Year 1, Day 99: Leviticus 10

Accidents Draw Attention

Leviticus 10 is a fun chapter.  Well, you can say this in about the same way as you can say that rubber-necking when you pass an accident is fun.  There is something than innately draws a person’s attention when something cataclysmically goes wrong.  Cars can drive past a certain point in a highway forever without anyone ever paying any kind of attention.  But as soon as there is a wreck – and especially once the wreck is noticed and red flashing lights appear – suddenly everyone wants to slow down and watch the carnage happen.  That same dynamic is pretty much true here in Leviticus 10.

There are a couple of things that bother me about this passage.  And when I say bother – I don’t mean bother in terms of whether the Bible is right or wrong.  They bother me because I really think we make the same mistakes all the time and don’t realize how lucky we are.  By all rights God deserves to consume us with fire right where we stand, too.  Nadab and Abihu were consumed immediately when they erred.  God allows us to escape – and of course perpetuate and compound our mistakes.

True Sin

What are Nadab and Abihu guilty of doing?  Some people like to say that it was the fact that they offered “unofficial” incense before the Lord.  And certainly that is supported by the Biblical witness – see Leviticus 10:1.  But is that what is really going on here?  I think Nadab and Abihu are really guilty of not paying attention to the boundary between holy and unholy.  After all, that is the main point of the lesson that follows the death and removal of Nadab and Abihu.  Leviticus 10:10 is a clear warning to distinguish between the clean and the unclean, the holy and the common.  Nadab and Abihu’s unofficial incense fire was mingled with the holy fire of the Lord.

Now, we don’t use rituals like this any more in our worship.  In fact, we don’t even have an altar where the fire of the Lord is kept.  However, we do have the ability to recognize holy and unholy.  We do come into God’s presence – at least once a week, but truthfully more likely daily, hourly, etc.  How often do we blur the lines between holy and common?  How often do we treat commonly the things that should be holy?

Now don’t get me wrong.  It would be easy to take this argument and talk about how we should act and dress in the sanctuary when we worship.  Sure, anyone can go there if they want.  But I’m not actually going to go there theologically speaking.  I’m going to go in the opposite direction.  How often are we content letting things that should be holy – our homes, our relationships, our interactions at work, etc – actually become common?  I think that is where the real grievous error rests.  We are all too ready to allow the vast majority of our lives to become common when they should really be elevated to holiness.  Therein is the fault.

We allow the holy to mingle with the common every day in our choices and in our lives.  We treat things that should be holy – our very presence in this world – as common.  We fail, and fail miserably sometimes.  After all, we are called to be God’s priests – all of us.

Today I count myself lucky that God has allowed me to continue to live when Nadab and Abihu were consumed on the spot.  I really need to do a better job of treating my own life as holy.  If I don’t, there’ll be a wreck of some kind in my life up ahead, that’s a guarantee.

<><