The High Cost of Lack of Humility - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Leviticus 10:1-2,

"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."

Here is a shocking account. What is shocking is not that the Lord laid waste to Nadab and Abihu, but that Nadab and Abihu felt they had the liberty to carry out their responsibilities as priests their own way and not the Lord's way. How in the world did they arrive at the notion they could disregard the instruction of the Lord and take the freedom to do things their own way? It is simply astonishing.

Obviously their hearts were not right before God. It cannot be escaped that they failed to maintain a healthy fear and reverence for the Lord. Ultimately a lack of humility before the Lord led to their demise.

God chose to develop a nation for himself in his efforts to reach out to lost and fallen mankind, to provide a means by which man could find his way back to him. He chose Abraham, a man of faith, to make a nation for himself to bring his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to pay mankind's penalty for their sins. 

What we read of in the account of Nadab and Abihu took place at an important junction in the development of Israel. The worship at the tabernacle that God was introducing to Israel was all about instructing the nation, and the world through this nation, about the sacrifice God would make of his Son. God did not want any "improvements" on what he was doing by the half-witted ideas of the likes of Aaron's sons.

We can be assured the Lord already knew the hearts of Nadab and Abihu and used them to communicate a clear message to the Israelites. That message was that although God was reaching out to this people and doing amazing things through them, they had better acknowledge what he was doing in humility and fear. Things were to be done God's way  and not their pitiful notion of what they thought might be a better way or any old way.

Incidentally, what we see in Nadab and Abihu is pretty much what we saw in Cain's "worship" of the Lord back in Genesis 4. A lack of humility can go a great distance in bringing pain.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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