Leviticus 10:1-11 Nadab & Abihu: Disobedience “Now Nadab and Abihu, the die. .‘ ” (Leviticus 10:1-11). the mountain until they had sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in consecrated themselves (Ex- them, placed incense on it and of- Leviticus 10:1-11 is in odus 19:24). However, this fered strange fire before the Lord, many ways a simple text must have been accom- which He had not commanded with a simple application. plished in a relatively short them. And fire came out from the Nadab and Abihu were time. After Moses had re- presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. newly appointed priests ceived the law and had given Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘It is who disobeyed the Lord, at least the Ten Command- what the Lord spoke, saying, “By and in doing so cost them- ments in oral form to the those who come near Me I will be selves their very lives. They people, God invited Moses, treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored.”’ So serve as an example to oth- Aaron, and his sons, Nadab Aaron, therefore, kept silent. Moses ers about God’s view of will- and Abihu, plus seventy eld- called also to Mishael and Elzaphan, ful disobedience to Him. ers of Israel to come up on the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, While this is the overall the mountain to witness His and said to them, ‘Come forward, lesson that can be drawn glory (Exodus 24:1-11). They carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside from the text and applied to could not go higher upon of the camp.’ So they came forward proper worship of God, this the mountain as Moses was and carried them still in their tunics is not the limit of our text. invited to do (Exodus 24:12, to the outside of the camp, as Moses We cannot see the depth of 13), but they were able to had said. Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, the disobedience of these see God. “Then Moses went ‘Do not uncover your heads nor two priests without looking up with Aaron, Nadab and tear your clothes, so that you may at their background and all Abihu, and seventy of the not die, and that He may not be- that they were privileged to elders of Israel, and they saw come wrathful against all the con- before this incident. the God of Israel; and under gregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail His feet there appeared to the burning which the Lord has The Circumstances be a pavement of sapphire, brought about. You shall not even While Moses was on as clear as the sky itself. .” go out from the doorway of the tent Mount Sinai receiving the (Exodus 24:9-11). of meeting, lest you die; for the Lord’s anointing oil is upon you.’ law as well as the instruc- The selection of the So they did according to the word tions for the construction of Aaronites for the priesthood of Moses. the tabernacle, the people had been made by God (Exo- “The Lord then spoke to Aaron, were camped at the base of dus 28:1). In giving Moses saying, ‘Do not drink wine or strong the mountain (Exodus 19:12- the various instructions, by drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the 25). God warned Moses not which Israel was to worship tent of meeting, so that you may not to let the priests come upon and live, God had even de- 1 signed the vestments that the priests, in- was preserved on the altar until the dedica- cluding Aaron as high priest, were to wear tion of the temple, at which time fire again (Exodus 28:2-43). The tabernacle had to be came from heaven (2 Chronicles 7:1). But the completed and dedicated before the priests Old Testament indicates that fire for the could take their appointed place as His ser- altar had been lighted before this in a natural vants (Exodus 35—40). At this juncture the way (cf. Leviticus 8:16, 20; 9:10, 13, 14; Exo- book of Exodus ends and the book of Le- dus 40:29). As Moses described the Day of viticus takes up the narrative of God’s in- Atonement, he prescribed that Aaron take structions for the duties and the ceremony the fire from the “altar before the Lord” that Moses would perform as he ordained (Leviticus 16:12). Since he had just described the priesthood to office (Leviticus 8). Moses the offering of the sin offering, a bull, we did not first ordain the priests and then give know that this was the altar of burnt offering the ritual sacrifices. However, the order that was out on the tabernacle grounds. proved to be wiser because the sacrifice had During Korah’s rebellion, when the plague to be offered by Moses on behalf of the priests broke out upon the people, Moses instructed at their consecration rites (Leviticus 8:14- Aaron to take fire for his censer from this 30). Only when the priests possessed the altar (Numbers 16:46). The fire on this altar sacrificial manual in its entirety did they was to burn constantly (Leviticus 6:13).3 Our have the authority and understanding to first conclusion must be that Nadab and carry out its instructions. We read of how Abihu drew their fire from another source precise and exact at every stage the instruc- than the altar of burnt offering, making it tions of God were. This pause in the narra- “strange fire.” tive serves as an example of how God de- Second, it is possible that both the time manded obedience to His will.1 and the place of their offering were wrong. What had just occurred? It was the end of the The Crime day on which they had been consecrated as The death of these two priests is cited in priests (Leviticus 8). It had culminated in a two other Scriptures in the Old Testament. spectacular blessing and sign from God that Their names and deed are recorded in the all was accepted. first and second census Moses took of Israel as found in Numbers. These passages do not And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. When they came out and blessed describe their sin, but the action God took as the people, the glory of the Lord appeared a result of what they did: “But Nadab and to all the people. Then fire came out from Abihu died before the Lord when they of- before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar; fered strange fire before the Lord. .” (Num- . (Leviticus 9:23, 24). bers 3:4; 26:61). Let us first take the texts and notice the After all of this, it is possible that they took it sin or sins that they committed. What is the upon themselves to offer incense before the meaning of “strange fire”? Clyde Woods says Lord while He was still present. The text says it appears to have been incense offered in a that they were still in their priestly garments manner not prescribed.2 Some Jewish tradi- (Leviticus 10:5). This would have been at a tions maintain that the fire for the altar of time not commanded by the Lord; therefore, to burnt offering originated in a divine act and Him it was fire which He had not commanded. God was as precise as to the times that sacri- fices and incense were to be burned as He was 1R. K. Harrison, “Leviticus,” in Tyndale’s Old Tes- tament Commentary (Leichester, England: Inter-Var- in the kinds of animals and the procedures to sity Press, 1980), 88. 2Clyde M. Woods, “Leviticus, Numbers, Deu- teronomy,” in The Living Way Commentary on the Old 3F. C. Cook, “Exodus-Ruth,” in The Bible Commen- Testament (Shreveport, La.: Lambert Book House, tary (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1960), 1974), 24. 132. 2 be used. Any violation against this part of against drinking before coming on duty as the law was a violation against God. Just as God’s priests (Leviticus 10:9, 10). The phrase the Lord had demonstrated His acceptance added, “that you may not die,” may well of Aaron’s priesthood by fire (Leviticus 9:24), have been the punishment God meted out to He also demonstrated His rejection of these two because not only were their ac- priestly disobedience by fire.4 tions inappropriate, but their spiritual and A third possibility might have worked in mental states had been affected by wine. The combination with the idea just presented. warning was appropriate here following the The commandments for the Day of Atone- Lord’s judgment upon Nadab and Abihu, ment found in chapter 16 specifically state but there is no clear evidence that intoxica- that only the high priest was to approach tion played a part in their sin.6 and go into the Most Holy Place. He had to Verses 5, 6, and 7 add to the gravity of offer incense (Leviticus 16:12, 13), sacrifice their sin as they indicate that the rebellious an animal for himself, and then sacrifice an attitude of Nadab and Abihu could have had animal for all the people. He only had access serious consequences for the nation as a to the Most Holy Place on that specific day whole.