Marvelous But Dangerous: Leviticus 8-10

Marvelous but Dangerous

Leviticus 8-10

Background: Since Israel arrived at the mountain they have been increasingly taught about what it means to God’s people. God covenant with them and gave them the charter for how they are to live as God’s people. God has given them instructions on how they can draw near to him in worship to receive atonement for sins and fellowship with a holy God. They received instructions for their place of worship, and last week we examined the 5 major offerings of their regular worship that are given for the purposes of devotion to Yahweh, atonement for their sins, and fellowship with Yahweh. In Leviticus 9 the first offering on behalf of the people is finally offered in the tabernacle to commence the worship system of the Hebrew people, but before that can happen the final step of preparing the priests to lead worship needs to happen.

Main Point: Yahweh’s holiness is marvelous but dangerous, so he must be rightly worshiped.

Outline: So today we will see the final step of preparation and the first two examples of worship one leading to a glorious outcome and the other to a somber one. 1st worship leaders are consecrated to lead, 2nd right worship leads to forgiveness & fellowship, 3rd wrong worship leads to destruction & distortion.

Worship Leaders Consecrated to Lead (8:1-36)

Priests/Worship leaders consecrate according to LORD’s command: As we consider the group of leaders in Israel called the priests it may be helpful to reflect on how their service applies to the modern church. The priests had several roles in the OT I can think of at least 4:

Priests were mediators of God’s atonement to God’s people: Of the 4 roles that priests were supposed to serve that I mention here this is the only one that is solely fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The other three are fulfilled in Jesus Christ but also the NT office of elder has some connection to it as well. But The NT makes it fundamentally clear that “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5) So the priests played a temporary role in mediating God’s forgiveness to God people but they were always meant to be a temporary measure until Christ the final fulfillment came. “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14)

Priests were worship leaders for God’s people: So the priests were out front in tabernacle and later temple worship serving the people by helping them remain in fellowship with God.

Priests were judges in issues of holiness for God’s people: When people needed discernment/judgment in matters of ritual purity the priests made the call.

Priests were teachers of God’s Word for God’s people: Priests were also teachers of God’s Word to the people, even in chapter 10 while the focus is tabernacle worship some of these other roles are mentioned. In many ways the priest class functioned as pastors among the people.

Worship leaders consecrated according to LORD’s command: (7 movements)

Moses receives word and preps priests and people (1-4)

Priests washed and HP puts special clothes on (5-9)

Tabernacle & HP anointed & priest put on clothes (10-13)

Sin offering for Aaron & sons (14-17)

Burnt offering for Aaron & sons (18-21)

Ordination/Fellowship offering for Aaron & sons (22-29)

7 days of consecration/sacrifices? (30-36) “Aaron and his sons did all the things that the LORD commanded by Moses.” (36)

Christ our Mediator: When we come to the NT there is no special day of consecration that Jesus must go through before he acts as the great and final High Priest. You see Aaron and his sons were sinners in need of Yahweh’s grace just as much as the people they were called to serve. So they had to be purified by Yahweh before he could use them as mediators. Which is why as we will see in Lev 16 in a couple of weeks that this week of purification and consecration did not keep the priest holy forevermore, they had to keep sacrificing offerings for their sin again and again. “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,” (Hebrews 10:11–12)

PastorsElders servants in need of consecrated hearts: There is of course a peculiar application principle of this text for today’s pastorelders. Of course by implication this application applies to all of us. The principle is: before we can lead others to God we must first have our hearts right before God. Much like what Jesus says in the sermon on the mount, “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:4)

So the worship leaders are consecrated and

Right Worship leads to Forgiveness and Fellowship (9:1-24)

Tabernacle leadership Transition (read 1-7) Moses gives the LORD’s commands to Aaron to sacrifice a costly sin offering and burnt offering to the LORD for himself and implied the priests. The people are told to bring a costly sin offering, two costly burnt offerings, two fellowship offerings, and a grain offering. So basically the full gamut of offerings is being offered. Twice in these verses the promise of the LORD’s appearance in response to right worship is given.

So Aaron offers sacrifices as “Moses commanded” (8-21) An interesting dynamic continues to exist because while now for the first time Aaron functions as the high priest for the people, Moses is still Yahweh’s mouthpiece to the people. We see that clearly in v21 when Aaron has done everything, “as Moses commanded.” But nevertheless everything the LORD has commanded is being done and that point is being driven home by the Holy Spirit in the text.

Aaron now has greater access and greater authority (22-23a) Immediately following these purifying rites Moses raises his hands with an authority over the people that he did not have before and pronounces a blessing over them. Then he and Moses walk into the tent of meeting, Aaron now has greater access to Yahweh than he has ever had, only he and Moses have entered the tent in this way.

Glory of LORD consumes the offering as sign of forgiveness & fellowship (23b-24) So the glory of the LORD appears in a more profound way than it was evidently seen on a regular basis. We are not told what that glory is completely, but it is at least a fire that comes out of the Holy of Holies and consumes everything offered to him on the altar. That consuming fire is clearly symbolic of the atonement that God is giving to his people for the sins they confessed on that altar, but also it symbolizes his ongoing fellowship with the people because part of the sacrifices were fellowship offerings so Yahweh consumed his portion of the meal that is offered! The communion we celebrate at the end of each worship gathering also symbolizes the twin emphasis of forgiveness and fellowship. We sacrifice to him a new our hearts as a consecrated offering to him. We refresh our desire to live for Christ in everyway and confess our sins to the LORD asking for forgiveness anew. The LORD’s table reminds us that Jesus died for our sin and has made full atonement we are forgiven. And the LORD’s table reminds us that we now have fellowship with God and with one another. That is by the way one of the reasons we celebrate communion corporately instead of individually at Pathway.

So right worship leads to forgiveness and fellowship while,

Wrong Worship leads to Destruction and Distortion (10:1-20)

What was wrong with the worship? (Read 1-3) So immediately following the marvelous display of God’s forgiveness and fellowship with Israel we have this example of what happens when Yahweh is wrongly worshiped. Nadab and Abihu are the eldest sons of Aaron and based on what Aaron says to Moses at then end of the chapter this seems to have happened on the same day that the glory of the LORD appeared to Israel on the very 1st day Aaron functions as high priest. Based on what is communicated to Aaron through Moses in Lev 16 “The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.” (Leviticus 16:1–2) It appears that Aaron’s eldest sons may have had the audacity to walk into the Holy place or even the most holy place without permission. The “unauthorized fire” may be what is in the incense or it may be that incense was offered at the wrong time or wrong place. But the clear point is that they had offered to, “the LORD, which he had not commanded them.” So when wrong worship is brought before the LORD is has at least two affects in this passage.

Destruction of Sinful Leaders (3) “among those who are near me I will be sanctified,” in other words the LORD is a holy God and those who wish to come near him must be holy. We do not get to come to the LORD on our own terms! Hear me rugged American individualist, you are not in charge of Yahweh. You do not get to live your Christian life however you think is best and then plead the blood of Christ at the pearly gates. “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14) Now I am not saying that we have to earn our salvation or entry into the presence of the LORD! But be clear the Bible describes the true child of God who has truly experienced the mercy and grace of Jesus dying on the cross in their place for their sins, will be striving for holiness. It is hard to imagine someone who genuinely understands the greatness of God’s gracious salvation, thumbing there nose at God in sinful rebellion.

Distortion of God’s Character (3) Not only does wrong worship lead to destruction of those who are doing it, but it is also a distortion of God’s character to everyone else. “before all the people I will be glorified.” So when any Christian is living their life in rebellion to God’s command whether they are aware of their active rebellion or they are doing it without knowledge it is dangerous for them and dangerous for those around them. Whoever saw Aaron’s sons offer the unauthorized fire were at that moment being taught. They were looking at the people God had declared leaders over them and were learning how God was to be worshiped. So Nadab and Abihu were failing to teach the truth about God and they were minimizing the importance of his commands. They were stealing glory for themselves. It appears they wanted to go see the LORD but they had not been given permission to go into that place.

Worship of Yahweh takes priority over other priorities (4-20) Moses responded to this judgment by having cousins come remove the bodies and telling Aaron and his remaining sons that they could not outwardly mourn because of their responsibility in the tabernacle. The Lord then spoke to Aaron giving him instructions about not drinking while serving which may because it was common to drink during a grieving period. But then also God tells him about his responsibilities as priests in Israel. Probably the point of this is to remind him of the responsibility of this office in the midst of this horrifically difficult time for Aaron. I believe the overall importance of this part of chapter 10 is to communicate the priority of Yahweh’s holiness and glory, especially for the priesthood. If the worship leaders of Israel bring disrepute on God’s character or profane the holiness of Yahweh in anyway that misrepresents God to his people they should expect severe punishment from Yahweh.

Points of application.

Yahweh’s holiness is marvelous when rightly worshiped but dangerous when wrongly worshiped.

If you are a Christ follower, then you lead someone. Whether you think you are or not. (spouse, kids, friends, co-workers)

Be careful that you lead them according to God’s Word!

Which means you must know God’s commands.

You will be held responsible, for leading wrong so “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

Be careful that you lead with consecrated hearts! “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,” (1 Peter 1:15)

If you are leader you have a special responsibility to lead well as people look to you as an example. “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” (James 3:1)

But we do not ultimately depend upon our holiness or our right leadership, we depend upon Christ the Full and Final Mediator for our sins. He is the One we look to in the LORD’s supper and he is the One we depend upon in life and death!