By After receiving all the laws and rules on the different offerings; Moses, Aaron, and his children begin to perform what was required of them.
Leviticus 9:24 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.
Surely this would have been glorious and still fearful as the fire of God comes from nowhere and burns up the offerings.
Two of Aaron’s sons (Nadab and Abihu) decide they would take it upon themselves and offer unauthorized fire before the Lord. I don’t know what this was but they were commanded not to do it Exodus 30:9. As they offered this unauthorized fire, the authored fire of God comes and burns up the two sons. As Nadab and Abihu are smoldering, Moses quotes scripture to Aaron. Aaron holds his peace and does not say a word (Leviticus 10:3).
Moses calls a couple of the burning son’s cousins and has them carry out the boys from the camp. They were not to cry about it or mourn. Moses then says to Aaron and his surviving sons (Eleazar and Ithamar) that they have to get to work and offer the grain offering and wave offering.
Moses then notices that the the sin offering was all burned up and wonders why the sons did not eat the part they were suppose to. He gets angry with the sons and Aaron steps in and speaks:
Leviticus 10:19 And Aaron said to Moses, “Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and yet such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the Lord have approved?”
Moses hears that in verse 20 and approves.
It is hard to feel like we are making the right decisions during stressful times. This would have been so hard for Aaron to have just had two of your children literally burned up by God. You then are not even given the chance to mourn, reflect, or even bury your sons; you are just commanded to get back to work. Harder still, you have to enlist two more of your children into the service of offering sacrifices and you are questioning whether you remember all the particular rules surrounding the sacrifices.
As I reflect on this story and Aaron’s fear and Moses’ anger; I think it best that when we are not sure of what to do, we just do the next right thing we know to do and we do it by faith. When we do it by faith, the Lord is pleased as whatever is not done by faith is sin.
My family enjoys the song in the latest Frozen movie called The Next Right Thing. HERE is a link.
Leading Family Devotions 