Today we begin Leviticus Chapter 10.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James Bible, click here.
Chapter 10 of Leviticus represents an interesting detour away from the many mind-numbing sacrificial rituals we’ve been studying.
We’re going to be taking a good look at the shocking story of how the Lord killed Aaron’s two sons, Nadav and Avihu.
It’s important to examine this story carefully because about 1300 years later, a similar event in the New Testament occurred when the Lord killed Ananias and Sapphira.
Unfortunately, most church pastors will have no way of understanding the connection between these two events unless they are well grounded in the Torah.
First, a quick word of praise for those who have been faithfully studying with me so far.
I’m sure some of the lessons on Leviticus may have been a bit tedious at times.
Understanding the building blocks of God’s holiness is kind of like when we were in grade school and had to learn our basic multiplication tables.
We were exposed to a whole bunch of new rules, concepts and principles that we had to thoroughly absorb before being able to apply them in a practical manner.
Well, I applaud you for hanging in there and can honestly say if you’ve come this far, your Bible knowledge already exceeds 90% of the average church-going population.
Your hard work is about to pay off as we get into some of the more exciting parts of Scripture.
The story of Nadav and Avihu forces us to confront an aspect of YHVH’s character that many in our day would prefer to ignore.
I’m taking about the Lord’s willingness to judge, punish, and when the situation warrants it, utterly destroy.
It seems like the church in our day only wants to focus on the love of God and ignore everything else.
The reality we have to accept is that there are many aspects to God’s character.
True, our God is a god of incredible love and mercy as demonstrated by allowing His own son to suffer a horrible death for the sins of the world.
But let’s not forget that this is the same God that once destroyed the entire world by flood, killed hundreds of thousands of Egyptians during the Exodus, and commanded the death of thousands of Israelites for building and worshipping a Golden Calf.
It seems like the modern church prefers to set aside the Biblical aspect of divine retribution in favor of warm, non-confrontational, sweet, feel-good, maple syrupy theology.
This false idea that the harsh and judgmental God of the OT somehow changed to a liberal, all-loving, tolerate anything, forgive anything, all-merciful being is nothing but a modern and progressive theology that has no basis in the Scriptures.
What’s interesting is that when we examine the teachings of competent biblical scholars from over a century ago, we’ll see that they had great concern over proper worship and constant self examination to make sure they were living their lives in accordance with Scriptural principles.
The motivating factor behind their fervent desire to obey the Lord’s commands was because they wanted to avoid God’s harsh hand of judgement from falling on them and they didn’t want the Lord to withhold His blessings from them.
But now, in our day and age, it seems like pastors won’t even touch a “Hellfire and damnation” sermon with a ten-foot pole.
They have fallen for the biggest trap of them all that leads to the eventual downfall of any ministry: Preaching what people want to hear, as opposed to what the Word plainly says and commands.
I’m not saying that our lives should be constantly filled with anxiety and worry over some perceived offense we may have committed against the Lord.
This reminds me of the Middle Ages when self-mutilation accompanied by many long hours of prayers was a common practice.
On the other hand, I don’t think where we are today is quite a praiseworthy situation either.
Thinking that because we’ve now accepted Yeshua as our savior, we no longer ever have to worry about being judged by God for any sin we may commit is both a dangerous and false theology.
I loved the Lev. 10 teaching this morning during my prayers. I think my family and I will start doing this from the beginning, (Genesis), each night until we catch up with you. It’s short, sweet and concise. Perfect for my two grandson that have short attention spans. 🙂
Hi Patrick, Thanks for the positive thumbs up!!! My philosophy when it comes to teaching the Bible is to keep each post fairly short and EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND, because I believe the Bible is for everybody. I hope you enjoy the lessons. Shalom.
God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The modern concept is that God is implementing plan B, because plan A failed. They also apply this to judgment in that God is now more tolerant. I used to see God as the implementer of the punishment, but that has changed. From my view the out come is the same in that the person pays for their offense, but the payment does not come from God. It’s like the law of gravity or every action has a reaction. Step off the cliff and you die or chew on an electrical cord and you get electrocuted. God provides away for you to not step off the cliff or chew on the wire through obedience. Remember Satan goes around like a roaring lion. In Job we are protected by a “Hedge”. Much like thorny hedges are used today in lion territory.Step out from the protection of the hedge and satan pounces on you. So I have a God who demands holiness and obedience, but does not bring about your demise. Your demise is automatic.and sure to take place, but God is not the author of it, satan is. This also affected my view of the lake of fire. It is the heart of God which burns in purity of love. The individuals thrown into this fire are loved to death or brought to an end by the purity of the love.The love of God destroys anything not loving. They are tormented by the love they despise. They are not tormented out of anger or hatred.