Strange Fire

A preacher friend of mine had a visitor stop by his office years ago and ask, “I just want to know one thing; is this a faithful church?” How do you answer that?  “No, not really, but we're friendly?”  My friend replied that it was indeed a faithful church”  The visitor looked around a moment and pointed and said, “Then why do you have a kitchen?  Faithful churches don’t have kitchens!”  The visitor then left in a huff and my friend said, “But it’s a very small kitchen.”

The late Cecil Hook, in his book Free in Christ, gives a list of 100 issues have divided our churches.  He then gives a list of 11 different fellowships within the Church of Christ created by differences over some of these issues.  Later in the book he says, “We have been warned many times by sincere teachers against additions to the five items of worship by use of the example of Nadab and Abihu, who were zapped for offering strange fire which the Lord had not commanded” (Lev 10:1-2).  At some point or the other, most of his 100 issues have beenroundedly condemned as being “strange fire” which adds to the word of God.

Last night in class we looked at the Nadab and Abihu story.  We suggested that the message of this story isn’t complete until you finish the chapter. Fire destroyed Aarons oldest two sons because they used “unauthorized” (NIV) or “wrong kind of fire” (NLT) in offering the sacrifice (see Lev 16:12).  On the same day that happened, Aarons remaining two remaining  Eleazar and Ithamar also failed to offer the sin offering as required (Lev 10:16-18).  They (and/or Aaron) failed to eat their portion of the sacrifice within the sanctuary area as required.  Instead, they burned the whole sacrifice contrary to the Law.  What were they thinking?  Did they see what happens when you add to or take away from God’s Law?  Aaron tells Moses why they had failed (Leviticus 10:19, NCV)—

“Today they brought their sin offering and burnt offering before the Lord, but these terrible things have still happened to me! Do you think the Lord would be any happier if I ate the sin offering today?”

Basically, Aaron (and sons) just couldn’t eat.  With the smell of the burning flesh still in their nostrils, they just couldn’t eat a burnt offering.  That was not rebellion.  That was not a cavalier attitude toward Law.  That wasn’t being drunk, perhaps the reason for Nadab and Abihu’s gaffe (See Lev 10:8-11).  The failure here was the weakness of flesh.  They just couldn’t go on and function given everything that had taken place.  Moses was satisfied with that.  So was God.

God demands that we seriously seek to follow Him.  What He said after the fall of Nadab and Abihu still applies, “Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored” (10:3).  I suspect that is the real point of this story.  The person today who does their very best to honor God and His law but falls short because of the weakness of their flesh— they misunderstand a doctrine or misapply a text—are not Nadab and Abihu.  They are Eleazar and Ithamar!  To be flippant and cavalier in our approach to God is one thing.  To give God your best effort to honor and obey only to be rejected and lost because you reasoned incorrectly and came down on the wrong side of those 100 issues-- that is not even close to the message in the Nadab and Abihu story!  Having a kitchen in the church building, supporting orphans homes, clapping during a song, having deaconesses, and using instrumental music in worship are NOT the strange fire in this story.   A prideful and arrogant rejection of God and His Law is.  And maybe a prideful and arrogant rejection of His imperfect people?