“Nadab, and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev. 10:1-21And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. 2And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. (Leviticus 10:1‑2)). The fire presents a figure of the judgment of God. The fire they put into their censors did not come from the brazen altar where the continual burnt offering was offered to God. The fire under the burnt offering is a picture of how the judgment of God brought out the sweet savor that Christ was to God when He was on the cross. There was nothing unholy in Him. Christ willingly offering Himself to God in death made propitiation with God. The holiness of God demanded that propitiation be made. “Christ ... offered Himself without spot to God” (Heb. 9:1414How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)).
The second place the fire was used was in the sin offering, the sacrifice necessary to put away sin. The fire consumed the sin offering outside the camp. The victim died in substitution of the guilty ones and took away their sins. Christ fulfilled that during the three hours of darkness when He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” This sacrifice was necessary for the sinner. We ought to realize what Christ suffered, being abandoned outside the camp for our sins.
The action of fire in the burnt offering produces only a sweet savor. The action of fire in the sin offering consumes, outside of the dwelling-place of God (the camp), all that is contrary (sinful) to His holy presence. These two effects are connected with the action of fire, and both met their fulfillment at the cross. On this basis God seeks worshippers who worship Him in spirit and in truth. On this basis believers may now go into the holiest as worshippers. The action of the fire on the incense in the censors brought out its sweet smell. It is a picture of the person of Christ. He is the theme of our worship. No incense (worship) is allowed in God’s presence that is apart from the action of the fire of judgment where Christ died or apart from the remembrance of it. The only acceptable incense savor to God (a type of our worship) was that produced from the fire from the altar. Worship in spirit and in truth has for its basis the refusal and judgment of all that I am in myself and the confession that God has found His eternal satisfaction in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every pretension to worship that is not based on this is the result of “strange fire.” Neither natural talent, gift, intellect, musical ability or fine arts are acceptable as worship; they are things of the first man (Adam), and nothing which has its origin in him can come before God except for judgment. All Christians may be worshippers, but self-assertion is disallowed. Christ is the only object which delights the heart of God. As worshippers we stand on “holy ground.” The fire consumes all that is contrary to the mind of God, and only that which speaks of the person and work of His beloved Son is acceptable. May it be our desire to present that which is pleasing to Him.
Compiled