Page 65 - Pentateuch

eaten the sacrificial meal (8:31). The text explicitly says, “So Aaron and his sons did everything the LORD
commanded through Moses (8:36).”

Now, these two offer “unauthorized fire” before the LORD in
their censers. Exodus 30:7-8 gave instructions about burning
incense. In 30:34-38, the text goes so far as to detail the
ingredients. This incense was holy, not to be used at home or
in any personal setting. We do not know exactly what
“unauthorized fire” means. Was the formula wrong? Was their
attitude wrong? Was their method wrong? Until this time,
everything had been done to exactness. Something must have
been done differently. The point is made. Any deviation from
God’s pattern, no matter how small, invites death from God’s
hand. The place of a priest was deeply important. “The closer

Fig. 49: Nadab and Abiru a man is to God, the more attention he must pay to holiness
and the glory of God…The slightest transgression tends to
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attract the most startling punishment.” “Among those who
approach me I will be proved holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored (10:3).” Like Aaron, we are
stunned silent (10:3).

Moses is not finished with us, his readers, as God was not finished with driving home the point of these two
deaths. The bodies are carried outside the camp, treated like the useless parts of the animals sacrificed
earlier (10:4-5). Aaron and his two remaining sons are forbidden to mourn in the customary ways in pain of
death (10:6-7). Aaron and future generations of priests are forbidden from drinking wine. They must be
alert at all times to carry out their primary role to “distinguish between the holy and common” between
“the clean and unclean.” These distinctions are at the heart of the priest’s responsibility to “teach the
Israelites all the decrees of the LORD” (10:10-11). (Does this imply that Nadab and Abihu had been drunk,
as some commentators suggest?) They are instructed to eat the leftover food offering in the sanctuary
area, perhaps as proof that danger came directly from God, not from some magical power in the sacrifices
themselves.
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Yet again, instructions are not followed. Not everything was eaten. Some were burned. “Why?” asks Moses.
“Since its blood was not taken into the Holy Place, you should have eaten the goat in the sanctuary area, as
I commanded (10:18).” The explanation of Aaron is a bit uncertain. Is he privately mourning since public
sorrow is forbidden to him? Does he simply make a mistake without any sense of pride or rebellion? Is he
afraid, having seen what happened to his sons? We do not know for sure. His answer satisfies Moses. Aaron
lived, so his reason satisfies YHWH also.

We are already familiar with God’s pattern in the life of Israel. He disciplines or teaches them constantly
through direct revelation and through events. As readers, we are more than just impartial observers. God’s
purpose is very similar to ours. “Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that
through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provided, we might have hope
(Rom. 15:4).”

79 Wenham, Leviticus, p. 156.
80 Hamilton, Handbook, p. 256.
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