EV 9-10{S. When the seven days were over did they begin to do the priests' work?
M. Yes; for on the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel, and said to Aaron, Take a sin-offering and a burnt-offering for yourself, and tell the children of Israel to take a sin-offering, and burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and meat-offerings, for to-day the Lord will appear to you. And they brought their offerings to the door of the tabernacle, and all the congregation came near and stood before the Lord. Then Aaron killed the sin-offering and burnt-offering first for himself, and then he killed those for the people. And his sons presented the blood to him, and he sprinkled it upon the altar. And Aaron waved a wave-offering before the Lord and lifted up his hands toward the people, and blessed them. Then he came down from offering the sin-offering, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings and Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle, and came out and blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them, and fine came out from before the Lord and burnt up the burnt-offering, and the fat that was on the altar, and when the people saw it they shouted and fell on their faces.
S. Were the people glad when they saw the fire?
M. Yes; it was a sign that God accepted their offerings; and the presence of His glory among them showed his favor to His people. But oh sad thought! The folly and wickedness of man soon spoiled it all; for Nadab and Abihu, two of the sons of Aaron, took censers in their hands, and they put fire in their censers and incense, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had told them not to do.
S. What do you mean by strange fire?
M. It was not the fire off the altar; God had sent out fire from Himself upon the altar; but Nadab and Abihu got fire of their own, and God called it strange fire, and He was very angry with these two sons of Aaron, and He sent out fire that destroyed them, and they died before the Lord!
S. Why was it a great sin to offer strange fire?
M. Because it was acting according to man's thoughts, and not according to God's thoughts, as He had just revealed there to Moses. God had anointed the sons of Aaron to be His priests, and to do holy service before Him, and what they did is a figure of the way man attempts to do service for God in the flesh instead of by the Spirit of God. Moses saw at once that they had done what was dishonoring to the Lord, for he said to Aaron—This is what the Lord said, I will be sanctified in them that come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron said nothing, for he was greatly grieved at what his sons had done; for he knew that it was the priests who ought to take care that God was glorified.
Then Moses called two sons of Aaron's uncle, and told them to carry the dead bodies of Nadab and, Abihu out of the camp, and they did so. What a sad sight it must have been to see two of God's priests dressed in the coats that He had given them, and that Moses had only just put on them, lying dead, destroyed by the judgment of the Lord outside the camp of the children of Israel.
S. Were the people greatly shocked?
M. Yes; but Moses said to Aaron and his two sons who were left, You must not mourn, nor tear your clothes for what has happened, because the Lord's holy oil is upon you: you must stay in the tabernacle; but your brethren, the whole house of Israel shall mourn for the fire which the Lord has sent. And they obeyed the word of Moses.
But God does not give back what man has spoiled, though He acts in saving mercy, in spite of all man's sin. In the story of God's ways with man, we shall find that everything that God made at first was very good, but when God put it into man's hands, man spoiled it at once. We read how Adam lost his place in the Barden of Eden how Noah lost his place in government in the world; how the children of Israel broke God's law; and how, when He gave them priests, they sinned against Him. God was proving man's heart, and trying everything that His goodness thought of to bless man. And now He spoke to Aaron, and said: Do not drink wine, nor strong drink, you nor your sons, when you go into the tabernacle, because I wish to put a difference between the holy and unholy, and that you may teach the children of Israel all that the Lord has spoken to them by loses.
S. Why might they not drink wine?
M. Because wine is that which pleases and excites the flesh—I mean by the flesh, the evil heart of man—God was in the tabernacle, and when a priest came into God's presence, he was to aside the thoughts and desires of his own evil heart, and to be occupied with God. The Spirit of God always occupies us with God, and with God's thoughts. It was part of the business of the priests to choose between what was holy and what was unholy, and they could not do that unless they were holy in their own persons. Therefore God separated Aaron and his sons to Himself, and they were to care for His people, and for His glory, and to keep themselves from everything that was unworthy of God.
And that day Aaron and his sons offered offerings to the Lord who loved His own people too well to let their sin go unpunished.