Careless worship (2)

Many believers wish to pay great attention to Biblical details, and that desire certainly comes from an intent to please the Lord; but in the Nadab & Abihu incident (Lev. 10), it is not necessary to assume that their demise was based on their violation of specific details or rules. On the contrary, viewed in harmony with other Bible teachings, God’s reaction may be read as His censure of carelessness shown toward Him.

To find the crux of the Nadab and Abihu story in man’s having violated God’s specifics—which to me implies a set of rules to be followed without variation, regardless of the setting—downplays the many Biblical examples of spontaneous honor, devotion, and worship. For instance, consider David, who danced a celebration of God. And remember Mary, who poured the perfume on Jesus’ feet. And reflect on the blind man, who worshipped after having been healed; the leper, who returned to give thanks; and others. What do we say about those? Are they to be condemned in their spontaneous homage-offerings? Since God had not said, for instance, “Every leper who is healed by my Son between Pentecost and the Feast of Booths must turn after 50 paces and approach Him in order to give thanks,” are we to assume that the leper’s worship of Jesus was inappropriate?

I find no textual reason to think these examples constitute “disapproved” worship. On the other hand, there is every logical reason to see these examples as acceptable and approved.

In some Scriptural accounts, the details of submitting to the will of God seem utterly important, and in other accounts they do not. The Nadab and Abihu text does not require that we assume the specific fire was the root problem. How would we understand the text if it appeared this way in our Bibles?

“Nadab and Abihu took their censers without thought, quickly put fire in them (from a different flame, since it was closer to them than the usual flame) and added incense; and they thus ministered in the Lord’s sanctuary via a thoughtless, haphazard offering, according to their own whims and convenience. Then these sacrificers who were going through the motions of offering something to God for His consumption ended up being consumed themselves by an altogether different sort of fire—the fire of God’s anger. This punishment gave evidence of God’s extreme displeasure with Nadab and Abihu’s general carelessness and irreverence.”

That is a lot of verbal interpolation, but if the text had come to us rendered that way, I do not think any of the real import would have been stripped away. I propose that Nadab and Abihu were punished for their lackadaisical attitude in approaching God, not for the specific “violation” of using a fire other than the “authorized” one.

No, the texts do not speak directly to the condition of Nadab and Abihu’s hearts or attitudes, but Leviticus 10:3 shows that Moses interpreted the events as having to do with the people’s treatment of God. They must show respect, fear, and honor to the holy God, and the act of approaching Him must be well-thought-out and careful:

Among those who approach Me I will show Myself holy;

in the sight of all the people I will be honored.