God has always taken sin seriously, both in the Old Testament and the New. As God led Moses to begin the system of temple worship, two of Aaron’s sons attempted to carry out their new priestly duties with sinful, perhaps prideful, attitudes and were killed instantly. The text says they “offered profane fire before the Lord.”
In the book of Acts, Ananias and Sapphira lied to Peter about their offering and dropped dead. And in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul said some believers had died prematurely because they failed to take seriously Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus Himself called us hypocrites when we fail to examine our own lives instead of pointing out the wrongs in everyone else’s.
These were intended to be strong warnings to the people of their day and ours. And speaking of warnings, Proverbs has plenty of them, too. Today’s reading exposes an invitation that is repeatedly sent out to us all. But it’s one to which only a fool RSVPs.
Welcome, to “God’s Word Day by Day” where I blog through the Bible in a Year. I hope you’ll join me every day. If you’re not already signed up, you can do it here. This year I’ve added a couple of new features. First, check out the “Free Resources” tab at the top. You’ll find a downloadable, printable PDF with “Going Deeper Study Questions” for each day’s post. And … this year you’ll find the daily “Bible in a Year” posts on YouTube. The daily emails now have a link to both these Soul Survival posts and the YouTube videos. I hope you’ll sign up. (If you already receive them, no need to sign up again.)
Today’s Readings:
Leviticus 9 & 10
Psalm 25.1-7
Proverbs 9.13-18
Mark 1.23-45
God’s Judgment on Profane Fire
Leviticus 9 & 10:
Logs & Specks
The tabernacle is ready, the priests have been consecrated …
And Moses said to Aaron, ‘Go to the altar, offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people. Offer the offering of the people, and make atonement for them, as the LORD commanded’ (9.7).
The next verse says …
Aaron therefore went to the altar and killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself.
As I mentioned yesterday, Aaron who was High Priest had to first deal with his own sin before he could be a priest to anyone else.
1 Peter 2.9 says:
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
We, too, as God’s holy priesthood, must deal with our own sin before we can see clearly to help anyone else—including our husbands and our children if we have them. In Matthew 7.5 Jesus said:
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Jesus knew how to draw a word picture.
We all know what happens when we get something in one of our eyes. Our eyes water and it’s hard to see anything. Jesus said we must first see the sin in our lives, up close and personal, and deal with it, or we are never going to see clearly to minister truth to anyone else.
My paraphrase is, “Excuse me, there’s a telephone pole in your eye and you’re worried about that speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye! You might wanna get rid of that telephone pole and things might clear up a bit!”
This is something we need to do regularly, especially when we are hurt, angry, or tempted to confront others.
Now back to Leviticus …
Profane Fire
In chapter 10 we find a startling event amid the newly begun temple worship. Two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, do something so grievous to God that they are struck dead.
… 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 (v. 1).
It appears that in their pride over their new office as priests, they thought they no longer needed to wait on the instructions of the Lord before proceeding. It’s possible that they were also drunk because of the command that was given immediately afterward (Lev. 10.8-11).
While we live in an age of grace, no longer bound by all the ceremonial and sacrificial laws, we worship the same holy God. Neither should we be cavalier or overly familiar in our attitudes and worship.
Worship & Our Heart Attitudes
Jesus said in John 4.24:
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
The word spirit at the end of the verse has to do with our human spirit, that is, our heart attitude. We must worship God from the heart in sincerity. But we must also worship Him “in truth,” that is rightly.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11.29-30 talking about the Lord’s Supper:
For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
Many are weak and sick and many sleep. Sleep in this context refers to death. Many had died prematurely because they failed to come to God through a right understanding of the gospel and properly see themselves in light of God’s Word.
Nadab & Abihu’s Strange Fire
Nadab and Abihu didn’t die because of an innocent mistake. There was something wrong with their heart attitudes before God. And God, in His wisdom and perfect judgment, made an example of them.
The text doesn’t tell us a lot about this “profane fire.” The word profane is sometimes translated strange. And according to Strong’s Dictionary of the Bible, it means “to turn aside (especially for lodging); hence to be a foreigner” or “to commit adultery,” among other similar definitions.
Whatever they did, it showed a complete disregard for God, His commands, and His holiness.
God is not looking to strike us dead because of an innocent mistake either, but we need to be serious about understanding what is important to God and what it means to worship Him “in spirit and in truth.”
May we examine ourselves in light of God’s Word and seek His help to remove those logs from our own eyes that keep us from seeing clearly and stand between us and a quality relationship with Him.
Today’s Other Readings:
Psalm 25.1-7:
Show Me Your Ways
Our prayer needs to be like David’s:
Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day (vv. 4-5).
Proverbs 9.13-18:
The Invitation
Foolishness is illustrated here as a “hostess” inviting in her guests. Those who accept her invitation are pictured as people who can’t see that their foolish choices will lead to death.
Foolishness and sin are always inviting us to come to the party with promises of fun, escape, and pleasure. When we reach out to take their invitation, we realize, often too late, that they don’t deliver what was promised. Instead, they lead to death … sometimes physical death, sometimes the death of a marriage, a testimony, a relationship, or a ministry.
Mark 1.23-45:
Our Greatest Need
Signs and miracles defined much of Jesus’ public ministry. The signs were pointing to the fact that He was the Messiah.
Just like today, there was no shortage of people needing healing and deliverance. And the more people heard about the miracles, the more they came with their needs. But have you ever wondered why Jesus would tell people not to talk about their healing?
In verse 44 speaking to a leper, he said:
See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.
Verse 45 goes on:
However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.
The day before the same thing had happened.
Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they said to Him, ‘Everyone is looking for You.’ But He said to them, ‘Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth’ (vv. 35-38).
Jesus could no longer come openly into the city to proclaim the gospel because so many people were coming with a focus on physical needs. It’s not that God doesn’t care about our physical needs (Mk 1.41), but it shouldn’t take the focus off of the greatest need, the need for spiritual truth.
Closing Thoughts:
Let’s pray that each of us will seek to worship Him in spirit and in truth today and that we’ll look first for those telephone poles in our own eyes before we try to take specks out of the eyes of others.
Your Turn:
Now it’s your turn. Many of you have been reading through the Bible with me for several years now. Some of you share your insights from time to time by email and they are always good and insightful. I want to encourage you to share them here so others can benefit from them.
Coming Up:
In the coming days, we’ll talk about how Islam intends to conquer the West largely through cultural invasion and about the contagious nature of many sins.
I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss them.
Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥
Note about this post:
I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer.
A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”
I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.
Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)
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