Saturday, June 15: “Forgiven, not Excused Part VII”

Numbers 3: 4a:“But Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord when they offered strange fire before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai.”

Here is one more case this week where sin was forgiven, but could not be excused (ignored). Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, were so excited to be able to serve the Lord as priests, with their new vestments and new censors. But they were not high priests like their father, their fire was ‘strange’. In a way, you couldn’t blame them; Moses had not yet received the Levitical Law in its entirety. But the Lord could not ignore their act, even if done in ignorance, for it set a dangerous precedent. And we can know that they were forgiven by God, because He commanded Moses, Aaron, and his other sons not to mourn the two brothers(Leviticus 10: 6). Would the Lord have said that if they were condemned for all eternity?