins cannot mourn. However, he wants the children of Israel to mourn. The brothers were to refrain from the ordinary signs of mourning, but the children of Israel were allowed to bewail the death of these two boys.  Perhaps God permitted them to mourn to understand the seriousness of sin, that even a priest serving the Lord in the Tabernacle could be killed because he disobeyed the Lord.

Alright, we've looked at seven verses, this part of the passage and it obviously about the serious issue of what happens when a leadership is disobedient.  They disobeyed, they died, they were disgraced, and the people were warned. But their brothers were not allowed to mourn. Can you recall anything like that happening in the Old Testament anywhere else? How about the book of Genesis? How about the fact that Reuben and Simeon were guilty of adultery, and when you get to chapter 49, they are, in essence, disinherited and replaced. 

So, the sins of the firstborn are replaced by the second born who end up with God's blessing instead of the firstborn. Very important principle here: that people in leadership who sin get replaced in the position God had for them.

I wonder how many Christians fall into that category, that they don't ever ultimately enjoy spiritual maturity, or for that matter, reward at the judgment seat of Christ, because of sin, and somebody else did their job.

Ever heard of a fellow named Billy Graham? Billy Graham is probably, beyond a doubt, the greatest evangelist in the history of the Christian Church. Did you know he thinks he was not the one chosen to do that job? Back in the '40s before Billy Graham was a national name, there was another fellow named Charles Templeton. They were both evangelists, and apparently, both worked for Youth for Christ for a while. Templeton and Graham thought he was going to become the great evangelist of the day. However, Charles Templeton took some time out and went to Princeton Seminary and was introduced to some liberal teachings concerning the Bible, and in the process, lost his faith. He dropped out of the ministry. Billy Graham came to Los Angeles as a late replacement for Templeton in 1949, to conduct two tent meeting at Washington and another in downtown Los Angeles. Templeton had done that every year, and it was scheduled to be a three-week meeting at each, and they were both extended to eight weeks.  This was probably because on one of the early nights a man called Stewart Hamblin got saved. He was a very well-known radio host, had been on the radio, I think, for 27 years at that point and the next day, he goes on the radio and gives his testimony. And thereafter people just began to pour out for this tent because of Stewart Hamblin's conversion. It was that which catapulted Graham to national prominence, and from there he then went to Boston, and New York and then England, and then the world, and the rest, as they say, is history. Graham himself thought that it should have been Charles Templeton, but because Charles Templeton disobeyed the Lord, according to Billy Graham, Templeton got replaced by Graham. 

So, the first part of this passage is disobedience. 

The second part of this passage is a declaration by the Lord.

Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying: “Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses.”

(Lev 10: 8-11)

This is the sudden appearance of the verse of something never said before, something that would be easy to overlook. It says, “The Lord said to Aaron”, never seen that before. Prior to this chapter God didn’t speak directly to Aaron He only  spoke to Moses.  So, never seen that before. but the Lord speaks to Aaron, and says, "No drinking, no getting drunk, no intoxicating drink when you serve in the Tabernacle”. And in light of what we were just told earlier in the passage, you can't help but wonder if maybe that was indeed what was involved in the sins of those two priests who died.

This message is not just for Aaron, and his immediate children; it is to be a perpetual statute. I don't want those serving the Lord to get drunk. The reason is, I want them to be an example to the people of the difference between the holy and the unholy, the clean and the unclean.  When we get deeper into the book, those kinds of issues are going to come up more. But for right now, let me just say that the Lord is trying to convey that there are things that are good spiritually and things that are bad. That's probably the simplest way to put it. 

There are things that are acceptable and things that are unacceptable. The virtues we've been talking about lately: love, joy, peace, self-control, knowledge, endurance — these things are holy.The way the Lord sometimes communicates that in the Old Testament is by saying that certain foods are unclean, don't eat them, and certain foods are okay. He's trying to teach the people through very elementary object lessons that there are clean and unclean things spiritually, and he uses food to do it.

I don't think the things he designates are unclean intrinsically in  themselves unclean  because in the New Testament, he allows us to eat them.  But back then, he said these are unclean to teach spiritual lessons. He does the same with alcohol; alcohol in itself is not sinful but being drunk is a sin, so I don't want priests doing that.

So far in this passage, we've had two things: the disobedience of the priests, and now this declaration to Aaron. The third thing that happens in this message is the Lord gives some directions to Moses. 

And Moses spoke to Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons who were left: “Take the grain offering that remains of the offerings made by fire to the Lord and eat it without leaven beside the altar; for it is most holy. You shall eat it in a holy place because it is your due and your sons’ due of the sacrifices made by fire to the Lord; for so I have been commanded. The breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering you shall eat in a clean place, you, your sons, and your daughters with you; for they are your due and your sons’ due, which are given from the sacrifices of peace offerings of the children of Israel. The thigh of the heave offering and the breast of the wave offering they shall bring with the offerings of fat made by fire, to offer as a wave offering before the Lord. And it shall be yours and your sons’ with you, by a statute forever, as the Lord has commanded.”

(Lev 10: 12-15)

So, the Lord is giving directions to them. The idea is that they're to finish eating the rest of the portion of the sacrifice that they had offered for the nation. Now, that's important because we've seen this before: The priest was to eat certain parts of certain sacrificesand the family was allowed to eat part of the offerings. He's just saying now, you who are left, go do what you're supposed to do, implied: don't be disobedient.

Then Moses made careful inquiry about the goat of the sin offering, and there it was—burned up. And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who were left, saying, “Why have you not eaten the sin offering in a holy place, since it is most holy, and God has given it to you to bear the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord? See! Its blood was not brought inside the holy place; indeed, you should have eaten it in a holy place, as I commanded.”

(Lev 10: 16-18)

Do you see what's happening now? They're being disobedient. They were told to go eat and thus fulfil the ritual of the sacrifice, and they did not do that. So, he says in verse 18, "the blood was not brought inside the holy place; indeed, you should have eaten it in a holy place, as I have commanded." Now, let me ask you a question: what happens when you disobey the Lord? Remember, two of the sons of Aaron disobeyed the Lord, and they died — bam. And now the second two sons, they don't do everything he said to do. What's going to happen to them? Two more verses.

"And Moses said to Aaron, 'Look, this day they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord; and such things have befallen me. If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been acceptable in the sight of the Lord?'"

(Lev 10: 19)

Wow! In response to this, Aaron is saying, in essence, because of the death of his first two sons, he and his remaining sons had felt unworthy to eat the part of the offering. So, what's going to happen to them? Nothing. 

"So, when Moses heard that, he was content."

(Lev 10: 20)

In the story, they didn't die. So, what in the world is going on? Moses gave Aaron permission to leave the rest of the sin offering uneaten, and they did not die. Wow, that's a really interesting twist to this story.

Let me conclude this by making some observations. I think if you read this chapter carefully, you can't help but come away with the idea that if you're going to worship the Lord, which is this Old Testament form of worship,  there needs to be some holiness. I mean, the Lord said that early in the passage: if you're going to serve me, you need to be set apart to me, to be holy. Moses in the previous two chapters was faithful to the Lord. And then we come to Aaron and his sons, and they were disobedient. Remember, Aaron is the one who made the golden calf. His sons learned some bad spiritual lessons from their father. 

One of the lessons in this chapter is just that: the second is that if you disobey the Lord, there are consequences. In this case, they were pretty stark and immediate: they died on the spot. They offered strange fire.

Now, we're not under the law, and we don't perform animal sacrifices at the Tabernacle, nor do we strictly observe Saturday as the day to honour the Lord. So, what are the New Testament parallels to that? What are the New Testament instructions for worship?  I would say things like there should be an assembly of believers, they ought to have leaders they should practice baptism, observe the Lord's table, and be taught the word of God, and minister to one another. These are some of the essential elements from a New Testament point of view.

But from a New Testament point of view, what is "strange fire"? How would we disobey the Lord, and what would the consequences be today? I mean, if some disobeyed the Lord, would we drop dead? I have to ask, in light of this chapter. Is there any parallel to this in the New Testament? Well, it may shock you to know that the answer to that is yes, almost verbatim in principle. Turn to 1 Corinthians Chapter 11. Now, this chapter is one of the most well-known in all of the New Testament concerning the Lord's supper. 

Now, today we do not take an animal to the Tabernacle and sacrifice it. Instead, we gather on the Lord’s Day and observe a symbolic ritual of the Lamb of God dying for the sins of the world. In the New Testament, they met in homes, originally, they met elsewhere on some occasions in some places, and they had a meal together, but they ate together, which I think is deeply significant in this case.  So, I want to put this passage in its context, in Communion we usually say the part where Christ says, i.e. “This is my body, which is broken for you." That part of the passage is very well known, but it starts way earlier. So, back up and look at verse 20. He says this.

Conduct at the Lord’s Supper.

Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry, and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.

(1 Cor 11: 17-22)

Does that parallel Leviticus Chapter 10, exactly? They were eating before each other. He explains in verse 22, " What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you, or do you despise the Church of God. And here's why, he continues.

"Because I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.'"

(1 Cor 11: 23-25)

So, he's giving it a very holy significance

. "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

(1 Cor 11: 26-27)

Now, what does he mean by eating the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner? What's the number one lesson? I told you about Bible study, it starts with context. The context is they were getting drunk, and they were treating each other in an unloving way because some were hungry, and they weren't sharing their food. So, at the heart of this is a selfish, unloving way of observing the Lord's table.

So, he says in verse 28, 

Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. . For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

(Lev 11: 27-29)

This is not some ordinary meal; this is symbolic, the Lord's body. "For this reason," he says in verse 30,

"Many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep."

You know what that means? Some died. It strikes me that this is an exact parallel to Leviticus Chapter 10. In Leviticus, their form of worship with the sacrifices, had become careless and got drunk, they died; they were disobedient. In 1 Corinthians Chapter 11, they met on Sunday in the church service, and in this case, some were getting drunk, and they were eating in front of each other, and some were being selfish and unloving. So, in light of this chapter, it seems that some sense the Lord will not tolerate this sort of thing, and you might die.  Sin can affect the body, and you can get sick from sin, and you can even die from sin. The Bible talks about a sin unto death.

Also in the New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira died on the spot in the book of Acts. What did they do? They lied. Everybody was selling their property and giving it to the church, and they lied about it, and bam, they died.  That was in the context of a church meeting, they are all in the context of a church meeting.  Based on these verse, as much as anything, I think that one of the most serious things that can bring upon someone the most severe discipline is, don't mess with the church. Don't get drunk at the church, don't lie, and then encourage other people that dishonor the Lord in the church, don't destroy the church. That's serious stuff. For that, some die. 

Now, there are other sins in which we are disobedient even in the church, and you won't die from it, you'll just get sick or be physically weak. So, maybe the bottom line of this is don't live a selfish, unloving life, especially at church. That's where you go to love one another and minister to one another. Don't go and offer strange fire because when you deal with strange fire, you might just get burned.