Portion 69

Golden Text: Leviticus 9-10
Readings for the week:

Day 1: Leviticus 9-10

Day 2: 1 Samuel 25

Day 3: 1 Samuel 26-27

Day 4: Psalm 43-44

Day 5: Luke 1:1-56

Day 6: Romans 8:28-39

I- Learning from the bad.

Let us make a critical analysis of some important details that will help to draw a very rich lesson from this passage, which preliminarily contains a sad story.

  1. This is the day of the inauguration of the tabernacle and on it two sons of Aaron die, the main axis of the entire ceremony and service in the temple. For his family and the entire nation, a traumatic event would occur, simply a tragedy. Aaron’s older sons would burn to death for making a mistake, apparently his first and only mistake.
  2. In Exodus it says that they would not put in strange incense (Ex 30:9), but that it had to be the one that God had described to them how to make. They handled an incense that was not specifically used for that (Lev 10:1).
  3. On the other hand, God told Moses to tell Aaron that he could not enter the holy of holies whenever he wanted, but when it was his turn on the feast day of HaKippurim (Ex 30:10). So, Aaron’s sons could have entered much less.
  4. What happened here would show one of the greatest stories of faithfulness to God in the entire Bible: “The attitude of Aaron and his other sons to complete the service of God.” Despite what happened, they finished that first tabernacle inauguration service. That is why God says, “In those who come to me I will sanctify myself, and in the presence of all the people I will be glorified.”[1], to which Aaron responded with a static and silent attitude. Aaron through this showed an obedience to God, a high level of holiness, and love of service that lay before him. It was up to the people to appreciate how great God was in meriting that Aaron should do all the service excellently.
  5. Something very difficult to understand, if we put ourselves in Aaron’s shoes, is that God orders him through Moses (who has also seen his nephews die tragically) not to mourn. God does not ask you not to have feelings or anything like that, but to behave manly and to try. That is why he will later allow him and his children not to eat of what was sacrificed that day, because it was not an act of rebellion, but another way to end the service excellently. We must assume that Aaron in his obedience and respect to God suggests not eating because He had previously said that it should be done with joy and, of course, he was enthusiastic about the glory of God in that place, but at the same time sad, very sad, with what happened to his children. That is why Moses saw the refusal to eat as something also extremely good.

II- Preparing the spirit without burning stages.

Another lesson that can be drawn from this story is that there are many things in the spiritual life that need preparation. They would surely have to do that work in the future, but that time had not yet come. You can’t burn the stages to make things easier or because they look pretty, because you can “burn” yourself. Many times, in the church we appreciate new preachers with great enthusiasm, especially those who are children or young people, but it must be understood that by burning stages we can be destroying them.

III- The only true good for man.

The question would not be why such an event happened because, unless we had a direct answer from God, everything would remain in speculation. However, you can know how good or bad a fact is for someone. For that it is only necessary to look at whether it distances us from God or brings us closer to Him. We must remember that true good and true evil for someone is found in how close or far they are from God. Amid this tragedy, we see a father, a family, and an entire nation drawing near to God. This is an example that the things we don’t like, the most uncomfortable and even the most painful, are not always going to cause a person to turn away from God. The one who distances himself from God because of a situation, whatever it may be, is because he has always been far away and must learn that the heavenly Father is calling him through it to draw near. 

Questions:

1.- Do you know of any testimony of a seemingly negative event that ultimately brought people closer to God? Share it with the rest of the group.

2.- What do you mean by the word “descended” in Lev 9:22?

3.- If no one has ever seen God, what do you think is meant by “fire from before God[2]?

 

[1] Lv 10:3.

[2] The word translated ‘in front’ is the Hebrew word penei (פְנֵי), which literally means ‘face’ or ‘face’; which is the same word with which the verse ends referring to the face of the individuals of the people.

 

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