Day 46: Leviticus 8-10

Welcome to 5 -Minute Bible, your daily guide for your daily reading. Today's February the 15th, and we'll be looking at Leviticus 8 -10.

Now, today's reading moves us from the sacrificial system to the service, from the glory to the judgment.

Leviticus 8 -10 records the public ordination of Israel's first high priest and the explosive arrival of God's glory and the terrifying reminder that holy fire is not a metaphor.

The God who dwells among his people does so on his terms, and these chapters show us what happens when those terms are not honored and what happens when they are ignored.

Now, Leviticus 8 unfolds slowly and deliberately. Aaron and his sons are washed with water in front of the congregation, and they are clothed layer by layer with the tunic and the sash and the robe and the ephod and the breastpiece and the turban, and then blood from the ordination ram is placed on Aaron's right ear, his right thumb, and his right big toe, which represents where he listens to God, his ear, where he works for God, his thumbs, and where he walks for God, his foot.

And it's on the right side because the right side was the seat of power. So, all of Aaron essentially was being dedicated entirely to the

Lord, from his mind to his hands and to the direction that he's walking. And oil then was poured over his head, and for seven days, they remained at the entrance of the tent of meeting, completing their consecration.

I mean, this was not casual. This was a very public and a careful and a weighty, deliberate consecration of purifying these men for service in the midst of a holy

God. Then, Leviticus 9 marks the beginning of the priestly ministry.

Aaron offers sacrifices, first for himself and then for the people. And when everything is completed exactly as God commanded, the glory of the

Lord appears and fire comes down from heaven and consumes the offering on the altar.

And the people shout and they fall on their faces because heaven has answered and their worship has been accepted.

But then, in Leviticus 10, the celebration is shattered. Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's oldest two sons, they take their censers and they offer what's called unauthorized fire, which is a kind of fire that the

Lord had not commanded them. And we don't know exactly what kind of fire it was, but it was them choosing after seven days of ritual purifications and doing everything right.

Now, they're choosing to disobey God and offer a kind of fire that God had not commanded them.

Again, fire comes down from the presence of the Lord. But this time, instead of consuming the offering, it consumes them.

The same holy presence that was bringing joy to the people was now bringing judgment. And Moses speaks the chilling explanation, by those who come near to me, that's

God, I will be treated as holy. And Aaron stands in stunned silence.

Now, as you read today, I want you to ask the following question. What does it mean to treat God as holy when you draw near to him?

Leviticus 8 -10 insists that reverence is not optional when standing in the presence of God's glory.

And that is the central pattern in Leviticus 8 -10, that the same fire that accepts true worship consumes false worship.

God's holiness is not adjusted to human creativity. Nadab and Abihu are not atheists.

They are priests. They believe in the Lord. Their sin was not in refusing to worship God, but in redefining worship in their own terms.

We will either worship God in the way that he is prescribed in his word, or we will deviate from that pattern.

And we see very clearly here in the scene from Nadab and Abihu, how God feels when we deviate from his pattern.

Now, this presses directly in our lives as well, because we're often tempted to approach God with sincerity or with our creativity alone.

We assume that our good intentions are enough to excuse our innovation. And yet Leviticus says otherwise.

When God reveals how he is to be approached, obedience, therefore, is not legalism.

It's life, especially for leaders. The closer you stand to holy things, the more seriously you must treat them.

Because holiness is not harshness. It's a reality of being in God's presence.

And in that way, Leviticus 8 -10 points directly to Jesus. Aaron must offer sacrifices for his own sin before he can serve others.

But Christ does not. Aaron must be washed and clothed and consecrated. But Christ is inherently holy.

Nadab and Abihu die because they approach God in an improper way. And yet Christ approaches the

Father in perfect obedience. The blood on the ear and the hand and the foot anticipate a greater consecration, where Christ is going to be giving his whole body an obedient sacrifice to God.

And the fire that consumes the offering in chapter 9 anticipates the fire of judgment that Christ absorbs on the cross, where the cup of God's wrath is poured out on him.

Where unauthorized fire brings death to these priests, Christ endures the judgment that you and I deserved.

We should have been the one that had God's wrath poured out on us. But he took the divine judgment so that his people could draw near to God without being consumed by his wrath.

Because of him, we get to approach boldly, but never casually. And with that, as you read

Leviticus 8 -10 today, I want you to feel both the joy and the danger of God's nearness.

Glory has come, but glory is not tame. And tomorrow, we're going to see how God teaches his people to distinguish between the clean and the unclean things of this world, showing them that holiness is not just confined to the altar, but it extends into and pushes into every corner of their life.

And with that, read your Bible carefully, devotionally, and joyfully today. And may the

Lord use his word to sanctify you completely. And we will continue our journey tomorrow.