In the past few months I have read two books (or parts of two books) that have referenced Nadab and Abihu as illustrations of God’s response to carelessness in believers. I acknowledge that “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come” (I Cor.10:11), but we must be careful that what we learn is what God intended.
The passage that encompasses Nadab and Abihu’s demise says, “Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev.10:1). No doubt, applications for the priesthood dropped off severely after this event but what actually precipitated God’s judgment?
The books I have seen lately that reference this event take the same line that I was taught when I first became a believer. The argument goes that these two sons of Aaron had not been careful to prepare the sacrificial fire and incense exactly as God had commanded. This carelessness with God’s clear commands brought his wrath down upon these two men. The application has always been that we must be extremely careful to know and interpret God’s word correctly or we will incur his wrath. The practical outcome of this view has been more than having great respect for God’s word, however. The outcome has been a theology that emphasizes pure doctrine above all else in our faith and even suggests that our pure and accurate doctrine is what makes us acceptable to God. This view suggests that we are saved by grace but stay saved by correct doctrine. This essentially places doctrine above relationship and makes God a vengeful teacher who brutally punishes his students if one word is misspelled, one comma is misplaced, or one preposition is left hanging.
That view is what cause denominations to refuse fellowship with other denominations whose theology does not perfectly match their own and makes us more concerned about correct doctrine than love, mercy and justice. It is true that we must agree on some doctrines – but those are essential doctrines about Christ – his deity, his incarnation, his resurrection, his sinless life, and the sufficiency of his sacrifice. Those who deny these truths are in a very dangerous place but that does not mean that our salvation hinges on a correct understanding and teaching of everything else in the Bible – forms of worship, translations of the Bible, end-times theology, etc. If it does, then we are saved by correct doctrine rather than by grace and we live a fearful life wondering what carelessness or error has cost us our salvation or will soon bring God’s wrath upon us.
So what is Nadab and Abihu all about if not the judgment of God on those who offer strange or unauthorized fire? A few verses later the text says, “The Lord said to Aaron, ‘You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.’” (Lev.10:8-9). I believe this is a clear indication that the sin of Aaron’s sons was not a sincere misunderstanding of the commandments for the ritual but was drunkenness with a disdain and total disregard for the holiness of God and their own holiness as priests. Their problem was a matter of the heart rather than a doctrinal problem.
To hold the position that doctrinal correctness in every area of scripture is what makes us acceptable to God makes other events inexplicable. Remember when David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and danced before the Lord. He wore priestly garments as he led the procession of the Ark. Those garments were only for the tribe of Levi. David was of the tribe of Judah. Hezekiah clearly admitted that the people were unclean according to the rules of the sanctuary and unfit to keep Passover but God allowed them to keep Passover anyway with his blessing. No commandment I have read authorizes the drinking of wine at Passover but Jesus certainly did so without penalty or sin. Each of these seem to violate the letter of God’s law but their hearts were turned to God. No fire for them! Does that mean we can be careless and uncaring about the word of God? Absolutely not. But we do need to know that imperfect understanding and mistakes when one’s heart is turned toward God does not bring his wrath.
Many believers are afraid to receive any new teaching if it varies from what they have always been taught. Many whose hearts have yearned to see the power of God expressed in their lives have shied away from the gifts of the Spirit because they were told such expressions are “strange fire.” We should obviously test the spirits, as John says, but when we seek God with all of our hearts his Spirit is faithful to lead us into all truth even if we stumble a bit on the way. Fear of a wrathful master is what kept the servant from investing the talents that were entrusted to him and the same fear cost him what his master had given him. Those who discovered Jesus had to push past the doctrines of the Pharisees that they had been taught all of their lives. God always wants to give us a greater understanding of who he is and what his Spirit has for us. God is always up to something new and he is always looking for new wineskins.
