Summer Heat
Leviticus 10:1-7
August 24, 2025
“What do you mean, “strange fire?”
INTRO: We’re nearly done with our “Summer Heat” series. I saved a strange one for next to last, and it was one to wrestle with. Today we find ourselves with the Israelites, in the wilderness.
Aaron and his sons have been consecrated through several days of ceremony, and now it’s time to begin the practices that will define Worship in the Tabernacle.
Aaron has spent the day making offerings to God. His sons have been helping, but he’s been the one making the offerings. The last offering is put on the altar, and before it can burn from the normal fire under the altar, God sends fire and consumes it! The people who are watching freak out.
This has all been amazing, but now Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s oldest sons, come forward.
Leviticus 10:1–7 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.
2 And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.
3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the LORD spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.’ ” So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.
4 Moses called also to Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp.”
5 So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had said.
6 Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the LORD has brought about.
7 “You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for the LORD’S anointing oil is upon you.” So they did according to the word of Moses.
- What does Moses mean when he writes about “Strange Fire?”
- Nadab and Abihu made an offering that they weren’t supposed to bring.
- They brought an offering that God had NOT commanded them to bring.
- In the previous verses we see offering after offering that were given, exactly according to God’s instructions.
- Here, we see none of those instructions.
- It appears these two men just decided to do things their own way.
- They are instantly engulfed in the same fire that God had just used to burn up an offering on the Altar.
- Why would God do this?
- God is setting a precedent!
“By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.”
- God knows what He wants from His priests.
- God demands that those who “come near Him” treat Him in a Holy manner.
- God demands that He be Honored before ALL the people.
- God knows what He doesn’t want from His priests.
- God doesn’t want them doing something that was not commanded.
- This was a guard against adding paganism into Godly Worship.
- If you don’t add extra, you can’t add the wrong thing.
- Why did Nadab and Abihu do this?
- First off, I don’t think Nadab and Abihu had evil motives.
- They were leaders in Israel.
- Nadab and Abihu are 2nd and third in line behind their father Aaron as Priests.
- One of them should become High Priest when their father dies.
- They are included with Aaron and the 70 elders of Israel, and allowed to go part way up the mountain.
Exodus 24:1 Then He said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance.
- Only Moses is allowed to go all the way up and speak with God, but these guys are right there!
- So apparently, the problem isn’t that they are just terrible people.
- Perhaps Nadab and Abihu are a bit jealous of their Dad and feel a little left out of the spotlight.
- “Dad’s been doing all the work with the sacrifices, and we’ve just been doing the “behind the scenes” work.”
- It’s our time to shine!
- Even good people can be motivated by jealousy at times.
- Perhaps they were tired and didn’t want to do things the right way?
- “Let’s get this over with! Let’s move things along! After all, we’ve been at this for a week!”
- Perhaps they feel that they can worship God however they please?
- They are coming from a culture (Egypt) where “worship” could be pretty much whatever you wanted it to be.
- The Egyptians worshipped all kinds of things, in all kinds of ways.
- Maybe they don’t think that it will REALLY matter.
- “Changing things up isn’t such a big deal, no one will even notice.”
- If it’s all just a show for the people, this would probably be right.
- But it’s not a show for the People, they are Worshipping God.
- There are consequences that come from the actions of Nadab and Abihu.
- Nadab and Abihu suffered consequences.
- Being burned to death in a fireball is a pretty major consequence for your actions!
- They are removed from ever being High Priest in a powerfully, permanent way.
- The next oldest brothers will move up.
- Their family suffered consequences too!
- Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar are notallowed to grieve for Nadab & Abihu!
- Nadab and Abihu’s bodies are immediately carried out of the camp.
- There is apparently no burial preparation for their bodies.
- There is no “visitation” or funeral where everyone gets together and mourns the loss of their loved ones.
- Neither Aaron nor his next two oldest sons will be allowed to show any signs of mourning.
Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the LORD has brought about.
- Why can’t they grieve in the normal way? Why can’t the show their grief in a public way?
- They cannot be seen as condoning the actions of these men.
- It would be the same as them saying “God did something wrong.”
- God does allow their families, and all of Israel to grieve them publicly.
- Nadab and Abihu’s sons will not be in line for the job of High Priest either!
- The sons of Eleazar will be next in line to be the High Priest after their father.
Conclusion: This seems like kind of a random event in the Bible. Are there any thoughts about how to live our lives that we can draw out of this event?
- First and foremost; GOD IS GOD!
- God does not NEED us, or our worship!
- He won’t “fade away” without it.
- In the Star trek original series, there was an episode “Who mourns for Adonius?” The crew of the Enterprise meet the “god” Apollo. He is defeated by the destruction of his temple and by scoffing. He finally just fades away.
- Not so with the REAL GOD!
- He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us, all so we could be with Him forever!
- But as much as He loves us, He was doing fine before He created time, and everything else, including humans, and He would do fine without us!
- As God, He is Sovereign.
- HE is in charge! And we ignore that at our peril!
- “Why did God do this? Why did God do that?” Really?
- Sometimes, good people do bad things.
- Nadab and Abihu “offered strange fire.”
- We all sin as well.
- Don’t put your faith in people, put it in God where you’ll never be disappointed.
- That doesn’t mean we can’t look to each other as examples, but KNOW that those examples will never be perfect.
- Doing things “my way” is dangerous.
- When God gives directions, only a fool does not follow!
- “I know God said…. But I think…” are some of the most dangerous words ever spoken!
- Putting your own self above God? Not so smart!
- Our society is full of people who decide to “be spiritual” in their own way!
- In our self-centered society, this is an easy trap to fall into.
- “Me, Me, Me, I, I, I,” is pretty common.
- “I want!” “I need!” “I don’t want!”
- These seem to be the considerations that drive many in our world today.
- “Abortion MUST be legal! I might get pregnant (or get someone pregnant) and a baby would get in the way of me living the life I want and deserve!”
- “I am my own “god” and I will do whatever I want!”
- Like Nadab and Abihu, it’s easy to let our culture effect our thinking and actions!
- But God knows what’s best! Follow HIM!
- We all suffer the consequences of the actions of others.
- Living in a pagan world is painful
- Don’t side with what is wrong! Side with righteousness!
