The offerings of chapters 1-7 need someone to present them. So Moses spends seven days ordaining Aaron and his sons — washing, robing, anointing, blood on the ear and thumb and toe — and on the eighth day fire comes out from the LORD and consumes the first sacrifice while the whole camp shouts. Minutes later the same fire comes out and consumes two of the new priests, who brought God a kind of worship He “commanded them not.” The lesson is exact: it matters enormously how we come near.
A study in Leviticus 8-10 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
Washed Them, And Anointed Him
“And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water… And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.”
Leviticus 8:6, 12
The order is fixed: washed first, then clothed in the holy garments, then anointed with oil, then marked with blood on the right ear, the right thumb, the right toe — hearing, working, walking, all consecrated. A man does not appoint himself to this. Every step is done to him by someone else. It is the pattern of the priesthood that Exodus 28-29 laid out, now carried through in full.
Seven Days Shall He Consecrate You
“Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the LORD, that ye die not: for so I am commanded.”
Leviticus 8:35
A full week at the door — not rushing into the work, but staying where they were put, keeping watch, learning that the office is a trust and not a privilege. “That ye die not” is said plainly. Nearness to God is life, and it is also dangerous to the careless; the seven days were meant to make that real before the first day of service.
There Came A Fire Out From Before The LORD
“And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.”
Leviticus 9:23-24
Everything had been done “as the LORD commanded” — the phrase runs through the chapter like a drumbeat — and God answered by sending His own fire to take the sacrifice. This is what right worship looks like: God accepts what He asked for, His glory shows, and the people fall on their faces and shout at the same time. The fire on the altar from then on was fire God had kindled. The priests’ job was to keep it, not to make it.
They Offered Strange Fire
“And 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.”
Leviticus 10:1-2
The same words — “fire from the LORD” — that had just brought a shout of joy now bring two funerals. The difference is the phrase “which he commanded them not.” They used fire from some other source, on their own initiative, most likely with their judgement dulled (verse 9 is God’s next word to the survivors). Worship that God did not ask for is not a smaller version of worship; before a holy God it is a different thing altogether.
“Nadab and Abihu had not in their youth been trained to habits of self-control. The father’s yielding disposition, his lack of firmness for right, had led him to neglect the discipline of his children. His sons had been permitted to follow inclination. Habits of self-indulgence, long cherished, obtained a hold upon them which even the responsibility of the most sacred office had not power to break.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 360
I Will Be Sanctified In Them That Come Nigh Me
“Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.”
Leviticus 10:3
Aaron loses two sons in a moment, on the day of his own installation, and says nothing. There is no protest and no explanation offered him beyond this one sentence: those who come nearest to God are held to the truest account, because the watching people read God’s character off the people who claim to serve Him.
“The death of his sons, cut down without warning, in so terrible a sin—a sin which he now saw to be the result of his own neglect of duty—wrung the father’s heart with anguish, but he gave his feelings no expression.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 361
Do Not Drink Wine Nor Strong Drink
“Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die… And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them.”
Leviticus 10:9-11
The first law after the fire is about a clear head. Strong drink blurs exactly the faculty a priest most needs — the ability to tell holy from common, clean from unclean — and a priest who cannot tell the difference cannot teach it. The New Testament makes the whole church “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), and the same care over what dulls the mind still applies.
“We are required by God to preserve every power in the best possible condition, that we may render acceptable service to our Creator. When intoxicants are used, the same effects will follow as in the case of those priests of Israel. The conscience will lose its sensibility to sin, and a process of hardening to iniquity will most certainly take place.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 362
The distinction the drunk priest could not make — holy from unholy, clean from unclean — is the subject of the chapters that follow, beginning with what may and may not be eaten.
