Contemplative Bible Reading

Leviticus 10:1-2 (New Living Translation)

1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded. 2 So fire blazed forth from the Lord’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the Lord.

These two short verses tell of what seems to be an obscure event resulting in the death of two priests in the desert tabernacle. In studying these verses, I have been surprised at the amount of strong conviction of commentaries and commentators.

I find much to be missing in the (hi)story. The first verse seems to be a summary that lacks details. The key word there for me is “disobeyed.” Whatever the details may have been, Nadab and Abihu disobeyed God and were struck dead immediately.

The Bible contains the stories of thousands who disobeyed God, but were not struck dead immediately. I am eternally thankful that I have never been struck dead for my many instances of disobedience. Why were these two struck dead in a manner that everyone knew came from God? Again, I don’t know as I can’t find all the details.

It seems to me from the summary, that they knew what to do and what not to do and what the result would be. They did it anyway. I emphasize the word “knew.” There was no matter of opinion or disagreement involved. They K N E W. Please, don’t extrapolate this case to current cases of opinion. And please forgive any offense I have caused in this post.