As we saw yesterday, Aaron’s sons had been ordained as priests along with their father (Leviticus 8:24-33); and when Aaron presented the first offering before God, “fire came out from the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces” in joyful worship (9:24-25).

Yet the next thing the story records – probably not the very next moment, but within a day or two – Aaron’s two older sons, Nadab and Abihu, put incense in their censers “and they offered unholy fire before the Lord, such as he had not commanded them” (10:1). God was not pleased with this action: and just like before, “fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed” something. But this time it was not the offering, but the offerers: Nadab and Abihu were consumed by the flame, and died (10:2).

It’s an uncomfortable story, stark in its judgment: it cuts across our intuition that God should always shrug off everyone’s sin, no matter what. Aaron stood silent as Moses explained, “This is what the Lord meant when he said: Through those who are near me I will show myself holy, and before all the people I will be glorified” (10:3). I feel a lot of sympathy regarding all the emotions that go unstated in Aaron’s silence – shock, rage, despair, bereavement, and more – it’s easy to see how he could be too overwhelmed with emotion to say a word. Yet beyond Aaron’s distress, the text focuses on God’s holiness.

The text does not explicitly identify the sin of Nadab and Abihu. It might have been drunkenness, if we draw a hint from the warning given by Moses a few verses later to Aaron and his remaining sons: don’t drink alcohol when going on duty (10:8-9). Or it might have been eagerness or negligence, if Nadab and Abihu hurried to offer incense that had not been properly prepared (Exodus 30:34-35), which would be “unholy incense” (Exodus 30:9). Then again, it might have been creativity, if they decided on their own they could make the worship service a little more special or meaningful by adding some extra incense. The text does not fill us in on that detail. Instead, it only indicates that their offering was “such as God had not commanded them” (Leviticus 10:1). The essence of the problem, then, was to fail to reckon with the holiness of the Lord: a holiness that calls us to obedience, rather than doing whatever we happen to feel like.

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We are not good at obedience, Lord. We are so eager to do things our own way: the way that seems interesting to our own intuition-of-the-moment. We resist doing what you say, the way you say, because you say so. Change our hearts, and give us the grace of obedience: for you are the Lord.