The Devotion of the Godly

Leviticus 10:6-7 ESV

6 And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar his sons, “Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the congregation; but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning that the Lord has kindled. 7 And do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.” And they did according to the word of Moses.

It is no secret that today, legitimate devotion to the God of heaven and earth is probably at an all-time low in this nation. But while this is already apparent to us, still statistics help us to put an estimated number on the lack of devotion in our country today.

In a Gallup Poll survey that was conducted just this past summer, it was found that among adults in the United States 60% claim that they are convinced that God exists. In 2005, just 17 years before that poll, it was found by the same survey that 80% of adults in the United States claimed that they were convinced of God’s existence.

That means that in the past 17 years in this country there has been a 20% decrease of adults who are convinced concerning God’s existence, with the number continuing to fall! I don’t know what you call that, but I call it shocking, despicable, and extremely concerning.

But to make it even worse, it was found that only something like 8 or 9% of adults in the United States regularly attend Christian worship services. And this survey company defines regular attendance of worship services as showing up to church about 10 times a year.

So, while just over half of our nation’s adult population is convinced in the existence of God, still only 8 or 9% of these adults even actively worship the God Who they claim to be convinced exists.

Now, if I am convinced that God exists. And if I am particularly convinced that God, as defined and described in the Bible exists and has in no way ever changed, yet I am not making the worship of Him the very top priority of my life, then regardless of what I say concerning whether or not I believe in God, it is clear that I do not reverence the God Whom I claim to be convinced exists.

In both the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, both of which the Cumberland Presbyterian Church adheres to as articles of faith, the very first question asked in these documents is, What is the chief end of man? In other words, what is man’s purpose, and what is the highest degree in which man should live his life? The answer to this question is, Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

So, what the answer to that question is, is that everything that man, and particular everything that we as Christians do in this life, we should do it with God and His glorification at the forefront. And the result of that will be the enjoyment of God, recognizing that we live for Him, feeling that your purpose in life is being realized, and basking in the awesome, conscious awareness that we are actually serving the Living God of heaven and earth.

I guess if I were to put it as plainly as possible, the chief end of man is to be brought into an active, conscious awareness that his life is not about himself, but that he was made for God’s own glory, and then living that way.

But when you approach those who claim to be convinced in God’s existence and you ask them why they do not actively worship the God Whom they claim to be convinced exists, the list of excuses goes on and on.

But regardless of the excuse that they give, the underlying ugly reality behind all of them is that they don’t actively worship God because in their mind, there are more important matters to attend to, matters concerning themselves. They will tell you that with everything going on in their lives, they just can’t manage to squeeze the worship of the God of heaven and earth in there.

Think about that… with everything going on in their lives, they can’t manage to squeeze worshipping God in there! What?!

Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t it be that all of the stuff that they have going on in their lives revolves around worship, seeing that it is the chief end of man? Seeing that worship and service to God is the main purpose of our lives?

You see, the pecking order should always be God number one, then all of the other stuff that we have going on in our lives at a far second. This is a lesson that we all need to consistently be made aware of throughout our existence in this world…

And as we continue in our series of messages this morning through the tenth chapter of Leviticus, chapter 10, verses 1-11, we arrive at verses 6 and 7 where we find this very same pecking order being pronounced and then adhered to.

First, we see in our reading the command of God through Moses in the first part of verse 6, where it reads:

Leviticus 10:6a ESV

6a And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar his sons, “Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the congregation;

Now, if we recall verses 1 through 5 of this narrative, we will remember what has set the stage here.

God had commanded those who came near Him and served Him as priests in making sacrifices and offerings, that they do so with the authorized fire that is to be perpetually burning on the altar.

Yet we saw how Aaron’s priestly sons, Nadab and Abihu approached the Lord and presented an offering to Him using unauthorized fire, obviously taking lightly the command of God here.

Well, because of this, the Lord judged these sons of Aaron and immediately put them to death as fire came from the Lord and instantly consumed them.

When this happened, all the house of Israel could clearly see that the worship of the God of Israel was not something to be taken lightly, and that He expects nothing less than that which He has commanded.

Then after these sons had been put to death, their bodies were removed from the sanctuary and carried outside of the camp, displaying God’s everlasting judgment against them.

Now, when something like this has happened, how does one react? Yes, clearly God’s holiness was violated, His worship was looked upon as a joke by these priests, therefore these showed great contempt for God. But two men also died that day for their sin. Two men who were known and loved by their countrymen, particularly by their father, the High Priest.

So, how should they react? What is more important here?

Well, look at what God, speaking through Moses, said to Aaron the High Priest in this regard:

“Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not tear your clothes”… “Do not mourn, do not bewail what has happened to your sons”, says the Lord.

After all, what had happened here was God’s just judgment against them, they deserved that judgment against them.

But though God’s judgment in this matter is just, as it is in every other matter, if Aaron and his cousins here are found weeping and bewailing what had happened to Nadab and Abihu, then the conclusion that the rest of the house of Israel may come to is that, according to Aaron, God was too severe in this judgment, or worse, that He was unjust in this judgment.

And if that was the conclusion that they came to, then they may possibly side with this conclusion and think that Aaron is right. They may think that God is too severe here, that He is unjust in judging Nadab and Abihu.

That is one thing that basically every single person likes to do; jump on the bandwagon of popular opinion, and if the popular opinion becomes that God is too severe or unjust because of the example that Aaron the High Priest is setting for them, then Aaron, and all of Israel for that matter are going to have to deal with God’s wrath.

So no, Aaron and his cousins here are not to mourn what had happened here, but while they are not to mourn, the rest of Israel was to mourn. We see this in the last part of verse 6 of our reading, where it says:

Leviticus 10:6b ESV

6b but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning that the Lord has kindled.

So, it is said that the whole house of Israel, the entire people are to bewail the burning that the Lord has kindled.

Now, what does that mean? Does it mean that the people should bewail the fact that Nadab and Abihu were burnt up and God should have been nicer here? No, we’ve already said that that is the last thing that God wants His people to say.

No, when God tells the whole house of Israel to mourn, what He wants them to mourn over is the fact that these priests had done such an unholy, irreverent thing. That they have dishonored God.

Sure, they may regret that these men have died and wish that it hadn’t happened, but what they must put in the forefront of their minds is that it did indeed happen, and it happened for a reason, and the reason why it happened was holy and just. And because that is the case, what Israel is to be mourning over here is that in their midst, something so heinous, so irreverent, something so irreligious had taken place that it invoked God’s judgment.

You see, Israel is to place God first in not mourning over His just judgment, but instead in mourning over the fact that such wickedness that would ever provoke God’s wrath was ever among them.

But the devotion to the Lord in Israel mourning over the sin that was amongst them was not all. God justly commanded further devotion from Aaron the High Priest and his cousins. We see this in the first part of verse 7 of our reading, where it says:

Leviticus 10:7a ESV

7a And do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.”

The Lord told Aaron that he was not to abandon his service to Him in order to attend any kind of services for his sons.

As the text says here, the anointing oil of the Lord is upon the High Priest. And what that means in this particular case is that because Aaron was the High Priest, he was to in no way ever come into contact with a dead body, even if that dead body was a close relation such as a spouse, or in this case, a son.

Others may do so, but never the High Priest who has on him the anointing of God. And because the High Priest has this anointing on him, if he were to ever come near a dead body, not only would he be made unclean, but in a very real sense, he would willingly be exposing God Himself to that which is unclean.

This can never be the case; therefore, God tells Aaron that if he does this, God will then judge Aaron as He judged his sons.

Once again, we see in the narrative a matter of devotion. Who will Aaron and the cousins of Aaron be devoted to in this matter? To the rebellious, godless, irreligious Nadab and Abihu? Or to the God of Israel?

And we find Who it is that they were devoted to at the very end of our reading when it says:

Leviticus 10:7b ESV

7b And they did according to the word of Moses.

In accordance with what God had commanded, Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar did as they were commanded…

You see, what Aaron recognized is that by this point he had been brought into a totally different sphere than where he was before. No longer was he Aaron the slave from Egypt, no longer was he simply Aaron the brother of Moses, now he was Aaron, High Priest, representing the chosen people of the God of heaven and earth.

He knew that this God had to be his top priority, and God was his top priority, and furthermore, as we see here in the text, God had given Aaron a new heart and because of this new, God-given heart, Aaron willingly made God his top priority as he obediently did as he was commanded.

Nobody needed to convince him… God spoke, and that was enough.

Beloved, as we consider our own devotion, the service that we offer to the God of heaven and earth, the God Who chose us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, the God Who governs and sustains all things, the God Who brings some high and then later brings them low, as we consider our own devotion to Him, let us honestly ask ourselves if we are giving God the firstfruits? Or are we just giving Him the crumbs of ourselves?

Are we making our devotion to Him our very top priority? Or is our devotion first and foremost to ourselves and what we enjoy?

If you identify with the latter, if you devote yourself first and foremost to yourself, to the things of the world, let me ask you; do I really need to convince you? Do I really need to tell you why you should be devoting yourself first and foremost to the very God of heaven and earth? I mean, if you are a Christian, should it not be obvious?

As for Aaron the High Priest, the Lord spoke and that was enough for him… (hold up Bible) beloved, God has spoken, is that enough for you?