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Scripture Reading: Lev. 10:1-11; 16:12
I. The incense should be burned before the Lord with the fire from the altar of burnt offering — Lev. 16:12.
II. The fire on the altar of burnt offering burns out all the natural and negative things before God.
III. The strange fire signifies the natural enthusiasm — 10:1:
А. Not dealt with by the cross.
B. Not in resurrection.
IV. Strange fire in the priestly service causes death before God — v. 2.
V. The priests should control their natural affection, not sympathizing with the victim condemned by God’s holiness — vv. 3, 6.
VI. The offering of the strange fire might have been related to the drinking of wine — vv. 8-9:
А. Losing the discernment of holiness — v. 10.
B. Being unable to teach God’s people — v. 11.
In this lesson we want to see the strange fire spoken of in Leviticus 10. All the serving ones need to know the significance of strange fire in the Lord’s service. Nadab and Abihu, who were Aaron’s sons and consecrated to minister as priests, offered strange fire, which the Lord had not commanded, and fire came out from before Jehovah and consumed them (vv. 1-2).
Leviticus 16:12 tells us that the incense should be burned before the Lord with the fire from the altar of burnt offering. It is by this fire that the two altars, the incense altar and the burnt-offering altar, were linked together. The burnt-offering altar was for the sacrifices. The incense altar was for the incense. But the fire linked these two altars together.
According to the Pentateuch, this fire that burned all the offerings on the bronze altar came from the heavens (Lev. 9:24; cf. 1 Chron. 21:26; 2 Chron. 7:1). It was not a fire started by man; it was the fire that came from God. And that fire, from the time that it came, never ceased. The fire burned all the time, day after day, from evening until morning (Lev. 6:9). That fire was holy fire, not strange fire.
The fire on the altar of burnt offering burns out all the natural and negative things before God. It burns everything into ashes. Anything that can ascend to God must first be burned at the altar with the divine fire. Whatever has been burned on the altar with the divine fire will be accepted by God. Thus, to burn the incense before God at the incense altar, the fire that comes down from God is needed. This divine fire, which burns out all the natural and negative things, is needed for our service.
The strange fire signifies the natural enthusiasm (10:1) not dealt with by the cross and not in resurrection. Here we have to stress and develop what it means for us to be dealt with by the cross in our enthusiasm so that we can serve the Lord. In order to be in resurrection, we have to pass through the dealing of the cross. We should not bring in our natural hotness. Whether it is good or bad, pure or impure, it is still natural.
Strange fire in the priestly service causes death before God. Leviticus 10:1 and 2 say, “Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in them and laid incense on it, and they presented strange fire before Jehovah, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from before Jehovah and consumed them, and they died before Jehovah.” Maybe the two sons of Aaron did this with a good heart, with a good intention, but still they were burned to death. The offering of strange fire caused death to these two priests before God.
We have to tell the saints that we are today’s priests. As today’s priests, we must be careful about what we offer to God. We may have a good heart and a good intention in offering something to God, but if we offer the wrong thing, this can cause death to us. This does not seem like something serious, but it is serious in the eyes of God. This death is mostly in the spiritual sense. Whenever we serve the Lord with a kind of natural enthusiasm, this brings in death to our spirit. This means that we serve the Lord in a natural way. Any kind of natural service brings death to our spirit.
Many Christians today serve with a kind of natural hotness, a kind of natural enthusiasm. It is not something dealt with by the cross and altogether not in resurrection. In the past we have seen some capable ones who were hot in serving the Lord in the church. Gradually, the more they served, the more they brought in death to others and mainly death to themselves. They killed themselves in their spirit by their serving, so eventually they disappeared from the service. Their priesthood was lost. This is altogether the real significance of the death because of offering strange fire.
We must point out that we all need to serve, to function, and to use our one talent, our gift. But we must be careful not to serve in a natural way, with our natural hotness. Of course, the Lord wants us to be hot in the spirit, not cold or lukewarm. But we have to be hot in our spirit, not in our natural life. In Romans 12:11 Paul tells us to be “burning in spirit, serving the Lord.” Any hotness in our natural life is strange fire to God, and this brings in death.
After the death of the two sons of Aaron, Aaron was silent. He was told not to mourn for his two sons, who were condemned and killed by the holiness of God (Lev. 10:3, 6). This means that the priests should control their natural affection, not sympathizing with the victim condemned by God’s holiness. It was difficult for Aaron as the father not to sympathize, so he needed to control his natural affection.
Thus, in our priestly service not only should the natural enthusiasm be rejected but also the natural affection should be controlled. Today everyone in the church life is a priest in the priesthood, and all the priests should control their natural affection, not sympathizing with anyone who is condemned or killed by the holiness of God. The fire on the burnt-offering altar signifies God’s holiness. It was God’s holiness that burned on the altar day and night. Thus, the fire that came out to devour the two sons was the holiness of God.
In Leviticus 10 we can see two natural things: the natural hotness, the natural enthusiasm, and the natural affection, the natural sympathy. Both should be rejected. We should not bring in natural hotness, nor should we exercise our natural affection to sympathize with any natural ones.
According to Leviticus 10, the offering of the strange fire might have been related to the drinking of wine. Right after Nadab and Abihu’s death, God charged the priests not to drink wine. Verses 8 and 9 say, “Then Jehovah spoke to Aaron, saying, Drink no wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the Tent of Meeting, that you may not die; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations.” Every logical reader would consider that probably the two sons of Aaron offered strange fire to Jehovah because they were drunk. They drank too much wine.
Drinking wine, in the Bible, signifies the overenjoyment of the worldly, natural, or physical, material things. In other words, if we overly enjoy anything of this world, this always makes us drunk. When we are drunk, we are excited and out of control, doing things without regulation. It might have been that the two sons of Aaron were drunk, so they were excited and went beyond themselves to do something without being regulated. This means that they offered strange fire in a presumptuous way. The offering of strange fire was a sin of presumption. They presumed to do something for God. Actually, that was not a real offering to God but something of their presumption against God’s regulation.
People do presumptuous things because they have overenjoyed something. They are drunk. When the priests are drunk, they lose the discernment of holiness (Lev. 10:10), and they are unable to teach God’s people (v. 11). When we lose our discernment because we are drunk, we are not being regulated; so we surely cannot teach others so that they can be regulated.
The priests had a twofold function. One was to serve God; the other was to teach others. Today in the church our priestly function also comprises these two things: offering something to God to serve God and teaching others. In offering things to God, we must have the discernment concerning what we should or should not offer. We need this clear discernment. Also, in order to teach others, we need our own learning by our experiences. If we are drunk and lose our discernment, we are unable to teach others, and we altogether lose our function of our priesthood. This is all included in the offering of strange fire to God. We need a clear vision of these things as a warning to us in our church service.
