Part X.1 - Failure of the Priesthood
CHAPTER X. THE INSTANT FAILURE OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
UP to the close of the last chapter we have a delineation of the way of access to God through the offerings and the priesthood. And on their first day of service the priests had done everything according to the commandment of God; so that His acceptance and approval were marked by the fire from before Him consuming the burnt offering and the fat, and by the appearing of the glory of the Lord. So far, then, all was according to commandment, and the result was blessing and glory ; for we have had exhibited to us the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ in all the various aspects of His perfect offering, He himself being the great Priest to offer the offering which Himself had provided. In this there could be no failure. And we have the final result of it set before us, as well as its present effect. For we hear, not only of the Aaronic blessing of life and peace, but also of the Melchizedek blessing of Moses and Aaron; of the appearing of the glory of the Lord; and of the giving forth from Him of that holy fire which was not to be extinguished, but which should thenceforth and for ever mark God’s acceptance and delight in His own perfect work. In this chapter we have that which always follows the manifestation of God, and the perfection of blessing in Himself-the failure, through self-will and disobedience, of whatever is entrusted to man. And man has failed just as much in disregarding the commandments of God’s grace, as in rejecting those of His justice. When God commanded Adam what he should not do, he failed and did it. When God left man without commandment, he failed again, and progressed each day in wickedness, until "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." And so " death reigned from Adam to Moses," and the severest judgments, as in the case of the flood, proved unable to check human corruption.
Then God gave man commandment both as to what he should do, and as to what he should not do ; but still he failed, and broke the first and great particular, even before it was delivered to him in writing. From the day of his fall the hardness of the heart of man, and his hopeless condition, have been manifestly proved. In all the advances of grace by which God has invited the human family to trust in Himself, no ground has been gained in shaking their obstinate self-confidence, and turning them from the impious aspiration which the tempter first set before them, " Ye shall be as gods." But the signal failure of man in all things is most strongly shown by the full exhibition of the grace of God. For although, man having been proved incapable, God has Himself at a wondrous self-sacrifice found a means of supplying all his need, so that the command is but, Believe and thou shalt be saved-yet even now the vast majority of the world refuses obedience. Thus the full evil of human nature comes out; God is disbelieved.
Man fears God, but believes Him not. For the priestly failure, which we are now to consider, there was no excuse. God had given commandment in regard to all that needed to be done, specifying every particular, entering into the most minute details. Yet two of the priests despised His ordinances, and offered that which is an abomination to Him, will-worship.
Leviticus 10:1. The first thing which is recorded of their doing is that which the Lord had "commanded them not."
He had fully and minutely marked every step of the way of access to Himself; they immediately endeavored to approach Him in their own way. The warning of Sinai had not produced any results. They had forgotten their fearful experience of the presence of God on the mount that burned with fire, and was covered with blackness and darkness and tempest. The holy fire, which had come out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering on the altar, was alone to be used in the service of the sanctuary. But they took strange fire, and the immediate consequence was that a wrathful flame came out from before the Lord and devoured them. For, as the Lord afterwards declared, "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified." Our only way of access to God is in and by Christ, and this has been most fully and particularly declared to us. In whatever point we take away from this, or add thereto, we are forthwith exposed to the destruction of the fire from before the Lord. " Our God is a consuming fire."
It is a striking characteristic of false religion to do something in mere self-will which God has not commanded to be done, and which is, therefore, contrary to His command ; to intrude that which is of the flesh, of nature, into the presence of God. But there it must meet with destruction. The sin of Nadab and Abihu was by no means a mere shortcoming and failure through weakness or ignorance.
It was a denial, in self-will and self-sufficiency, of the sufficiency of Christ as the only way by which we can approach God and live.
They offered strange fire. This was not the holiness which was from God going up with the incense to Him again, but something which they themselves had provided, "strange fire." And in the very act of offering it they were destroyed. They were standing before the Lord in their capacity of priests, and before the Lord they perished. And the example was necessary; for the ordinances of God would have seemed but a light matter if they could be disregarded with impunity immediately after their institution. Access to God would have appeared a trivial thing, and the mode of obtaining it a matter of indifference. When the holy fire came down upon the burnt offering, it rested upon it and took it up to God. It destroyed no one, but was productive of joy and reverent adoration in the people. " They shouted, and fell on their faces." And with this same fire, the priests should have approached with their incense before the Lord, and then it would have been their security. (See Leviticus 16:12.)
They died before the Lord; and when Moses had declared the cause of their death, we are told that " Aaron held hit peace."
We can only receive the grace of God through Christ Jesus. But if we reject Him, and determine to brave the presence of God in any other way, Christ himself must look upon our destruction in silence. He has nothing to plead but Himself, and the sufficiency of His own work ; if that be rejected, He has nothing more to say. We may retain the name and the position of Christians ; but only to meet with the more fearful and immediate destruction (Matthew 24:51). There is no remedy ; there must be death before the Lord.
VEB. 4. But this circumstance of evil, awful as it was, could not be allowed to interfere with the regular course of the priests’ duties and ministrations. No evil may intercept the flow of God’s grace. Therefore relatives were called in to take away the dead bodies, and carry them without the camp. For the camp and sanctuary of the living God are no place for the dead, but for the living. "Let the dead bury their dead." And so the slain of the Lord were borne away by those who had some natural relationship to them, but were not themselves priests. They were carried out in their coats, which had been made for glory and beauty, but must now be destroyed with themselves in corruption.
Moses, in directing Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, to take the bodies away, says, "Come near and carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp." By the word "brethren," he seems to remind them that they are interested in the evil before their eyes. So, also, in Leviticus 10:6, when Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar, are forbidden to mourn, he says, "Let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled." This shows the wide-spread character of the injury sustained by failure in the ministry of the priesthood. And it should be a cause of grief to all believers, that any, while naming the name of Christ, should be drawing down judgment by a profession without reality. But the priests, now specially mentioned by name, were not to take part in the mourning. It was far more important for them to continue the needed duties of their office, than to bemoan this instance of its failure.
They, therefore, must attend to their ministry, lest they should die, and wrath come upon all the people. They were the ministers of life, it was not theirs to bewail death, the cause of which, that is sin, they with their offerings were specially appointed to put away. Their garments for glory and beauty were not to be taken off, nor rent as a sign of mourning. For this would be thrusting fallen nature into the presence of God; therefore they are forbidden to do it with the solemn warning, "Lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people." Their very position as priests did indeed require that they should sympathize with the infirmities of others (Hebrews 5:2); but the exercise of their office must be in the constantly sustained remembrance that, being themselves delivered from sin and death, they were set as ministers of the all-sufficient and only remedy for others. They were associated with Him Who " has brought life and immortality to light." If any man died, it was in consequence of rejecting or denying the sufficiency of the remedy which God had provided.
Moreover there was another reason why they should not mourn. For since they had the anointing oil of the Lord upon them, they could not go out from the door of the Tabernacle. Their service was for men in things pertaining to God, and they could perform it only in the sanctuary. For this purpose the holy anointing was upon them, and they could not be permitted to desecrate it by mingling in things other than those to which they were called, and for which they were anointed. Neglect of the duties appointed by God would soon bring down upon them a destruction similar to that which they had just witnessed, and would cause an outpouring of wrath upon the people.
How strikingly does this history set before us the need of implicit subjection to the word of God in all things ; that we should neither disregard what He has commanded, nor seek to know or to do anything which He has not commanded.
God deals not with nature or with natural things ; for the place of blessing is not earth, but heaven. If we fall short of resurrection life in Christ, we are shut out from God altogether. Failure in this point prevents our own growth in grace and understanding, and altogether takes away our power of communicating blessing to others.
It is only in resurrection life that we are blessed and able to serve; and it is only of heavenly and resurrection blessings that we are appointed ministers to others.
Failing to realize this truth, we descend to the fellowship of death, and the savour of death must be in all our ministry. In disregarding it we disregard the work of Christ, and the sanctity of those who are admitted to the presence of God. And to all who so act, whatever may be their standing or profession before men, the manifestation of God in the brightness of His own splendour will bring everlasting and irremediable destruction.
Leviticus 10:7. At the close of the charge to the surviving priests it is said, " They did according to the word of Moses," instead of " as the Lord commanded." This seems to imply an understanding of that which had been previously commanded, and had been disregarded by those who had met with destruction. The priests are reminded of what they ought to do by one who both remembers and understands the commandments of the Lord, to which the example of evil before their eyes would give additional force.
Leviticus 10:8. The Lord now speaks directly to Aaron, who being a fully constituted priest, and anointed with the holy oil, has both the right and the power to approach God. Therefore he is henceforth addressed upon those points which relate especially to worship and access to the Lord. But before the Lord could speak to him, the evil of his family must be brought to light and punished as a warning. This had been done, and death had been removed from before the sanctuary out of the camp.
Therefore the Lord now communicates with Aaron on the subject of access to Himself. The commandment was that neither he nor his sons should drink wine or strong drink when they came into the tabernacle, lest they should die. And this was to be a statute for ever.
Wine is that which " cheers the heart of man," excites and lifts him up. But this may not be done in the sanctuary of God. Nature must there be humbled and crucified ; everything that tends to exalt the flesh denied.
We see the evil results of disobedience to this command in Isaiah 28:1-29. The reason for the injunction is, " that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean ; and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken to them by the hand of Moses." The discernment between holy and unholy does not belong at all to nature, the very evil of which is that it has no such discernment; so that the more we are acting under its guidance, the more we shall err in this matter. That which is unclean in itself will not be able to distinguish clean from unclean. This understanding can only be given by the Holy Ghost; and wherever He is acting in power, there the flesh must be humbled, not exalted. For the spirit and the flesh are " contrary the one to the other." But the priests must also teach the children of Israel. This was an important part of their duty, the prophetic part; and it could not be performed if the flesh were in any wise exalted or puffed up. All our power for such service is from God. And herein every formal and false religion is rebuked.
All external pomp, or magnificence of buildings, can but cause an excitement of natural feeling. And only the same effect is produced by mere human eloquence in the setting forth of the truth of God. Much need have we then to take to heart the warning, " lest ye die." Forthere is extreme danger in the use of anything which has a tendency to attract and excite merely natural feelings, lest men should rest in these, and have no discernment of saving truth. In the case of teaching the people the danger is great, lest the mere gratification of the intellect or taste should be mistaken for the Holy Ghost and the power of God; lest Christ should not be really discerned at all through the luminous mist of human eloquence. The clean and the holy are Christ; the statutes of the Lord are Christ. All else is but unholy, unclean, and false. The apostle Paul’s understanding and care in this matter are powerfully set forth in 1 Corinthians 1:1-31 and 1 Corinthians 2:1-16.
Those statutes were to be taught which the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses. Not some new thing which the priests had to discover by their own ingenuity; but that which had been commanded from the first. And they were to teach all the statutes, just as we must preach a whole Christ, not using His name merely, but setting forth all His fulness and sufficiency.
Leviticus 10:12. Moses now speaks respecting the further observation of an ordinance which had been commanded, and speaks to Aaron and his sons by name. The commandment was at first given to the priests generally, but there had been failure. And from the special mention of names just afterwards we may learn two lessons. First, that though a commandment be neglected by the Church, individual members, if they be faithful, must still consider it in force as regards themselves. And secondly, that, even in the midst of failure, " the Lord knoweth them that are His." " Let," therefore, " every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." Whosoever takes upon himself the office of priesthood, let him individually attend to the directions which God has given for its exercise.
Here the priests are commanded to carry out the laws respecting their own portion of the offerings. For after the death of Nadab and Abihu the survivors probably thought that they must no longer touch the holy things of the Lord. But they were still to take their portion of the meat offering as before, still to enjoy communion by feeding on that of which a memorial had been burnt before the Lord. Only, warned by the fate of their brethren, let them be careful to eat it in accordance with the directions given-in unleavened purity, beside the altar, in the holy place. The wave breast and the heave shoulder are then particularly mentioned-the partaking of which, as we have before seen, signifies our share in the sympathy of our great High Priest for all, and in His labour in bearing the burdens of others.
These are to be eaten in a clean place, and are the portion also of the sons and daughters of the priests, "which is given out of the sacrifices of peace offerings." For all are interested alike in that peace which is the result of the work of Christ, and in our ministration of it one to another. But its communion is only consistent with purity ; it must be eaten in a clean place, to find which we must leave the world. For if worldly interests are occupying our mind, and we are regarding one another only as in the flesh, we are in an unclean place, and may not touch the portion of the Lord’s peace offering. The heave shoulder and the wave-breast, together with the fat of the offerings, were to be brought and waved for a wave offering before the Lord. Thus He would see the excellence, which was all His own, with the sympathy and co-operation which are ours. And then the declaration is repeated, " It shall be thine, and thy sons with thee, by a statute for ever, as the Lord hath commanded." The frequent repetition of the words "as the Lord hath commanded," presses strongly upon us the necessity of rejecting all our own imaginations, feelings, and supposed judgment, in regard to what is right. What the Lord has commanded we have to observe, neither less nor more.
Leviticus 10:16. This verse mentions the anger of Moses on account of the neglect of an ordinance by Eleazar and Ithamar. Besides the portion of the meat offering and peace offering, the whole of the flesh of the sin offering was to be eaten, provided the blood had not been taken into the holy place. In the sin offering at the consecration of the priests (Leviticus 8:1-36), this law did not come into force, though the blood was not carried into the tabernacle. For it should have been taken thither, since the offering was for a priest (Leviticus 4:5-7), and probably was not in this case simply because the priest was not yet anointed. But when after their consecration, the priests for the first time offered a goat as a sin-offering for the people, and poured out the blood at the bottom of the altar, they ought also to have eaten the flesh. And by the neglect of this ordinance they failed at the very outset to show in type that, like Him Who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, they entered into the evil and sorrow of the sins of others. Moses then, after he had given directions for the eating of the other offerings, those of acceptance and peace, " sought diligently the goat of the sin offering,"in order that the priests might partake of it also: but it had been burnt. On this account he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, which were left alive. The words, " which were left alive," convey an intimation of danger in their reference to the judgment that had just been inflicted for disregard of a commandment. That judgment should have operated as a caution against the neglect of any ordinance.
Moses then adds the reason why the priests should partake of the flesh of the sin offering:-" to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord."
It is only by feeling the sin of others as our own burden, that we can be qualified to act as priests, and to make atonement before the Lord, bearing the iniquity. The blood was not brought into the tabernacle, because, since the atonement was not for the priest’s own sin, it did not need to be sprinkled in the sanctuary, his place of service. The complaint of neglect is not made against Aaron, but against his sons, and marks an instance of our failure. But the grace of the Lord is remarkably manifested. In the first place, Moses in referring to the failure does not say, "as the Lord commanded," but "as I commanded." And again, Aaron pleads for the defaulters, taking the blame upon himself; and Moses is content.
Aaron says, " They have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord; and such things have befallen me; and if I had eaten the sin offering to-day, should it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord ?" The duty of observing this part of the priestly service remains the same, but the failure is forgiven. For it is not a matter of wilfully putting something in the place of Christ, as the strange fire, but a neglect of the right use of an offering which has been rightly offered.
Aaron’s words, "such things have befallen me," and his question, " should it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord ?" may probably imply some evil state of things in the Church, which would render the performance of the duty difficult. Such would be an influx of nominal or corrupt Christianity. And in this case any sympathy with the corrupters could not be accepted, in the sight of the Lord, as a bearing their iniquity to make atonement. But whatever may he the special character of the failure, the High Priest takes the blame to Himself. And there is in this no approval of our neglect. For Christ is the One Who partakes of the sin-offering, and bears the blame of those who do not.