The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/kjv/leviticus/10.htm

I remember a story about a pastor back in the 1800’s, confronted by someone (like me) that didn’t believe in hell. His answer, “I know there’s no hell, but if I don’t preach hell fire, I won’t be able to fill the pews.”

For centuries now, the church as preached that if you’re not saved, you’re going to hell. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, but just a preview; “I don’t believe in a hell where the wicked burn and burn and burn forever. What kind of God was do that to his children, regardless of how disobedient they are? To do that, God would have to be a sadist, and my God is not a sadist!

“If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father”. Does the character of Jesus sound as if He would send someone to hell to burn forever?

Besides, remember that the punishment for sin is death, not the “punishment for sin is everlasting life in a burning hell”.

Yes, in the end the wicked with die by fire, I believe the earth will burn from the Glory of God and that the wicked, who are also unable to withstand His Glory, will perish as well. Their punishment? Death, and their loss of spending eternity in Heaven with our Lord and Savior.

All that said, Leviticus 10 tells the story of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, who had been made a priest by God. Remember, Aaron was Moses’ brother, and both came from the tribe of the Levites, the Levites who were assigned by God to carry the portable Tabernacle around, to carry the Ark of the Covenant, and to minister to the Israelites.

1And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. 2And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.

At face value, this depicts God as an angry, vindictive, tyrant. But here’s the secret. “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father”; does that sound like something Jesus would do?

When I read this, I keep in mind that my God is a loving, caring, merciful God. I believe that when Aaron’s sons lit the incense, they summoned the presence of God, and the Glory of God consumed them because they were not righteous enough to withstand His Glory.

4Then Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Come near, carry your brethren from [a]before the sanctuary out of the camp.” 5So they went near and carried them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said.

If God truly sent fire down to kill and burn Nadab and Abihu, how did their tunics not burn up as well. As a former fireman, I’ve never seen a fire victim that burned, but their clothing remained intact. This is because they didn’t burn by literal fire, they burned by the Glory of God which they could not withstand.

Later in the chapter, God gives instructions on how priests should sanctify themselves and how to handle sacrifices. And Aarons remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, who took the place of Abihu and Nadam, messed it up and didn’t do as commanded, and the Bible says “God was angry with them”.

Explain to me how he was angry with Nadab and Abihu, enough to send fire and kill them for their sin, but he didn’t kill Eleazar and Ithamar for their sin? Eleazar and Ithamar sinned by not following God’s commands, whereas Nadab and Abihu summoned God with their illegal incense. And please do not misunderstand me, when I use the word “summoned”, I DO NOT mean it in a way that a “medium would summon the dead”, but rather, when incense was burning, God would fill the Tabernacle, and His Glory was too much for them to withstand.

I’ll say this again. I would rather trust the word of God than the word of man. Not all pastors are bad, many are good. But like the 1800’s pastor, some try to scare you to church. Other simply repeat what they were told in theology school, which by the way, was developed by man and his interpretation.

I’m not here to tell you I’m right…I very well could be wrong. I urge you to read the Bible, pray for wisdom and understanding, then interpret God’s word for yourself. And it really helps me that when I see the name God, if I substitute the word Jesus, it puts everything in an entirely different light.

Amen.