Leviticus 10:1–2: “Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.”

December 24th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Nadab and Abihu, the two oldest sons of Aaron, must have felt pretty confident in their role as priests before God. In chapter 9 they had participated in the first sacrifice, and God had put His stamp of approval on their offering by sending fire from heaven. But then they became careless and irreverent in their service to the Lord, even with Moses close by. The same divine fire that accepted the sacrifices in the proceeding chapter now consumes these two self-important and over-confident priests.

Since the Apostle Peter tells us that we are all priests in the New Covenant, “a priesthood of believers,” this story should serve as a warning for us to take great care. Not because God might consume us with fire, but because we need to guard our hearts from smugness when we find we are being used by God, even in small ways. We need to be especially careful immediately after a spiritual high so that we don’t become prideful and careless in our servanthood. We must guard against becoming so familiar with the things of God that we become flippant and misrepresent our loving Savior, and someone watching us misses an opportunity to come to know God through us because of some careless and thoughtless act on our part.

“LORD, again we are reminded that You are holy and we are not. Remember Lord out frailty and pour out Your mercy and grace on us today. We want to faithfully represent You to the dying world around us this day.”