CHAPTER X.
The page of human history has ever been a sadly blotted one. It is a record of failure from first to last. Amid all the delights of Eden, man hearkened to the tempter's lie (Gen. iii.); when preserved from judgment by the hand of electing love, and introduced into a restored earth, he was guilty of the sin of intemperance (Gen. ix.); when conducted, by Jehovah's outstretched arm, into the land of Canaan, he "forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth" (Judges ii. 13.); when placed at the very summit of earthly power and glory, with untold wealth at his feet, and all the resources of the world at his command, he gave his heart to the uncircumcised stranger. (1 Kings xi.) No sooner had the blessings of the gospel been promulgated than it became needful for the Holy Ghost to prophesy concerning "grievous wolves," "apostacy," and all manner of failure. (Acts xx. 29; 1 Tim. iv. 1-3; 2 Tim. iii. 1-5; 2 Pet. ii.; Jude.) And, to crown all, we have the prophetic record of human apostacy from amid all the splendors of millennial glory. (Rev. xx. 7-10.)
Thus, man spoils every thing. Place him in a position of highest dignity, and he will degrade himself; endow him with the most ample privileges, and he will abuse them; scatter blessings around him in richest profusion, and he will prove ungrateful, place him in the midst of the most impressive institutions, and he will corrupt them. Such is man! Such is nature in its fairest forms and under the most favorable circumstances!
Hence, therefore, we are in a measure prepared for the words with which our chapter opens—"And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not." What a contrast to the scene with which our last section closed! There, all was done "as the Lord commanded," and the result was, manifested glory; here, something is done "which the Lord commanded them not," and the result is, judgment. Hardly had the echo of the shout of victory died away ere the elements of a spurious worship were prepared,—hardly had the divine position been assumed ere it was deliberately abandoned, through neglect of the divine commandment. No sooner were those priests inaugurated than they grievously failed in the discharge of their priestly functions.
And in what did their failure consist? Were they spurious priests? were they mere pretenders? By no means. They were genuine sons of Aaron—true members of the priestly family—duly appointed priests. Their vessels of ministry, and their priestly garments too, would seem to have been all right. What, then, was their sin? Did they stain the curtains of the tabernacle with human blood? or pollute the sacred precincts with some crime which shocks the moral sense? We have no proof of their having done so. Their sin was this: "They offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not." Here was their sin. They departed in their worship from the plain word of Jehovah, who had fully and plainly instructed them as to the mode of their worship. We have already alluded to the divine fullness and sufficiency of the word of the Lord, in reference to every branch of priestly service. There was no room left for man to introduce what he might deem desirable or expedient. "This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded" was quite sufficient. It made all very plain and very simple. Nothing was needed on man's part save a spirit of implicit obedience to the divine command. But herein they failed. Man has always proved himself ill-disposed to walk in the narrow path of strict adherence to the plain word of God. The bypath has ever seemed to present resistless charms to the poor human heart. "Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." (Prov. ix. 17.) Such is the enemy's language; but the lowly, obedient heart knows full well that the path of subjection to the Word of God is the only one that leads to "waters" that are really "sweet," or to "bread" that can be rightly called "pleasant." Nadab and Abihu might have deemed one kind of "fire" as good as another, but it was not their province to decide as to that. They should have acted according to the word of the Lord; but instead of this, they took their own way and reaped the awful fruits thereof. "He knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell."
"And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord." How deeply solemn! Jehovah was dwelling in the midst of His people, to govern, to judge, and to act, according to the claims of His nature. At the close of chapter ix, we read, "And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and the fat." This was Jehovah's acceptance of a true sacrifice; but in chapter x, it is His judgment upon erring priests. It is a double action of the same fire. The burnt-offering went up as a sweet odor: the "strange fire" was rejected as an abomination. The Lord was glorified in the former; but it would have been a dishonor to accept the latter. Divine grace accepted and delighted in that which was a type of Christ's most precious sacrifice: divine holiness rejected that which was the fruit of man's corrupt will—a will never more hideous and abominable than when active in the things of God.
"Then Moses said unto Aaron, 'This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified.'" The dignity and glory of the entire economy depended upon the strict maintenance of Jehovah's righteous claims. If these were to be trifled with, all was forfeited. If man were permitted to defile the sanctuary of the divine presence by "strange fire," there was an end to every thing. Nothing could be permitted to ascend from the priestly censer but the pure fire, kindled from off the altar of God, and fed by the "pure incense beaten small." Beauteous type of true saintly worship, of which the Father is the object, Christ the material, and the Holy Ghost the power. Man must not be allowed to introduce his devices into the worship of God. All his efforts can only issue in the presentation of "strange fire"—unhallowed incense—false worship. His very best attempts are an absolute abomination in the sight of God.
I speak not here of the honest struggles of earnest spirits searching after peace with God,—of the sincere efforts of upright, though unenlightened, consciences to attain to a knowledge of the forgiveness of sins by works of law or the ordinances of symtematic religion; all such will doubtless issue, through the exceeding goodness of God, in the clear light of a known and an enjoyed salvation. They prove very clearly that peace is earnestly sought; though, at the same time, they prove just as clearly that peace has not yet been found. There never yet was one who honestly followed the faintest glimmerings of light which fell upon his understanding who did not, in due time, receive more. "To him that hath shall more be given." And again, "The path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
All this is as plain as it is encouraging; but it leaves wholly untouched the question of the human will, and its impious workings in connection with the service and worship of God. All such workings must inevitably call down, sooner or later, the solemn judgment of a righteous God, who cannot suffer His claims to be trifled with. "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified." Men will be dealt with according to their profession. If men are honestly seeking, they will assuredly find; but when men approach as worshipers, they are no longer to be regarded as seekers, but as those who profess to have found; and then, if their priestly censer smokes with unhallowed fire—if they offer unto God the elements of a spurious worship—if they profess to tread His courts, unwashed, unsanctified, unsubdued—if they place on His altar the workings of their own corrupt will, what must be the result? Judgment! Yes, sooner or later, judgment must come. It may linger, but it will come. It could not be otherwise. And not only must judgment come at last, but there is, in every case, the immediate rejection on the part of Heaven of all worship which has not the Father for its object, Christ for its material, and the Holy Ghost for its power. God's holiness is as quick to reject all "strange fire" as His grace is ready to accept the faintest, feeblest breathings of a true heart. He must pour out His righteous judgment upon all false worship, though He will never "quench the smoking flax nor break the bruised reed." The thought of this is most solemnizing, when one calls to mind the thousands of censers smoking with strange fire throughout the wide domain of christendom. May the Lord, in His rich grace, add to the number of true worshipers, who worship the Father in spirit and in truth. (John iv.) It is infinitely happier to think of the true worship ascending from honest hearts to the throne of God, than to contemplate, even for a moment, the spurious worship on which the divine judgments must ere long be poured out. Every one who knows, through grace, the pardon of his sins through the atoning blood of Jesus, can worship the Father in spirit and in truth. He knows the proper ground, the proper object, the proper title, the proper capacity of worship. These things can only be known in a divine way. They do not belong to nature or to earth. They are spiritual and heavenly. Very much of that which passes among men for the worship of God is but "strange fire" after all. There is neither the pure fire nor the pure incense, and therefore Heaven accepts it not; and albeit the divine judgment is not seen to fall upon those who present such worship as it fell upon Nadab and Abihu of old, this is only because "God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." It is not because the worship is acceptable to God, but because God is gracious. The time, however, is rapidly approaching when the strange fire will be quenched forever—when the throne of God shall no longer be insulted by clouds of impure incense ascending from unpurged worshipers—when all that is spurious shall be abolished, and the whole universe shall be as one vast and magnificent temple, in which the one true God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—shall be worshiped throughout the everlasting ages.