Leviticus 10:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is the great sin Nadab and Abihu were guilty of, and we must call it a great sin, even if it seems small to us. The punishment shows how deeply it offended the God of heaven, whose judgment is always true. Their sin was that they offered strange fire before the Lord, something he had not commanded them to do (Leviticus 10:1; Numbers 3:4).

First, it does not seem that they had any order to burn incense at that time. Their ordination had been completed the day before, and as priests they were to serve at the altar of incense. But it appears that all the work of that special day was to be done by Aaron, their father and high priest, who offered the sacrifices (Leviticus 9:8, Leviticus 9:15, Leviticus 9:18), while his sons were only to help him (Leviticus 10:9, Leviticus 10:12, Leviticus 10:18). That is why only Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle (verse 23). Nadab and Abihu were proud of their new honor and eager to take the highest part of the work at once, so they took their censers and went in without orders or permission.

Their strange fire was the same as strange incense, which was plainly forbidden (Exodus 30:9). Moses likely had the special incense prepared for this use (Exodus 39:38), but they did not use it. Instead, they used common incense, and the smoke came from fire that was not set apart for God. God had indeed appointed incense for the priests to burn, but at this time he had not commanded them to do it, so their action was sinful. It was like the sin of Uzziah the king, who wrongly entered the priest’s work (2 Chronicles 26:16). The priests were to burn incense only when it was their appointed turn (Luke 1:9), and this was not their time.

Second, by taking incense into their own hands without instruction, they soon made another mistake. Instead of taking fire from the altar, which had just been lit by the Lord and was now to be used for sacrifice and incense (Revelation 8:5), they took ordinary fire, likely from the fire used to boil the peace-offerings. Because it was not holy fire, it is called strange fire. Even if the law did not say this in so many words, it was still wrong, because God had not commanded it. As Bishop Hall wisely says, it is a dangerous thing in God’s service to turn aside from his own instructions. We deal with a God who is wise enough to set his own worship, just enough to require what he has prescribed, and powerful enough to punish what he has not prescribed.

Third, incense was always to be burned by one priest at a time, but here they both went in together. Fourth, they acted hastily and carelessly. They snatched up their censers, as some translate it, without the reverence and seriousness such holy work required. While all the people fell on their faces before the glory of the Lord, these men seemed to think their office put them above such humility.

Fifth, there is reason to think they may have been drunk when they did this, because of the law given right after this event (Leviticus 10:8). They had been eating from the peace offerings, along with the drink offerings that went with them, and their minds may have been dull from wine. They drank and forgot the law (Proverbs 31:5), and that led to this deadly mistake.

Sixth, their act was surely presumptuous, done in open disrespect toward God’s majesty, authority, and justice. If it had been done in ignorance, they could have brought a sin offering under the law already given for priests (Leviticus 4:2, Leviticus 4:3). But the soul that does anything presumptuously will be cut off (Numbers 15:30).

The punishment was terrible. Fire came out from the Lord and devoured them (Leviticus 10:2). The same fire had just consumed the sacrifices and had come from the same place (Leviticus 9:24), showing what justice would do to guilty sinners if mercy had not provided a ransom. If that fire had already filled the people with awe, this judgment would have done so even more.

Why did the Lord deal so severely with them? Were they not Aaron’s sons, Aaron being the saint of the Lord, and nephews of Moses, God’s great servant? Had not the holy anointing oil been poured on them as men set apart for God? Had they not carefully served through the seven days of their ordination and kept the Lord’s charge? Could their youth, their lack of experience, the fact that this was their first offense, or their joy at being raised to such honor, excuse them?

There was also this thought: the priests were badly needed. God had just laid out much work for them, and the priesthood belonged only to Aaron and his descendants. Aaron had only four sons. If two of them died, there would not be enough workers for the tabernacle. If they died without children, Aaron’s family would become small and weak, and the priesthood itself might be in danger. Yet none of these things could excuse their sin or save them from its penalty.

First, their sin was far worse because it was a clear insult to Moses and to God’s law given through Moses. Up to this point, Scripture had repeatedly said that everything was done as the Lord commanded Moses. Here, by contrast, they did what the Lord had not commanded. They acted on their own. God was teaching his people to obey carefully and to do everything by rule, as servants should. So for priests to break the rules and disobey was a serious offense that could not go unpunished. Their high office made their sin even more serious. These were Aaron’s eldest sons, the very men chosen to serve nearest to God. For them to act so boldly was especially shameful. Their sin also showed contempt for God’s glory, which had just appeared in fire, as if that fire were not needed and their own offering was just as good.

Second, their punishment was a needed act of justice at the very start of the ceremonial laws, that is, the laws about worship and sacrifices. The law had often warned that such offenders would be cut off from the people, and here God gave that warning a clear proof. The laws about sacrifices were new, and because many details seemed small, people might have been tempted to think lightly of them. So God punished the first transgressors to warn others and to show how deeply he cares about the worship he appoints. In this way he honored the law and made it look weighty and good. He also showed priests that the repeated warning, they must do this so that they do not die, was no empty threat. It was real warning of danger if they did the Lord’s work carelessly. No doubt this public judgment kept many later sins from happening. In a similar way, Ananias and Sapphira were punished when they dared to lie to the Holy Spirit, the newly given fire from heaven (Acts 5:1-11).

Third, as Israel’s fall into idolatry soon after receiving the moral law showed that the law itself could not remove sin, so the sin and death of these priests showed the weakness of that priesthood from the start. It could not fully protect anyone from God’s wrath except as it pointed ahead to Christ’s priesthood, the true mediator, one who brings God and people together. In Christ’s priestly work there has never been, and can never be, any mistake or failure.